Antibiotic Resistance is SO COMPLICATED

[@SciShow]

Visit brilliant.org/scishow/ to get started learning STEM for free, and the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual premium subscription.

[@neddyladdy]

Learn for free, but can get 20% off their annual subscription????? bizarre ! Truly bizarre.

[@soulsbourne]

BacterioPhage treatment needs to be explored as a combination therapy with antibiotics

[@therabbithat]

@@neddyladdy you get started free and then you pay to continue

[@neddyladdy]

You're not making any sense to me. it says free

[@robsonwilianwinchester9726]

#thecommonmanshow someone show it to them to react to this video 📷📸!!!!!!

[@GratiaCountryman]

One problem is the way people often take antibiotics. When you’re prescribed antibiotics, you’re supposed to take the entire bottle for the entire time prescribed. That’s what you need to do to kill all the bacteria. Unfortunately, people tend to just take them until we feel better, then stop. That leaves bacteria alive to pass resistance through to the next generation. That’s how tuberculosis became resistant to antibiotics.

[@harrietharlow9929]

This is very true, but there has been way too much prescribing of antibiotics over the years as well. I'm not sure why because antibiotic resistance was known in the late1940s and 50s.

[@GratiaCountryman]

@@harrietharlow9929 I think tuberculosis was the canary in the coal mine. Another bad thing is that patients came to demand antibiotics even when they weren’t indicated. Patients were demanding antibiotics for viruses. General use of antibiotics in the feed of animals being factory farmed has also contributed greatly to the problem.

[@trevordick272]

@@harrietharlow9929 Overprescribing became a problem because we didn’t have anything else that was as effective. Unfortunately, that thinking turned into a double edged sword.

[@harrietharlow9929]

Yes, the antibiotic resistance in tuberculosis was a real-eye-opener. And yes, on the people demanding them even when not indicated. At one point, there were doctors giving antibiotics prophylactically to avoid pimples. As for factory farming, giving the animals is a necessity since conditions on factory farms are so filthy. And farmers often don't give the correct doses which makes antibiotic resistance even more inevitable. Factory farming is a real mess.

[@beowulf2772]

My father literally buys bootleg amoxicillin from the store and just tells us to "take it until you feel better." This is why you need a doctor.

[@jp4431]

My ex was a medical resident and now family doctor. She took antibiotics for something and SHE DID NOT FINISH THE BOTTLE! Her hypocrisy was rather upsetting.

[@Majormontemayor]

Yeah, it happens more than you think, man. I mean I'm a med student and I constantly worry about my grandmother (a retired pharmacist) cutting her antibiotics dosage in half knowing full well what that could lead and what the doctor told her not too among other things. She doesn't listen, though, and would rather drink some expensive pseudomedicine salt water.

[@kingexplosionmurderfuckoff9376]

@@Majormontemayor I don't understand why. It's so easy to just take them.

[@ChemEDan]

I hope you did the right thing and finish the bottle yourself #freedrugs

[@LA-cm9uo]

That's why she's your ex

[@melyoungblood1761]

The worst Hippocrates are some nurses/doctors/ pharmacists. I’ve seen both who don’t listen to the doctor they go to and I’ve seen them listen and be the best patient and are understanding and take medications that are recommended by their doctors. So it really depends on the person. 😅

[@luv2sail66]

I practiced pediatrics for 20 years. Throughout my career, one of the most common challenges I faced was convincing skeptical parents that their child didn’t need an antibiotic because the infection was viral and would be better in 7-14 days no matter what. In those cases it was also important to make sure the parents understood what symptoms to look for that might warrant a follow up appointment or in some cases a prescription.

[@williammanning5066]

Do you think there should be stricter controls on doctors' ability to prescribe them?

[@EclecticFruit]

@@williammanning5066 I think doctors are less of a problem than patients, and ptients are less of a problem than agriculture/ranching.

[@williammanning5066]

@@EclecticFruit the idea is that if doctors can point to a law and say "sorry, it's illegal for me to prescribe it for a viral illness" then it's easier for them to deal with patients.

[@trishaferrand1395]

Give them sugar pills.

[@DaydreamerWonderland]

Well as an immune compromised person, I need antibiotics even when it is a viral infection and the doctors in France never actually prescribe it, so I have to have a stash I get from my doctor mother. It’s unfortunate to not go case by case…. Most doctors don’t take the time to hear me out and think I’m just a whiny baby when i tell them I need the antibiotics unless I wanna end up with a chronic infection in my lungs …

[@_galaxydrifter_]

Antibiotic resistance is something Im definitely concerned about as an immunocompromised person, Ive had to have 6 courses of antibiotics in the last 3 or 4 months. The time before this last one I ended up in the ER after the first prescribed antibiotic didnt work to clear the infection. I’m hoping I wont have to go back on one for awhile now, it sure does wreck the stomach, but better than going septic.

