It’s Cold and Flu season! Everyone you know is coughing up their lungs. Your office has run out of hand-sanitizer and Kleenex; and it’s likely you’re doing everything you can to protect yourself from the sniffles. It’s a great time of year to review some important health facts. First in this mini-series is a discussion about antibiotics!
Let’s start with the basics. There is a big difference between bacteria and a virus. The most obvious one: bacteria are living organisms, viruses are protein coated pieces of nucleic acid code that use your cells to replicate themselves. Translate that to English, Maggie? Bacteria are single cell organisms- they are alive! Viruses are not alive, they can’t survive outside of your cells. They invade your body and use the cells in your body to replicate themselves.
Colds and the flu are caused by viruses. Sinus infections, ear infections, and strep are caused by bacteria. Thus, antibiotics will not fix your cold or flu because they kill bacteria but don’t affect viruses. But taking antibiotics for a cold or flu might actually come with harmful side effects.
People are throwing around that term- antibiotic resistance. What does it mean? First of all, you as a person do not become antibiotic resistant. The antibiotics aren’t designed to attack you, their purpose is to kill bacteria in your body. So where is the resistance coming from? The bacteria themselves! Bacteria are evolving and developing resistance to antibiotics. The little buggers are learning new survival methods which are causing problems for us humans who would like them to vacate our bodies.
What can we do to help? As a society, we tend to overuse antibiotics. This is causing a serious health threat. When we use antibiotics, the sensitive bugs are killed off, but the ones that are resistant can continue to multiply (survival of the fittest). If we keep going this way, only the antibiotic resistant bacteria will be left! The only way to slow the progression toward complete resistance to antibiotics is to decrease our usage.
Here’s another problem with overusing antibiotics: they don’t just kill the bacteria that are making you cough up green stuff. They kill ALL the bacteria in your body! Did you know that you have good bacteria in your intestines? 300-500 types of good bacteria live in your gut and help with digestion. They affect everything from mood to metabolism and are an important part of your immune system. When you take antibiotics, you are also messing with the balance of the good bacteria in your system. If they are destroyed, they leave a competition-free area for other things to grow. What can you get instead? One of the most common results of an antibiotic run is a yeast infection in women. When the good bacteria go away, there is nothing to keep yeast from increasing its presence like crazy.
Another serious side effect of taking too many antibiotics is a Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) infection. It’s a dangerous bacteria that can invade your body when good bacteria is gone. C. diff causes life-threatening diarrhea. The infection can also cause fever chills, lack of appetite, stomach pain, and dehydration. It is incredibly contagious, and very hard to get rid of. The best defense is a good offense. When taking an antibiotic, be sure to counter with a good probiotic pill. This will re-introduce good bacteria into your gut. Take it several hours after or before your next dose of antibiotics for best results. Yogurt is also a great source of probiotics.
Here are some helpful tips for taking antibiotics properly:
- Only use antibiotics when they are prescribed to you by a physician.
- Take as prescribed- don’t skip doses, and don’t stop taking them because you feel better. The full treatment is likely necessary to kill off all the bacteria. Stopping early could promote antibiotic resistance and send you back to the doctor for another run later.
- Doctor knows best! Don’t pressure them into giving you something you don’t need.
- Never take leftover antibiotics to treat something at a later date. They wouldn’t be the full run you need, and might not be the correct antibiotic for the job, which would cause more harm than good.
- Ask your doctor if there are immunizations (vaccinations) you can get to prevent serious diseases instead of needing antibiotics when you catch them later. Ex. Pertussis (whooping cough).
- Practice good hygiene to prevent getting sick in the first place.
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