Although antibiotics have been saving the human race ever since the discovery of Penicillin, there is a rising worry that the overuse of them may lead to a serious problem on a global scale. There has also been a huge rise in the number of people looking for Stevens-Johnson syndrome attorneys.
Are antibiotics starting to cause more harm than good?
Antibiotics treat diseases that are caused by bacteria. They do this by killing the living organisms that are in the bacteria that make people ill. They stop them from growing, which stops the disease from spreading or getting more serious. Viruses, the other thing that can make you ill, are not alive. They are particles that contain a coat of genetic material. They are not affected by antibiotics because they are not made up of bacteria and they are not technically alive. Over the years, the massive success rates for curing bacterial diseases with antibiotics has lead to them being prescribed in vast quantities around the world. Doctors will prescribe you antibiotics if they think you are ill, even if they aren’t sure if it is bacterial or viral yet. Another reason is that people have become reliant on antibiotics because so many people are uneducated in how they work; they will go to the doctors with a viral throat infection and demand antibiotics. Taking antibiotics regularly when they are not needed can change your inner microbiome. Your microbiome is the carefully regulated bacteria found in your body. When you take too many antibiotics, your microbiome starts to adapt; after it has adapted it becomes resistant to the antibiotics. This means that when you genuinely need them, those antibiotics will be less effective. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the biggest organization of its type in the world, lists antibiotic resistance as one of the world’s most worrying health problem risks.
How should I take antibiotics safely?
Antibiotics are an extremely effective medicine to treat bacterial illnesses. The problems only start to arise when we use them unnecessarily. Follow these tips if you are unsure.
- Only use antibiotics for bacterial infections, if you have a milder illness, like a cold, or mild cough. Try and let them run their course without using antibiotics. Ask your doctor’s opinion if you have any doubts.
- Your doctor should be able to tell you if your child has a virus or a bacterial infection.
- If you are suffering from nasty symptoms like sore throats or a blocked nose, try and treat these with non-prescription methods. Use nose spray and cough sweets.
- Do not use old antibiotics left from a previous prescription to self-medicate when you get a new illness.
- Never give someone antibiotics that were prescribed to you.
The world needs to wake up and stop the mass abuse of antibiotics. We are ruining our own natural defenses and in turn, creating illnesses that are resistant to antibiotics. If this continues, we could see a mass extinction – all it would take is for one illness to become super resistant to antibiotics, and we could all die. So next time you have a cold, grab the cough sweets, not the prescriptions.
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