[@marvigli993]

be strong girl, and don't forget to have your probiotic. XX

[@_galaxydrifter_]

@@marvigli993 Thanks for the advice and actually, Im a guy but I know I have a baby face, Im nearly 30 and people will think Im in my early 20s, sometimes late teens.

[@marvigli993]

@@_galaxydrifter_sorry I call everyone girl, (being myself a woman) be strong and you'll be happy and healthy XX

[@_galaxydrifter_]

@@marvigli993 no worries I just couldnt tell if ya were using it like in the slang way or thinking that i am one. tone gets lost in text

[@marvigli993]

@@_galaxydrifter_ the fact that you answer make you a REAL person, someone I'd like to meet, but being 67 i'll be like your grandma. I don't want to patronize you but from my experience I know that if you take it day by day, love yourself, love your body and try to do what makes you happy, all problems are solvable. btw at your age, because of my lifestyle I had lots of health problems, not anymore. Maybe you'll find a solution to mitigate your immuno-problem. XX

[@veryberry39]

"Obviously we don't make sick people eat dirt" I don't know why, but that really made me laugh.

[@crazyandstupitme]

what's the timestamp for this?

[@kobdog2823]

But does eating dirt while healthy integrate bacteria defences (we do allegedly have bacteria DNA in our DNA) Be that integration into ours or the natural bacteria that exsists in our bodies already our internal community could possibly aid in our defence of outside bacteria. This was initially a joke but I started vining with the idea as I was writing it. Is this why I hear kids playing in the dirt are more healthy or is that an adjacent effect of dirt eating?

[@harrietharlow9929]

@@kobdog2823 It could be that kids who play in dirt (or, alternatively, eat it) develop stronger immune systems. which makes sense.

[@kobdog2823]

@@harrietharlow9929 now all I can think about are bacteria killing each other and stealing there DNA to become stronger Coincidentally how multicellular organisms probably started just failing to kill the opponent.

[@kellydalstok8900]

@@harrietharlow9929 That is certainly the case. Also, children who grow up in a less hygienic environment are less likely to develop allergies, because their immune system is properly “trained” to recognize threats.

[@masonjohnson4310]

I remember seeing some papers investigating phage therapy and how it seems that virus resistance is inversely correlated to antibiotic resistance, at least in some cases. I wonder if that is related to the ideas mentioned in this episode. If a population of bacteria is being battered by a virus, perhaps it might turn down the antibiotic resistance (and corresponding antibiotics), allowing other bacteria closer, and maybe one of them has resistance to the virus that the original population can get for itself. Then, once the virus is beaten back, it can turn back up its antibiotic resistances.

[@lordzeus7984]

This is absolutely true and one core area in studying phage therapeutics. Labs like Paul Turner at Yale is doing this and has been very successful if you want to know more. The issue however is the targeted protein by the phage (to infect the bacteria) must also be correlated to the resistance. For example, the phase should infect an efflux pump that removes antibiotic X. As the bacteria gains resistance to the phage by modifying the efflux pump, it inadvertently creates sensitivity to antibiotic X. Phage therapy is amazing and hopefully can solve some of our issues in the coming decade. This is my research lol so ask questions I'd love to answer.

[@jonslg240]

@@lordzeus7984 that really is extremely interesting.. All I'd even know to ask you is: will you tell us the three things you find most interesting? If you won't, can I force you to somehow? =p

[@harrietharlow9929]

Very interesting idea and from the replies, it looks like researchers are on it. It makes sense that a bacteria might have use for turning down resistance. At one point, in the seventies and eighties, there were doctors who used antibiotics to prevent pimples (I thought this was an urban legend but was told by AIDS patients that had reseceived such treatment that, yes, this was actually a thing). Years ago, I read "When Antibiotics Fail: Restoring the Ecology of the Body" by Marc Lappe back in the late 0s and since that time, will take antibiotics only when absolutely necessary.

[@harrietharlow9929]

@@lordzeus7984 This is fascinating. I sure hope it can help us overcome the issues our misuse has caused.

[@tessarae9127]

Fascinating!!!

[@AgelessTurtle]

This makes sense to me! It makes sense that antibiotics would have more function than killing. Life is so much more complex than we realize

[@harrietharlow9929]

Yes, it is, which keeps being demonstrated over and over.

[@joequincy5574]

I love how unafraid of words like "kill" and "murder" the script writers are when talking about bacteria.

[@kindlin]

Not something I noticed, but I definitely would have if they had tried to awkwardly avoid it. I think the whole PBS set of channels don't really rely on adsense.

[@pastaman68]

I did a research project during one of my classes last semester where we took soil samples from around campus and isolated the bacteria to test them for antibiotic resistance, it was pretty cool

[@laestrella9727]

Results?!

