Antibiotics - some balance

comet

Just my two cents.
I think there's way too much negativity to antibiotics on this forum.
If you're sick they will cure you. They won't do you any great harm, remember to take the full dose, a few probiotics afterwards will have you back to full health quickly.
Just posting to balance negativity in case people are stuck on a toilet somewhere for days on end thinking antibiotics will nuke their guts for good and trying to see it out themselves.
I took cipro and it sorted me out real quick.
I also have taken the Indian only combo of Cipro and Tinidazole without any side effects except a bad taste in my mouth.
Of course no one wants to take anything and prefers to be healthy but if you do get sick go for it.

Nick-H

Let the war commence...

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puchoo

Mrs P would agree with you 100% , i on the other hand am opposed , more than average, to popping antibiotics....

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brownboy66

hmmm...a fairly short battle so far...

edwardseco

I think most people will be against popping them other than the raw newbies that think themselves doctors and take comfort in the fact that they know nothing of the complexities of medicine. But, when the best local herbalist for many villages around couldn't cure my sinus infection a shot of penni did the trick..

edwardseco

Rereading, I am adamantly against self-treatment of intestinal ills when such good medical service is readily available. Most of it is not dysentary and there are different kinds of dysentary with different treatments. The use of antibiotics as placebo treatment is very harmful long term. Just see what happened with amoxylin (pink medicine) prescribed for colds and all kinds of nonsense..

Dr.Barai

Nick-H

(please don't post in SMS/Text abreviations; it is hard for people to read)

But... I partly agree, and partly feel that people are responsible for themselves.

It gets tricky at the point. There are times when I believe that experience has taught me that I need an antibiotic, and I know which one. But you could accuse me of saying it's ok for me but not for others.

An abscess on a tooth is something that I might well self-prescribe for (dentist after the swelling's gone down). The symptoms are fairly clear cut, and I have plenty of experience.

A chest infection is something that I might self prescribe for --- but I'd much rather get a doctor's advice.

A stomach upset, the most common reason quoted on IM for taking, and even for carrying around, antibiotics, is something that I almost certainly would not self prescribe them for. Most of them will go away within a couple of days, and those that don't need a doctor's diagnosis.

That's my take on treating myself.

What I really disapprove of was done by my wife the other day. She went to the pharmacy and asked for something for a sore throat that she had had for a day. The pharmacist gave two tablets each of an antibiotic and told to take one a day.

There... antibiotic wars within my own family!

kmalik

Somewhat timely, the National Public Radio show Science Friday (in the US) today had an interesting discussion of alternatives to antibiotics - particularly in the context of increasing drug resistence, fueled by the overuse of antibiotics as well as things such as anti-bacterial soaps, etc. Phage therapy making use of bacteriophages to fight infections sounded quite interesting and might be of interest to some on this thread.

edwardseco

Indeed it is..

crvlvr

Almost everything done in moderation is not bad for you. But, we are now encountering a generation, atleast here in the US, who do not want any inconveniece and expect magic pills to make that FEEL good, 24/7. Anitbiotics are just first is a long list of medications people demand their doctors prescribe so that they can go on their merry way. Unfortunately, most of the research/testing on drugs have been performed by their own manufacturer and doctors., while they want to the do what is best for the patient, are usually in the dark about the dangerous effects of medication until it is too late.

dhans

I would have died at age three of a very severe pneumonia, so don't start me on the benefits of antibiotics.

Make your own decisions, but always consult a doctor.

Hans

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Nick-H

Certainly antibiotics have saved my health, if not my life, on several occasions.

Utterly wonderful discovery.

The misuse of them is not a individual matter, it is a social matter. I wonder how many slightly-more-resistant bacteria are in my wife's body, from having taken an inappropriate dose of an inappropriate drug the other day. They may not do her any harm, but the next person may suffer for it.

Cardamom

Hey Kmalik - it's interesting you mention the phage therapy. I just finished reading Julian Crandall Hollick's book on Ganga and he had a section talking about Phage therapy. It really caught my attention. Has anyone here actually used this sort of therapy?


Just curious

-C

kmalik

Cardamom -

Look at the link to the NPR program I referred to. On a general level, phages are currently in use for treatment of meat in the US since 2006 to cut down on certain bacteria. And, the program discussion included several cases of people who had incurable infections (and faced almost a certain course of amputation) that were cured by the phage therapy.

Personally, I was fascinated by the discussion as my father has diabetes and one of the complication of the disease that foot infections are often incurable by antibiotics due to poor blood circulation (and blood is the delivery mechanism for delivering antibiotics to the infected area). So, it was quite interesting to note that this therapy, albeit hard to get at this time outside Georgia), addresses that scenario.

That said, I am taking the thread in a different direction than the pro- / anti- antibiotics discussion, which seemed to be the original intent. From my perspective, there's no logic to being anti- antibiotics, though there is something to be said against poor and over use. In my experience, the over/incorrect usage problem is worse in India.