[custom_adv] There is no doubt that antibiotics are truly a wonder of modern medicine. Beginning with the discovery of penicillin in 1928, the rapid resolution of bacterial infections from antibiotics caused many in the medical profession to become completely enamored with the drug based approach to illness erroneously thinking that the danger to human life from infections was a thing of the past. [custom_adv] By 1940, antibiotics had come into widespread use causing both doctors and people to gradually forget about natural antibiotics for resolving infections and the age old remedies like cod liver oil. [custom_adv] This change in the medical paradigm has led in recent decades to abuse of drug based antibiotics and the worrisome rise of antibiotic resistant superbugs such as the “TDR”(totally drug resistant) strain of tuberculosis and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections particularly in babies and children. [custom_adv] The over-reliance on drug based resolution to infections has also triggered an epidemic of children and adults with compromised gut function and autoimmune diseases of all kinds due to an imbalanced intestinal environment and the consequential scourge of leaky gut syndrome. [custom_adv] Beyond the problem of antibiotic resistance, however, are the long term effects of even a single round of antibiotics. The expectation in the health community that you can just fix the damage with probiotics and/or fermented foods and that gut flora magically returns to normal seems to be far from accurate. [custom_adv] Evidence is now emerging from multiple sources that gut flora may actually be permanently altered by drugs or, at the very least, the damage persists for several years.The Journal Microbiology, for instance, reports that the generally acknowledged precept that use of antibiotics only causes disruption of the gut flora for a few weeks is highly flawed. [custom_adv] Gut flora does not quickly return to normal after a round of antibiotics.Even a short course of antibiotics can lead to resistant bacterial populations taking up residence in the gut that persist for up to 4 years – maybe even longer (source) The bottom line is that drug based antibiotics really should only be used for life threatening situations – as a last resort if you will. [custom_adv] For bothersome everyday infections that are not life threatening, however, nature provides some very powerful and effective alternatives. [custom_adv] Here is the list of the best of these natural antibiotics which have succeeded in keeping my own family of five off all drug based antibiotics for colds, flu, skin and sinus infections for over 15 years (and counting!). [custom_adv] This list of the best natural antibiotics on the planet is in no particular order although I make note of which one is my personal favorite.