Antibiotics were a great discovery, and have been used
to treat infections since the 1930s. Penicillin
was discovered in 1928, and has been used since that time, originally referred
to as a miracle drug. The fact is, as
far back as Egyptian times, molded bread was used to treat wounds on skin, even
at that time, they were on the correct road.
When antibiotics were actually discovered and produced
as a pharmaceutical product, people thought this would be a cure-all for
everything. Some people were simply
taking a daily dose to remain healthy.
Antibiotics were certainly a great discovery, but has a good thing gone
too far?
Decades of Antibiotics
During the 50’s and 60’s in particular, if a person had
a runny nose or even a stomach ache, they would be prescribed that miracle
wonder drug, penicillin. It was
considered a miracle cure, and utilized by physicians everywhere.
Now here we are decades later, and unfortunately that
over-prescribing of antibiotics, has made them much less effective on today’s
infections, and we as a population have developed super-bugs.
What Antibiotics Will Work On
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Pneumonia- this can be a very serious disease. The important thing to remember is that there
is more than one than one type of pneumonia.
Usually referred to as bacterial pneumonia, or viral, although many
refer to viral pneumonia as walking pneumonia. That idea originated from the concept that
most people with the viral pneumonia were not terribly sick, and could continue
on working and walking. While antibiotics
can work wonders for bacterial pneumonia, the viral form of this disease must
play itself out. For many people over
the years, and even today, that is difficult to accept. Some patients will still insist on an
antibiotic to treat an illness that is viral based.
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Strep Throat, yes, an antibiotic will treat
strep throat. Prior to the invention of
antibiotics, patients often passed away from severe cases of throat infections,
that would turn into scarlet fever.
-
Infections from wounds are treated with
antibiotics, most often successfully without incident
When Antibiotics Will Not Work
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Cold virus- If we only had a nickel for
every time a patient wanted an antibiotic to treat a cold, we would be
rich. An antibiotic on top of a cold can
most likely accomplish one thing and that is to cause stomach upset. Most people rarely feel like eating when they
have a bad cold, so if you put antibiotics in an empty stomach, you get stomach
upset. What you won’t get is a cure for
the cold, it’s viral and an antibiotic won’t help.
-
Most stomach issues- there are some
exceptions here, an infection or an ulcer could benefit from an antibiotic,
however odds are that the occasional stomach upset is viral, and antibiotics
will not be of any benefit.
The Problem with Antibiotics
Just as the human population climbed the evolution
scale, bacteria do the same. That means
that when someone has an infection, and they take half of their prescribed
antibiotics, it kills approximately half of the bacteria causing the infection. The other bacteria adjust to the antibiotic,
and lives. So, when the illness returns,
and the same antibiotic is prescribed, it can be rendered useless, the bacteria
is unaffected. Patients should be warned
of this scenario, and encouraged to always take all prescribed medications in
their entirety.
When a patient comes in requesting an antibiotic,
statistically speaking, there is less than a 15% chance they actually need the antibiotic. The word antibiotic has a healing stigma
attached to it, and at times it is deserved, however at other times it could
not be more wrong. Perhaps there is
literature on hand to offer the patient regarding the over-use
of antibiotics, many times they simply need to be educated to understand why penicillin
is not a magic cure-all.
Antibiotics can be great, and they save lives. The trick is learning when they are
appropriate to use, and never to use them otherwise.
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