It happens to all of us. You get a cold, you feel terrible, and you rush to your doctor's office expecting a prescription's going to make us feel better. That puts doctors in a terrible position because colds should not be treated with antibiotics. They are viral infections, and antibiotics only treat bacteria. Antibiotics are not a "magic pill" that bolsters your immune system to fight off any invader. Yet, many doctors will just give into a patient's request for a presciption and write a presciption for antibiotics even when it is not warranted.
Most people vaguely lump viruses and bacteria together in their minds. Let's take a closer look at the microscopic world.
Viruses: are tiny geometric structures that can only reproduce inside a living cell. They range in size from 20 to 250 nanometers. Outside of a living cell, a virus is dormant, but once inside; it takes over the resources of the host cell and begins the production of more virus particles. Viruses are more similar to mechanized robots then they are to animal life.
Bacteria: are one-celled living organisms. The average bacterium is 1,000 nanometers long. All bacteria are surrounded by a cell wall. They can reproduce independently, and inhabit virtually every enviroment on earth, including soil, water, hot springs, ice packs, and the bodies of plants and animals.
Most bacteria are harmless to humans. In fact, many bacteria are quite beneficial. The bacteria in the enviroment are essential for the breakdown of organic waste and the recycling of elements in the biosphere. Bacteria that normally live in humans can prevent infections and produce substances we need, such as Vitamin K. However, some bacteria cause infections in humans.
Colds are caused by viruses, not bacteria. There are over 200 different species of virus causing the common cold and none of them are controlled by the use of Anitbiotics.
In fact antibiotics can actually make colds worse. By indiscriminately killing the beneficial bacteria, an enviroment more hospitable to the cold virus is created allowing for it to reproduce more quickly and making a cold become worse and last longer than needed. Antibiotics are designed to kill a bacteria cell by disrupting it's cellular wall. Viruses do not have a cellular wall, therefore Antibiotics are useless for destroying viruses.
To make matters worse, all antibiotics have side effects. All antibiotics harm beneficial bacteria, and can cause diarrhea, yeast infections, and bacterial super-infections. Even something as "mild" as amoxicillin has been known to cause bone marrow toxicity, seizures, acute interstitial nephritis, neuromuscular sensitivity, nausea, vomiting, urticarial rashes, pseudomembranous colitis, and even death.
If the one billion colds in the U.S. this year were 'treated' with antibiotics, billions of dollars would be spent, at least 100 million people would suffer from side effects, some would even die, and ZERO people would have their cold end quicker or even have milder symptoms.
Steven Goldberg, MD, ER physician, Excellus BlueCross Blue Shield, when asked how often medical doctors are prescribing antibiotics for colds, he states: "Doctors write for antibiotics over 40 percent of the time when someone come to them with a cold."
This trend for prescribing antibiotics for colds is unsafe: States Dr. Goldberg: "The first reason it is unsafe is resistance. If you take antibiotics when you don't need them, you make it more likely that you're going to get a serious bacterial infection. The second reason is the side effects."
Even properly prescribed antibiotics can cause resistant bacteria to grow inside you and increase your odds that any infection will be hard or even impossible to beat.
New studies are finding that antibiotics should not be given for most cases of bronchitis and even child's ear infections.
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