Using antibiotics only when necessary
Many patients, especially those that have a few years under their belts, remember when the doctor would prescribe medications without reservation. Because of this past practice, many patients still expect the doctor prescription saga to continue as it used to unabated for whatever ails them, from stomach problems to ear and other infections, there seemed to be a cure all potent antibiotic for most any ailment, but things have changed.
Most any patient can immediately recognize the changes that a doctor must follow before medications are prescribed. They must follow a long drawn out process of determining if antibiotics are necessary and these stark realities leave many older patients questioning why the sudden change in policy and the reasons behind them. They continue to reason that the antibiotic should be in their possession, just in case.
The answer to this is emphatically yes. While taking an antibiotic most likely won’t make your illness any worse it can have a significant affect on how well these antibiotics will work for you down the road and if something more life threatening then a cold or stomach virus heads your way you will want to make sure that those antibiotics will help you stay alive.
For anyone who thinks that there no dangerous situations to be concerned with, consider the possibility of a biological weapon being used against American citizens containing chemical compounds and diseases that have no known cure. In such an event, the medical community understand that for many people, antibiotics might be the difference between life and death. This is just one of the reasons why measures are being taken to significantly cut back on the number of antibiotics being prescribed to the public each year and these reasons and fears are very valid.
Allowing your body’s own immune system to fight off illness without antibiotics not only allows these medications to work better for you when you do take them but also allows the body to build up more natural immunity as well. And while you may find it a bit of a hassle to make visits to a doctor that isn’t dispensing you antibiotics regularly if the world is hit by something catastrophic you will be extremely grateful that your doctor used those medications so sparingly. In the long run it is really to your benefit to take only a few antibiotics when they are absolutely necessary.
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