Bacteria vs the Virus.. Battle begins! 7/31

garlic7girl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/sore-throat-is-rarely-a-reason-to-ask-your-doctor-for-antibiotics/2013/03/18/6103189a-3804-11e2-b01f-5f55b193f58f_story.html?wpisrc=nl_health

I am putting up this article to challenge my commrades to rething all of your health...beleive it or not we are all obsessed with exercise and losing weight but there is soooooo much more to health! I challenge you to not give in to just whatever your doctor hands you to take for medication or a procedure. ASK QUESTIONS!!!!!!! Is this necessary and how will it benefit me? what are side effects or outcomes? Will my insurance pay for this? Just as picky as you are about food be that way about decisions you and your doctor make about YOUR body!

I had a coworker a fellow nurse this past week go to the doctor for a cough. The doctor handed her antibiotic. She asked if she had an infection. Doctor told her no but just take for the heck of it. I WAS SHOCKED and she still took it! So, just because we have knowledge means nothing unless we put it into action. I have declined antibiotics before and will do again unless it is absolutely necessary!!!
Take charge of your health!

WW

aakaakaak

About once a year for my annual checkup is my frequency of visiting my doctor. If I'm sick I'll just take a shot of nyquil or whatever I need. It tends to cure my ills, and the annual checkups all come back fine. Kind of hard to get prescribed antibiotics when you don't visit the doctor. (It's not that I won't go if I need to, but I just don't need to.)

WarriorCupcakeBlydnsr

I had a coworker a fellow nurse this past week go to the doctor for a cough. The doctor handed her antibiotic. She asked if she had an infection. Doctor told her no but just take for the heck of it. I WAS SHOCKED and she still took it! So, just because we have knowledge means nothing unless we put it into action. I have declined antibiotics before and will do again unless it is absolutely necessary!!!
Take charge of your health!

WW

NO! NO NO NO NOOOOO!!!!!! {facepalm... commences banging head on desk} This doctor is why we have "superbugs" and my job is 10 times harder. Viruses are not killed by anitibiotics (as you know) microbes are killed by antibiotics.... if they are the right type of antibiotic.
{Gets on soapbox, dons Public Health Laboratory Rat hat, takes off double gloves} When you have an infection, doc will give you antibiotics, if he/she has not already taken a culture to send to the lab, make sure he/she does. Doctors tend to give broadspectrum antibiotics for everything, they often have their favorite type they like to use.... not all antibiotics work on all microbial infections... thus the lab has culture tests that will identify the microorganism AND test it for it's sensitivity to a large panel of antibiotics so they can let the doctor know whether or not the antibiotic they gave you will work, if not the doctor needs to put you on a different antibiotic.
Now, antibiotics discriminate in three ways: " broad spectrum" kills all, gram positive antibiotics kill only gram positive organisms, and gram negative antibiotics kill only gram negatives....they do not discriminate whether the organism is your normal flora or not. Generally, an infection is when either a normal flora gets into a place that is not normal for it and grows gangbusters (this is why people get staph infections in cuts and why people generally get a uti when the e coli from the intestinal system gets in the unrinary system) So when you take antibiotics, the microorganisms begin survival of the fittest... guess which ones die off first.... that's right, your normal everyday flora that exists in your body, so then the ones that caused the infection can overgrow your system and put your flora in an imbalance (this is why it is recommended that you take probiotics or eat yogurt when you take antibiotics, they contain normal flora for your system so you can rebuild as the antibiotics kill off your normal flora and towards the end of your course of antibiotics the bad bugs, if you will, thus, even if you are feeling better after a few days you still need to finish the entire course of antibiotics: it takes the entire course of antibiotics to kill off the bad bugs because they tend to be more resistant than your normal flora and if you let the resistant ones live, they become super bugs after a few cycles

So, to recap: no antibiotics if it's not bacterial, make sure doc does a culture and sensitivity to make sure it's the right antibiotic for the bug that ails you, and take all your antibiotics for your bacterial infection so you can prevent the bad bugs from becoming superbugs.
{takes off Public Health Laboratory Rat hat, steps off soapbox, puts on fresh set of double gloves and flees back to the laboratory bench to test more samples}

CarolynB38

I try to avoid the antibiotics but my daughter is just getting over such a bad case of tonsillitis that she's had to have a second course :frown: Our doctors are very good at not prescribing and I have been sent away before when one of the children has needed them (and consequently ended up in A&E!). I don't know if things are different in the UK or what but it can be like pulling teeth to get antibiotics over here when you really need them sometimes