Whenever I read a news story concerning the failure of tried and true antibiotics against the common staphylococcus germ - besides shuddering in fear - I also feel thankful that I've never been one to run to the doctor for every little sniffle or stubbed toe.

Apparently this reluctance to dose my family with an array of drug store nostrums or to run to the doctor for every picky little ache and pain has been the smart thing to do.

A person doesn't have to have a medical degree to know that an antibiotic will not be effective against a cold virus or an attack of hay fever. That is something that's taught in any high school science class. An antibiotic is only effective against bacterial infections. The common cold is caused by a virus and hayfever is an allergic reaction to pollen, dust or mold.

Duh!

But bacteria are wily creatures. Even though they are only one-celled organisms, they are living creatures, and because of this they change, they grow, they adapt. Antibiotics are effective against bacteria because they interrupt the reproduction cycle.

Just like other creatures inhabiting this planet with us, bacteria adapt to a changing environment, and for these little parasites our bodies are part of their environment - their prey.

And when the hosts began to fight back with antibiotics, the bacteria, in order to survive, mutated into more resistant forms.

This has led to the current crisis in health care. There are now certain strains of staphylococcus which are completely resistant to many antibiotics. They've grown so strong they've been known to literally liquefy flesh. And these staph germs are everywhere. They are the same ones which are also responsible for pimples, boils and impetigo.

Another handy-dandy cure-all which I think has contributed to this medical dilemma is the over-the-counter cold medicine taken to mask the symptoms of viral or hay fever attacks.

Now it's not exactly popularity-inducing to walk around hacking, wheezing, coughing and sneezing for hours on end. So most people will do what everyone has been encouraged to do - take one of the popular over-the-counter medications which promise to reduce all symptoms within 24 hours.

Those handy little capsules sure do work. They dry up those sneezing attacks within minutes. What also happens though, is that within days of taking those sneeze-stopping pills, the perfect conditions have been created to develop a bacterial infection in the inner ear or sinuses.

What would normally be removed from the body by sneezing, nose-blowing or coughing builds up and becomes a rich feeding ground for certain types of bacteria. By that time, an antibiotic is needed before recovery can begin.

Basically we are impeding our own immune system from doing its job. We sneeze because it's our body's way of removing pollen from our noses. We cough for the same reason. It's the body's first line of defense against viruses.

Years ago I read an article that suggested an alternative to the over-the-counter drug to antibiotic merry-go-round. The article's basic premise was that people who lived in countries specializing in a fiery cuisine rarely caught the flu, the common cold and had few sinus infections.

According to the article, spicy food stimulates the mucus membranes to such a degree that viruses or pollens rarely were able to gain a foothold.

The article was so intriguing that the next time I had a hay fever attack I tried the spicy food route. Instead of dosing myself with an allergy remedy, I ran down to my favorite Chinese restaurant and had a big bowl of hot and sour soup. The soup was so spicy that not only did my nose run like a stream but my eyes teared, too. I could have swom my ears were going to start running next.

But guess what? It worked! After an hour of constant nose-blowing, my allergy reaction stopped. Better yet, I didn't develop the sinus infection which normally followed every hay fever attack.

But the cover-up-the-nasty-symptom approach to over-medicating doesn't stop with cold and allergy remedies - it also includes other panaceas for aches and pains.

There are people who, after gobbling a meal, complain of heartburn or indigestion and immediately pop two or three antacid tablets.

It is easily apparent that if they would just slow down and stop gulping and gobbling their food, and consequently swallowing air while they ate, many of their so-called digestive problems would take care of themselves.

I've seen parents allow children to quaff cola after cola and then give them a spoonful or two of cough syrup or some other potion which causes drowsiness, when they complained of not being able to sleep.

A much better solution would be to limit the high-sugar, high-caffeine libations their offspring guzzled during any 24 hour period. It seems, considering all the hoopla about a drug-dependent society, and how often youth are turning to drugs, that one of the first places we need to look for a solution is our own medicine cabinets - not to take a pill, or a spoonful or two of this syrup or that - but to toss them in the trash.

Before we can convince our children to "just say 'no' to drugs," we must stop teaching them that all of life's little aches and pains can be cured just by opening the medicine cabinet.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

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