[@pastaman68]

@@laestrella9727 we each picked one bacteria to sequence the DNA of and the one I chose turned out to be a kind of pseudomonas. We froze the samples of all the bacteria to preserve them for if the people running the organization want to do further testing on them (we did it as part of the Tiny Earth Project which takes samples from universities all over the place)

[@laestrella9727]

@@pastaman68 sounds really interesting - thanks for explaining "what you did" - but I am genuinely curious about the "results" - did any surprise you regarding their resistance - any antibiotics had better impact (not sure how to word that: impact in terms of eliminating bacteria). Just anything you observed. That's the interesting bit!

[@pastaman68]

@@laestrella9727 sadly most of the bacteria in my sample had no effect on the pathogens we tested them against 😅 however, a handful had mild resistance to Staphylococcus epidermitis ; theoretically that could be applied against S. aureus which could help treat infections such as MRSA

[@laestrella9727]

@@pastaman68 Well, I'm still none the wiser because I thought you were testing which antibiotics worked best on killing bacteria(!) It's also possible I just didn't understand your reply 😂. Thanks for the updates though, it's appreciated 😀

[@michelleallen2294]

No matter how burned out, depressed or in pain I am, scishow gets me through it. Thank you crew.

[@datuzzo]

My life

[@zori5086]

❤

[@michelleallen2294]

@@datuzzo hope you're doing ok ❤️

[@michelleallen2294]

@@zori5086 ❤️ right back!

[@DragonFae16]

'Refusing to die' put an image in my mind of an antibiotic pointing at a germ and saying 'die!' and the germ just crossing its arms and saying 'no!'.

[@EverDodd]

lol

[@Joss0051]

Seems like having a healthy mix of gut bacteria and yeasts etc and a healthy mix on the skin is a natural first barrier to disease. Great video, thanks, oh and I remember learning about bacteria using pili to transfer genetic info on this about 1981. Just an old memory. All the best Joseph

[@harrietharlow9929]

Thank you so much for uploading! Antibiotics literally saved my life when I was 4.As I age, antibiotic resistence is a definite concern as well as for those dealing with life-threatening illesses, It will be wonderful if we can figure out a way around resistence. If we do manage this, I hope doctors will use this tool wisely so that we can have protection and help when we need it.

[@DerekBertrand-j4h]

If antibiotic "resistance" (the cdc also puts that word in quotes which should tell you something) were real then the plants that make them would go extinct. Do you think mold is extinct? How about garlic? Rasberries? Bees? (Cant have honey without bees as the saying goes). How about oregano is that extinct because germs became resistant and wiped out the species? #fakescience

[@glenngriffon8032]

So it's a bit like a hand on the face. If someone touches your face softly it's a sign of affection, tenderness and love. If the hand is delivered to the face with more energy behind it it's seen as an insult, an attack, a declaration of war.

[@paulbennett7021]

A complex concept explained. It's what this channel does!

[@patricktravers3452]

Thank you scishow. This is only the tip of the antibiotic iceberg. One problem is that many bacteria are innately immune to many antibiotics, susceptibility between gram negative and positive is wildly different. Most of our compounds are based on the beta lactam backbone. We rarely test any infection for specific bacteria. Massively over prescribed and overused in livestock. In our favour is that bacteria are actually worse at reproducing with multiple resistance factors as they have to give up resources to function. Some classes like polymyxins can work for a while but is more likely to kill you than cure you. Bacteriophage therapy will be explored more. There is much much more to say about the subject that's years of pharmacology and microbiology can't cover. Shout out to Paul Ehlich!

[@TairoruXRyuu]

I've been fighting an antibiotic resistant superbug UTI (Klebsiella) for a month now. I've been on Levaquin for a month and it still hasn't gone away. :( And I'm probably going to have to go on it for longer, my body is gonna be so screwed up

[@Pooka115]

I had an antibiotic resistant UTI also. Not sure which bacteria since it never wanted to culture. After 4 different antibiotics not working we tried an alternative method which was whatever antibiotic is working enough to stop symptoms then from there the antiseptic methenamine hippurate for 6 months (and I didn't have any adverse symptoms from that). This worked for me, UTI free 2 years now

[@rohanjagdale97]

Hope you will recover soon. Just be positive

[@dathatron]

​@@rohanjagdale97 very poor choice of words...

[@malachiwhite2195]

What antibiotic worked for you?

[@gelationousskin835]

Sty negative

[@MrNoodle986]

I love this. One of my lecturers is researching this. I really want to join his lab 😂

[@hungryluma27]

I love scishow and eons and animal wonders and microcosmos and all these amazing complexly channels so. Damn. Much.

[@harrietharlow9929]

Scishow, Eons and PBS Space totally ROCK! It's part of why I refer to You Tube as my "free university"

[@scrane5500]

Fish farming alone has made 90% of all seawater bacteria resistant to at least 1 antibiotic and 20% are already resistant to 5. Add that to the amount of AMR on factory farms and.....I'm going to go watch some cute cat videos now. Thanks a lot SciShow!

