I thought it was really interesting to learn about how delivery method influences the development of a baby’s gut microbiome. I never really thought about it until a few weeks ago, but now I am wondering whether or not the higher rates of C-sections are a contributing factor to increased rates of metabolic diseases and obesity in American kids. Today doctors perform a lot more unnecessary C-sections. Sometimes it’s merely out of convenience, without thought about how it actually can influence a child’s health. I read in an article recently that kids born via C-section have a way higher chance of developing childhood obesity. I wonder if there will ever be a way to help inoculate children who were born via C-section by necessity in order to help them be healthier in the future.
I highlighted the word unnecessary because I think as humans we do a lot of things in the name of “being healthy” that we really don’t need to be doing. Our bodies are amazingly capable of maintaining our health and homeostatic balances. For millions of years we survived without the need of many treatments we use daily. I’m not at all saying that we should cut out many of the medical treatments and remedies that have saved and improved so many lives, but I think that we do live in a time where so many things are overly medicalized. It seems that so many things that used to be treated with at-home remedies now require doctors visits and prescription drugs.
I think that one of the most unnecessary treatments that we see today is the overprescription of antibiotics. Often, physicians will prescribe antibiotics for illnesses that aren’t even caused by bacteria. I think that this could be a really interesting topic for my final paper, and I will look further into it in the coming days. Things I could talk about in the paper could be why doctors are so quick to prescribe antibiotics, what causes bacteria to become resistant, what next steps could be, and what the future looks like for the field of medicine with respect to antibiotic treatment (will it be phased out, will we develop new ones, will there be new/better ways to treat infections in general?)
