Antibiotic resistance is rapidly reaching the scale of a global health crisis. More and more people are being treated with "last resort" antibiotics, and the head of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, recently warned that the explosion of increasingly virulent drug-resistant microbes may eventually mean the "end of modern medicine."

"The rise of antibiotic resistance is a global health crisis," Chan said. "More and more governments recognize (it is) one of the greatest threats to health today."

One thing that ordinary consumers can do to stem this tide, is to avoid unnecessary antibiotic treatments by using natural alternatives.
 

Why antibiotics are bad for your health

One of the most common misuses of antibiotics is when doctors prescribe them for viral problems, such as a cold or the flu, or minor bacterial infections that might otherwise have cleared up on their own.

Essential oils provide numerous benefits over antibiotics. They do not contribute to the evolution of drug resistance, preserving antibiotics for truly serious or life-saving uses – particularly if you avoid always using the same essential oil for every infection. In addition, essential oils do not cause wholesale destruction of your body's good microbes – "microbiome" – the way antibiotics do. Antibiotic use is increasingly being linked with a variety of systemic health problems, probably due to disruption of the many subtle processes that our microbiomes perform for our bodies. Even taking probiotics after antibiotics is not enough to undo this damage.

So, for your health and for the health of society as a whole, here are some of the top antimicrobial essential oils. Studies have shown many of these to be as effective as antibiotics, and in some cases more so.