[@billfarnsworth7536]

Somebody else may have already commented about SciShow failing to give credit to the Australian doctor Howard Florey with regard to penicilin. While Alexander Fleming is rightly acknowledged with discovering penicillin in 1928, it was Howard Walter Florey who actually did the hard work in conducting the initial clinical trials and leading a medical team that first produced large viable quantities of penicilin, the life-saving antibiotic. Florey received the Nobel Prize in 1945 for his leading role in the development of penicilin.

[@Majormontemayor]

Just finished bacteriology in my course, and it's horrifying how we're running out of antibiotics for even the simplest infections and the growing number resistant bacteria from MERSA to VRSA bacteria. It all just comes down to use and misuse essentially and yeah there are patients who are already immunocompromised such that the antibiotics can only do so much that the body has to do too but yeah seeing cases of people with infections wherein only the strongest antibiotics are the only option for them is horrifying for them and for us as well

[@yeetghostrat]

Benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid can clear up a skin infection, including MRSA, without risk of resistance and extremely low risk of side effects (beyond dry skin). Saved my father's life when he had a MRSA infection that was resistant to all antibiotics. It's also what I've been using exclusively for years, as a MRSA carrier with a wonky immune system... and clumsiness when working with sharp objects... The MRSA I carry was not the same strain my father caught. Mine responds well to everything but methicillin. He contracted his from a test he had done at a hospital.

[@SG-ds8pr]

There is no such thing as MRSA that is resistant to everything.

[@CaraTheStrange]

I use to have near constant sinus infections and i actually recently had surgery to solve that issue (septoplasty and nasal reconstruction surgery). But during my final highschool exams i got a pretty bad sinus infection and not even two different courses of two different antibiotics could beat the infection so that caused me to have a very strong resolve to get the surgery because antibiotic resistance scared me so much.

[@Asguard82]

Mixing antibiotics with bacteriophages could help to address antibiotic resistance by making previously resisted antibiotics useful again

[@imofage3947]

The factory farming industry is one of the most prolific contributors to antibiotic resistance. Growers know that if you force feed animals high doses of antibiotics, they mature and grow faster. Faster growth cycle = bigger profits. So they mix huge quantities in with the feed stock. The animals grow up large and healthy and fast, all the while excreting large quantities of unmetabolized antibiotics in their... number 1 and number 2. So the animal waste becomes a breeding ground for antibiotic resistant super bugs. And if one of the farm animals happens to develop an infection... that's already going to be highly resistant to whatever antibiotics the grower uses. Maybe this practice needs to be regulated? Yeah, meat will probably see a bump in price, but that price is small compared to the cost of life and lowered standard of living we would see if this current trend continues.

[@LA-cm9uo]

Thanks! You explained this perfectly. I'm giving a talk on antibiotic resistance for one of my courses, but you couldn't have explained it better.

[@MagiTycho]

I remember when I was taking microbio for nursing school, a new technology was used to isolate a novel antibiotic from soil that showed a ton of promise because it inhibited a different cell wall molecule. That was late 2013. Last I checked it was still in "pre-clinical development" and I guess its just not profitable enough to develop new antibiotics vs other pills pharma can push on people.

[@rin55]

Yup, that's the hard truth. Unless it becomes the covid level of worldwide emergency snd everybody would just throw money at development.

[@nariu7times328]

Lovely graphics, very helpful in understanding. :)

[@porakiyadraekojin3390]

So, what I am gathering from this is that, in the wild, antibiotic production and resistance is used as a form of community-building evinvironmental control. Best analogy I can think of is one neighbor chasing out another neighbor that is disruptive to the community as a whole, and then someone new that is much less disruptive moves in.

[@sdfkjgh]

@porakiyadraekojin3390: Damn en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeowner_association

[@alternator7893]

I’ve had undiagnosed stomach problems for about 8 years now, and I’ve been on antibiotics on and off for that same amount of time. After 8 years and several thousand dollars worth of tests they finally discovered I had diabetes.

[@evrenunal3644]

Bro what

[@Claire-xn1cw]

The overuse of antibotics in agriculture might be contributing to this. Animals are kept in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions, and because of this need to be constantly fed antibiotics to prevent infection. Vox did a great video about this called “Why the next pandemic may come from our farms.”

[@Lil-Dragon]

I often wonder why people don't take a full course of antibiotics. Unless I was told otherwise, or had an allergic reaction, I'm finishing the course given. I'm genuinely curious about the reason besides forgetting, which is my first thought.

[@ejk6304]

Usually people don't finish them because of side effects to their gut, and because they can affect other commonly prescribed medications like hormonal birth control, which can in turn be a source of agonizing pain for endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome patients.

[@happym5717]

The idea of antibiotic secretion as a selective method for finding well adapted bacteria to share the environment with was fascinating! It's like almost like sexual selection in an Asexually reproductive organism because of DNA/RNA exchange in bacteria.

[@recterbert]

There was no mention of factory farms. Millions of animals being pumped with antibiotics daily weather they are sick or not.

