You may have heard that overuse of antibiotics has created dangerous “superbugs” that no antibiotic drug can tame or about people losing hands, feet, legs and arms to these “flesh-eating” superbugs. Could you get attacked by one? It’s possible. But maintaining a strong immune system can keep you safe from harm.

In 1947, just four years after penicillin was mass marketed, a common bacterium, found on the mucus membranes and skin of about 1/3 of the population, called Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) was found to be resistant to it. That is, someone got a staph infection, and a health practitioner gave them penicillin expecting it to make short work of the critter . . . but it didn’t. Oh-oh.

Methicillin then became the antibiotic of choice. But an S. aureus was found to be resistant to methicillin in 1961. Oh-oh again. This time the resistant strains of S. aureus were called methicillin-resistant S. aureus, or MRSA. Vancomycin became the next antibiotic of choice; the first vancomycin-resistant S. aureus was identified in 1997. Linezolid was next; S. aureus resistance to Linezolid was reported in 2003.

The poor drug companies! Their antibiotic drugs are being rendered ineffective before they can even make any money!

Although many other bacterial strains have also become resistant, MRSA dominates the headlines. And with good reason. As Dr. Russell Blaylock reported in his July 2012 newsletter, unlike regular staph organisms, MRSA can neutralize two crucial white blood cells that the immune system uses to protect against staph infections: neutrophils and macrophages, making MRSA particularly virulent. It has caused fatal blood poisoning and destroys organs and tissues leading to gangrene and amputation of limbs and appendages.

Pretty scary stuff until you remember that germs don’t cause disease; they are merely opportunists taking advantage of a weakened immunity. Blaylock points out that those who get infected, although apparently healthy, are likely to be deficient in vitamin D3 or iron, or to have taken steroids, been hospitalized within the last year, or have compromised immunity for another reason.

 Make sure your vitamin D levels are high-normal, and take a good basic supplement program along with plenty of vitamin C. Probiotics are another way to fend off superbugs. These days most of us need to take probiotic supplements to strengthen our gut population. According to Dr. Blaylock, when probiotics are put in a test tube together with MRSA, within a short time 99% of the MRSA are killed. MRSA usually causes skin lesions and is transmitted by contact, so avoid other people’s wounds and sores or anything that may have touched them. Wash your hands frequently with pure soap.

Historically people have lived successfully without antibiotic drugs by taking common sense measures to protect and build immunity. We can do the same