Risks in antibiotics sometimes outweigh the benefit

Over the last 50 years, patients with almost any kind of complaint demanded antibiotics from their doctors, and the doctors often prescribed them.

Today, medical experts say that in many cases, other courses of treatment would be better for several reasons.

• Antibiotics cause diarrhea up to 25 percent of the time.
• One in every thousand patients is found to be allergic and ends up in the emergency room. Others don’t report less serious allergies that just cause a rash.
• Antibiotics very seldom help patients avoid a serious complication.
• They do nothing to relieve symptoms or pain.
• They kill off many microbes in the gut that protect against disease-causing invaders.

Doctors at Harvard Medical School advise that antibiotics are useless for colds, the flu, most sore throats and the vast majority of bronchitis cases. These illnesses are caused by viruses. Antibiotics kill only bacteria.

Still, half of antibiotic prescriptions go to people with viral infections even though they won’t be helped.

Doctors say people want antibiotics, which may prevent some complications, and they do little harm.

At the Medical University of South Carolina, they say patients don’t want to hear about antibiotic risks. They just want to feel better. In many cases, antibiotics won’t help.

To avoid prescribing antibiotics, more doctors are prescribing pain relievers, inhaled drugs that work against cough, and medications containing steroids for several other complaints.

Be sure to ask doctors for antibiotic alternatives for your non-bacterial infections, and remember to pump up your immune system with vitamin C and other vitamins and minerals essential for good health.

Remember that asking for antibiotics may not be your best course of action – be open to listening to your provider. The antibiotic resistant MERSA is said to have been created through the over usage of antibiotics.

Child have an ear infection? Ask your doctor how bad it really is and discuss other options of treating it at home with homeopathic or natural methods.

Just don’t be so eager to toss back those little pills, be sure to weigh the  pros and cons with the right information and judgment.