[@exponentialnegative1]

The problem of antibiotic resistant bacteria was solved 100 years ago with bacteriophage therapy. There are viruses that only infect certain bacteria, and we can inoculate ourselves with them.

[@0mnishade]

Take a shot every time Stefan says "antibiotic"

[@Svensk7119]

"Hit on the idea of walking upright." Ha! Hee-larious!

[@essieptales5706]

"penicillin: the prototype antibiotic" sounds like a pokedex entry.

[@brianzmek7272]

All of this is fine but from what I have researched they are ignoring how use of antibiotics as basic growth supplements for livestock especially in factory farm is a huge contributing factor for antibiotic resistance.

[@leckel1996]

This

[@harrietharlow9929]

That is a huge problem. We need to find something better than intensive rearing of livestock. Intensive farming is a recipe for all kinds of diseases which are treated with antibiotics, often at subclinical doses, which is analagous to someone not taking a full course of antibiotics.

[@PinHeadSupliciumwtf]

Is it still legal in the us?

[@brianzmek7272]

@@PinHeadSupliciumwtf yes

[@PinHeadSupliciumwtf]

@@brianzmek7272 the good ol' US of A or how I like to call them: Corpocucks. You can really see the dollar bills shine through the politicans nosehair so deep did they get shoved up their recta.

[@thethinker739]

Thats some warfare type stuff... every bacteria gangster till they pull out the antibiotics

[@MizZinnia]

I read an article in Nature bulletin of a study of combining antibiotics with metals (i.e.zinc, colloidal silver) to improve their efficacy in resistant cases. I would love to see a SciShow investigation of this potential.

[@subliminalfalllenangel2108]

After your video, everything makes a lot more sense. It's not because we use too much antibiotic, it's because we don't the types of bacteria that produce those antibiotics in our body! In other words, the lack of gut microbiome diversity is the main reason why antibiotic resistance occurs.

[@wafikiri_]

Bacterial resistance to an antibiotic vanishes in about three months of lack of exposure to the said antibiotic, as found by a team which struggled to cure tuberculosis and AIDS in conditions of high resistance.

[@huldu]

That's pretty neat so antibiotics that became outdated very long ago might be effective today in other words, or rather down the road?

[@wafikiri_]

@@huldu For long treatments, antibiotics can be rotated every three months and they'll be effective again. Long-discarded antibiotics should work again as well.

[@harrietharlow9929]

I didn't know that! Thank you for the information.

[@trevordick272]

@@wafikiri_ If this were true, there would be no such thing as antibiotic resistant bacteria. The resistance to antibiotics is an evolved resistance; it doesn’t magically lose that evolved resistance in some minor time frame. Rotation of different antibiotics is an attempt to prevent a population of bacteria from gaining that resistance, not a magic bullet to cure the infection. If what you’re claiming was true, it would be as simple as restricting supply of a particular antibiotic every 3 -6 months, and simply rotating through all available effective antibiotics. Clearly, that’s not the case.

[@lordgarion514]

Do you listen to complete idiots, or do you just make this stuff up on your own???? No one is using antibiotics to try and cure AIDS..... HIV is a virus. You don't use antibiotics, which is for bacteria, on viruses.

[@eyewonder6448]

Bacteriophages are a fantastic substitute for antibiotics.

[@christianhughes1567]

While it is good news that there seems to be some solutions on the horizon to this problem, the bad news is that pharmaceutical companies are reluctant to fund research and development into these potential solutions. When you take an antibiotic, you only need it for a somewhat short time and so then once the infection has been killed you don't need the antibiotics anymore. This means that it's not very profitable to fund the research and development needed in the fight against these resistant bacteria.

[@ishalef3933]

The bacterial communication by molecules is cool and all. But the over use of the antibiotics is the problem. The more they are used the "better the communication between the cells are".

[@harrietharlow9929]

Precisely. This is why I will take them only if absolutely necessary.

[@JohnOliverWorkspace]

How frequent "overuse" means? I accidentally consumed 2x a day of azithromycin instead of 1x a day only. I already consumed 4 tablets in 2 days and I stopped immediately! Is that considered overuse? Am I going to have antibiotic resistant? Please help.

[@colorado841]

9:10 It seems like antibiotics can act as a sort of virus. By putting the genes for antibody close to the genes for resistance to that antibody it may make it hard for bacteria to get resistance without also making the antibody. This would trigger a chain reaction of more bacteria needing the gene for resistance.

[@varyolla435]

Viruses are parasitic. So to exist they require "a host" - which in our case means certain cells of your body they are able to infect. Bacteria however are "stand alone" meaning we acquire them via contact and they exist within us stealing nutrients from our body to subsist themselves. So take penicillin. It was originally derived from mold - meaning it was created by fungi as a defense against other microbes. By killing off "competitors" it frees up any organism capable of producing penicillin - or surviving in an environment where it is being produced - so that they can replicate unmolested. So the video speaks to this dynamic whereby groups of microorganisms "share" the ability to produce a substance which might be harmful to other microorganisms via "Horizontal Gene Transfer" which expands their reach and hence their access to the nutrients required for them to sustain themselves and replicate. Yet in doing so the simple fact of having organisms capable of resisting a given substance - which might lend to antibiotic resistance development = by definition means those organisms are already resistant to the action of the antibiotics. So if ones capable of HGT that means they may in time pass that resistance capacity along to others as well. So it is a double edged sword if you will. Many antibiotics are developed based upon the defense mechanisms of the microorganisms themselves. This means some species of bacteria etc. may inherently be resistant to the action of the drug - and thus in time pass that capability onto others. 🤔

[@colorado841]

I was talking the genes associated with antibody resistance being a sort of two-way-benefical separate organism or having virus like properties.

[@samwill7259]

SOILED IT! SOILED IT! SOILED IT! SOILED IT!

[@lorrygoth]

So basically all the penicillin, etc. resistant bacteria can work together inside an unprotected system because we have made them incapable of hurting each other?

[@zaneal-amood5474]

basically the science article I sent you proves that if you use an antibiotic vector to kill a bacteria but you only use one single vector to kill the bacteria the bacteria will evolve a resistance against it but if you have a two factor antibiotic and vector in this context means a method of attacking the bacteria so a two vector method means that your antibiotics simultaneously attacks the bacteria in two sensitive areas at once or in to ways at once in these methods of attack have to target some kind of weakness that fundamentally it’s not easy for the bacteria to evolve away to correct this weakness like for example thicker cell walls would mean the bacteria would replicate more slowly it wouldn’t be able to get into all the places it would be able to get into with a thinner cell wall the cell wall thickness is the thickness it is for a very good reason so them evolving armor plating is not practical and that’s one of the ways irresistin this antibiotic destroys the bacteria

[@Chris_Denora]

Stefan Chin wore the same shirt for the last episode, did you film them on the same day or do you just like your (406) shirt?

[@jingleinthedark92]

As much as I love the analogy and insight into antibiotics, truly I did, there's something to be said and I hope y'all start linking your own stuff more... About bacteriophages I think they're called... Or whatever the thing growing in contrast to antibiotic resistance, since how it plays out alongside this new perspective of communal bacterial existence... I think Kurtzgesagt made a video about it, if anyone wants to look it up. I've been reading that channel's author's book about the immune system ("Immune" by Peter ***) - high quality stuff I wish I had the energy for proper notation about ~

[@KorkwiN7]

So bacteria is basically The Zerg

[@hollish196]

Suffering a bit of overload--doesn't happen often. But a great video; especially the conclusions given here.

[@andersonklein3587]

Something no one ever seems to mention, but that still puzzles me: Wouldn't using multiple antibiotics be effective? Assuming that bacteria only maintain resistance to whatever it's genes are being selected for and that there is a non zero cost for each additional resistance, I could hardly imagine a significant number of them could compete in the wild for long while having to upkeep an arsenal of defenses against a wide variety of attacks. A smarter version of this could be software to quickly identify whether a given flora of bacteria lacks resistance of any of the existing antibiotics and using that one. ( again, given that presumably resistances are not always passed 100% of the time and should eventually go extinct due their non 0 cost and lack of selection in the wild )

[@angelomaestroni]

This is literally what I'm studying for my next exam

I’d love to learn how to make good soil, it is so complex and interesting.

[@rjung_ch]

As long as we continue to use it on animals we eat, this won't end well.

[@Doc-randomplay]

Bacteria: Now that I have become completely immune to every antibiotic ever, I'll never be killed by humans again! Bacteriophages: nuh uh

[@fuzzyhair321]

I've had antibiotics once in my adult life and has a healthcare worker I'm a bit more careful with infections

[@Shria9]

I think that misuse of antibiotics has definitely accelerated antibiotic resistance. It makes sense that if a colony of bacteria is exposed to antibiotics at levels too low to eradicate it, the remaining members will evolve resistance. So, yeah, don't take antibiotics for viral infections and always finish your prescription. But one reason people stop taking antibiotics could be worth studying as a possible remedy to antibiotic resistance. Allergies and sensitivities. Can we find a way to strengthen or switch on our own resistance to bacteria and viruses that damage us? Speaking as a person with a pretty severe sensitivity to sulpha drugs, I think that if I made hostile bacteria as sick as those antibiotics make me, I would never need antibiotics. Also, if the conditions in your body are close to ideal, more helpful bacteria will grow stronger and more plentiful, depriving bacteria that damage our systems of resources and keeping them in check. Feed your good gut flora and fauna fibre-rich whole and unprocessed foods and they will suppress the ones that damage your internal environment.

[@vasylysapre8059]

Thank you for all your fascinating videos. Although your pace is very difficult to follow)) No pauses between sentences)) Maybe it's just for a non-native speaker..

[@caradanellemcclintock8178]

The problem is I have family members that will go to the doctor for even minor ailments like sniffles or mild infections that would sort themselves out by themselves anyway and they are always sick there doctor prescribed them antibiotics at least three times a year often more. My personal belief is the doctor is for a serious issue otherwise I use over the counter pain relief and proven home remedies like drinking soup taking immune boosters and things like that in fact the last few weeks I had an ear infection so bad that I went to see a local pharmacist to ask if I should go to the hospital and she told me I should go if liquid starts coming out my ear otherwise just use ear drops and rest. My ears where dry so I just carried on and I was better in two days

[@mcblahflooper94]

The thumbnail could pass as the cover of a hip hop album, haha

[@Tugg_Speedman.]

Dr. Stone already taught me all about sulfa drugs

[@seno7904]

Same

[@tronowolf]

From what I've read so far, Penicillin still does the job against spirochetes so at least there's that.

[@augusthoglund6053]

It's the dose that makes the poison after all. Adrenaline is a signaling molecule for human cells, because of how it interacts with human cells. If you're swamped in enough adrenaline, the truly overwhelming effect of all of the same type of interactions happening at once and happening constantly, turns out to be toxic.

[@ghostbirdlary]

well also small doses of many anti biotics is more effective at preventing super bugs because if it becomes resisntant to one kind of anti biotic the rest will kill them off

[@andreahowell888]

*currently on my 6th different antibiotic for a notoriously resistant mycobacterium. But, light at the end of the tunnel after 2 surgeries, and on my 7th month straight of at least 1 antibiotic for it.

[@marceloantunes998]

"The bacteria are just refusing to be killed" Look at the chin of these absolute chads, you got me rooting for the Bubonic plague

[@Zappygunshot]

There's also the resource management angle to consider - eventually, the different pieces of DNA coding for resistance against all the different kinds of antibiotics thrown at it becomes to costly to replicate and maintain all the time, that it simply isn't worth it. At some point, we'd be able to cycle through different types of antibiotics as pathogens grow resistant to one type and lose resistance to another.

[@djj949]

Super interesting! Never seen this topic from the symbiosis angle. Please do a follow up vid!

[@DexyD20]

So make our gut microbiome produce and be resistant to antibiotics? I wonder what kind of repercussion that might have honestly?😅 Edit: I've been thinking about this a lot now, this actually might help immunocompromised people a lot if the repercussions aren't that bad, tho to work the best everyone couldn't get this or it would nullify the benefits to them, and they would still have to worry about things that are immune to this antibiotic suppository cocktail their gut biome would be creating, but essentially their gut bacteria would act as their immune system, antibiotics being absorbs through the gut and around the body to fight stuff without really needing white blood cells...

[@Christina2tw]

This is actually a really good idea 👍🏻

[@WormasCZ]

This would be the same as using antibiotics 24/7 without distrupting the gut microbiome. It would only make more evolutionary pressure on the pathogenic bacteria to be resistant to the antibiotics in the body.

[@DexyD20]

@@WormasCZ True, witch is why not everyone could have it or it would be bad for that reason, if only one or a few people have it then they are just gonna kill everything that isn't already immune before anything has the time to become immune, but if everyone has this then the chances of someone getting a bad bacteria to become immune in the first place increases, and most things that gain immunity to antibiotics are because the antibiotic bath wasn't strong enough to begin with or it wasn't around long enough for the antibiotics to kill it, because people missed taking their pills or stopped taking them before they were done, witch wouldn't be a problem with a gut factory making all types of antibiotics all the time without you doing anything. I hope I made sense here because I really did think hard about this before I decided the joke was real😅🤣

[@oxylepy2]

I remember my bio teacher's master's thesis was on the proliferation of bacterial resistances due to the use of antibacterial products. But while most know that 0.01% of bacteria will then reproduce and won't be as likely to die in the future, we still have people swearing by their antibacterial products. I avoid them as much as possible

[@PaulSteMarie]

Sulfa drugs predated penicillin, becoming commercially available in 1935, after penicillin was discovered, but before it was purified (1940) or saw widespread use.

[@harrietharlow9929]

Sulfa drugs were a real lifesaver for my mum because because she was deathly allergic to antibiotics--all of them--so the only thing she could use was sulfa drugs, but I remember she used them very sparingly so that they would remain effective for her..

[@Novrat34]

The thing is bacteria don’t reproduce like us or some fungi. They use binary fission by basically splitting itself into two. Due to how fast they reproduce, this means they are more likely to have a mutation that allows for resistance.

[@brandonhorwath6351]

I'm just thinking about a primordial pool with a diverse, concentrated population of antibiotic resistant microbes. Then, lightning strikes and a blob crawls out of the water...

[@Coreykoon]

Meanwhile I’m over here trying to figure out what [406] means

[@Hellooo134]

I’d be surprised if the gene for an antibiotics production wasn’t next to one for its resistance. When you can share genes, evolution can happen on the level of just smaller sections of DNA and not whole individuals, and obviously having them next to each other offers a way higher fitness for that section of DNA than one that, if shared, would just cause that bacteria to kill itself (I also know very little about bacteria so I could be completely off)

[@EyesOfByes]

1:36 That picture is cool! (Swedish pun intended)

[@bgrune1]

I'm sure it is complicated but the fact is that most antibiotics are fed to livestock just to promote growth and help animals survive in horrific conditions in the factory farming system. This creates the perfect environment and circumstances to incubate antibiotic resistant bacteria. I am doubtful this video will even discuss these facts.

[@Alice_Walker]

This is so interesting! Thank you 😊

[@suelane3628]

What about anti-biotics altering the shape of bacterial ribosomes & blocking protein synthesis?

[@keithofthejungle]

There must be other non-bacterial species that also produce antibiotic e.g. fungi, plants, and animals. Maybe we should also look at how their handing the issue.

[@MagicjavaGames]

I’m just interested in why a Fluoroquinilone still works when I got it prescribed for an infection two years ago.

[@SuperCripple]

Yeah, if I was born before 1928 I would've died from Scarlet Fever.

[@jaypaans3471]

Short version of the story (about the colonies) = "Join us or die"

[@keanubartolata3465]

Can we somehow trigger the response without using actual antibiotics, then reverse engineer the response to test new antibiotics? Then at the same time use the reversed engineered compound against the bacteria? Kinda like using their own weapon/tools against them.

[@laratheplanespotter]

I wanna know more about phages

[@Quwucuqin]

Amazing information and creativity

[@michellevandyk8649]

Is the 406 on your shirt reference to Montana's area code? Are you from there?

[@wyattblaine7066]

Either that, or it’s a coding thing. 406 as an error code is like “unacceptable input”

[@buddermaniacz6133]

Lmao I’ve done this research before so seeing this video is like a call back to my favorite work

[@GPGOLDENTEE]

Probably a dumb idea but... couldnt they introduce the resistant bacteria to the original mold & see if the mold ups its game? Not a solution I'm aware but it might buy us some time.

[@Simplicity4711]

It's a big problem in Vietnam. They give them way too often.

[@farmergrowth4111]

Nice video, something that can help is Micro phages

[@Lemonbowl1000]

I think I’ve taken antibiotics like 4 times in 25 years… why are people not trying to avoid these wherever possible?

[@harrietharlow9929]

Good question. I have used antibiotics something like twice in 35 years. I read Marc Lappe's "When Antibiotics Fail" in the early 1990s and it really opened my eyes. I will take it only if absolutely necessary. Another question arises: if doctors know about antibiotic resistance (and I can't imagine that they don't since antibiotic resistance has been recognised from the late 19540sor early 50s) why do they prescribe it as heavily as they do?

[@kellydalstok8900]

Because they’re ignorant and think a doctor who doesn’t prescribe pills when they have the sniffles isn’t taking them seriously. Plus when antibiotics are prescribed, they don’t understand they can’t just stop taking them when they feel better. Also, farmers are using a ton of “preventative” antibiotics on livestock.

[@thekingoffailure9967]

Cause humans don't like being infected with harmful bacteria. It tends to be a real downer...

[@charlesdavidamahit4846]

​@@harrietharlow9929, this is a very interesting point. We're currently doing our undergrad research on antibiotic resistance among local communities (we're in a third-world country) and one of the primary concerns in slowing down resistance is through forming adept identification of the agent of infection. Without definite identification, physicians use broad-spectrum drugs as empirical therapy while bacterial tests are done, relying on presenting symptoms as the presumed identity. This use opens to, sometimes, the emergence of broad-spectrum drug-resistant mutants. Drug resistance is in itself a very complex process and is not just determined by the use of broad-spectrum drugs as primary therapy against infections; but the main takeaway is that as the resistant strains are passed among communities, we run out of available drugs to treat the infection. A previous study done in our locality once showed that a fraction of hospital workers carry these resistant strains with them, an example is the Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolated from their nares. Inadvertent transmission sometimes happens in these cases as healthcare workers attend from one patient to another. Revamping the systemic structures shaping the increasing number of resistant bacterial species requires a complex approach, from therapeutic protocols to the way how patients take their antibiotics religiously, everyone has their share of liability in the fight. By 2050, it is projected that drug resistance would be so high that it could be accounted for a mortality rate of 10 million per year. It's just that, for me, we just fall short of letting patients know the gravity of not completing their antibiotic meds when they feel "well," or with lawmakers not having an ounce of urgency with their perfunctory policies on the issue. At this point, funding is an urgent concern, and studies are not getting it enough.​

[@ericbartol]

SciShow, why do you avoid the fact of incomplete antibiotic cycles, over-prescribing, and antibiotic flooding of livestock?

[@megamanx466]

He just probably summed up 'Law & Order: Organized Crime' too. 😜