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Antibiotics and colds: when they can hurt?
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Antibiotics and colds are almost always incompatible things. Many people, getting sick, think that antibiotics will help them cure in all cases. But this is far from the case. Since the discovery and use of antibiotics in 1941, people still have many misconceptions related to them. Let's solve these errors at least partially.
[What should you learn without fail for a cold?
If you get sick with a cold and run to the pharmacy for antibiotics, of course, you hope that with their help you will certainly feel better. But it can turn out exactly the opposite.
Antibiotics can be useful to you only for the treatment of bacterial infections. And, as practice shows, colds are caused mainly by viral infections, against which antibiotics do not work. Taking antibiotics unnecessarily, you can only aggravate the danger to your health and increase the risk of resistance of harmful microorganisms to antibiotics.
What is the role of antibiotics in the treatment of colds?
Most people vaguely imagine what viruses are, and what bacteria are. Therefore, they can not understand when you can take antibiotics for colds, and when not. Let's take a closer look at this information and make it clear.
What are viruses?
Viruses are tiny geometric structures that can only reproduce within a living cell. They vary in size from 20 to 250 nanometers (one nanometer is equal to one billionth of a meter). Outside the living cell, the virus is at rest, but when it gets inside, it takes over the resources of the host cell and begins to reproduce itself similar virus microorganisms. Then the organism is poisoned by toxins of viruses, and the person feels weakness, fatigue, has a bad appetite, not to mention pain in muscles and headaches.
What are bacteria?
Bacteria are unicellular living organisms. The average bacterium in size is 1000 nanometers. If the bacteria were the size of a human, a typical virus compared to it would look like a small mouse. And if the virus was the size of a human, the bacterium compared to it would have reached the size of a dinosaur - roughly like a ten-story building.
As you can see, bacteria and viruses are quite different in size. Another thing to know is that all bacteria are surrounded by a cell wall. They can reproduce independently, and inhabit almost all environments on Earth, including soil, water, hot springs, ice packs, even parts of plants and animal organs.
What is the difference between bacteria and viruses in colds?
Most bacteria are harmless to humans. Bacteria in the environment are necessary, for example, for the decomposition of organic waste and the utilization of particles in the biosphere. Bacteria that normally live in the human body, can prevent infections and produce substances such as vitamin K. Bacteria in the stomachs of cows and sheep, for example, allow them to digest grass. Bacteria are also important for the production of yoghurt, cheese and pickled cucumbers. However, some bacteria cause infection in humans. In other words, they are the causes of human diseases.
Antibiotics do not cure colds
Colds are mainly caused by viruses, not bacteria. It can be more than 200 different kinds of viruses, against which antibiotics are powerless. Antibiotics will not help with colds - they can even hurt you. For example, some people (about one in every 40,000) can respond to antibiotic treatment with an allergy that can be fatal. Taking antibiotics unnecessarily leads to the growth of several strains of bacteria resistant to antibiotics. For these and other reasons, it is important to use antibiotics only when they are needed.
Side Effects of Antibiotics
Even worse, antibiotics can cause side effects. They can destroy beneficial bacteria, and this can cause diarrhea, yeast infections and bacterial infection. Even such "soft" antibiotics as amoxicillin, as we know, when taken in the wrong doses and not in those cases can cause bone marrow toxicity , convulsions, acute interstitial nephritis, neuromuscular sensitivity, nausea, vomiting, urticaria with its eruptions, pseudomembranous colitis , thrombocytopenic purpura, anaphylactic shock and even death.
Antibiotics treat bacterial infections
Antibiotics necessary for the treatment of infections and diseases caused by bacteria are used to treat diseases such as bacterial bronchitis, pneumonia, sore throat, bacterial infection of the ear and redness of the eyes. When antibiotics are used correctly and according to the doctor's prescription, they can save people's lives.
Sometimes a bacterial infection can be accompanied by a cold virus. Signs that you can have a bacterial infection after a cold, will be pain in the face and eyes. These pains can be exacerbated when you cant, they can be supplemented by a cough with thick yellow or green mucus from the nose. These symptoms can occur just during a cold. But if they last more than a week or are difficult to tolerate, then you can have bacterial infections that require antibiotic treatment, in addition to the common cold.
But it is very important to know that only your doctor can prescribe antibiotics. So, talk to your doctor if you think you need antibiotics.
What is antibiotic resistance?
According to the CDC, resistance (resistance) to antibiotics is one of the most pressing global health problems. When bacteria are constantly attacked with antibiotics, for example, when you take antibiotics during colds or take them too often, microbes in the body undergo changes. This allows them to stop taking the antibiotic.
When this happens, your cold will be constantly delayed, there will be no signs of improvement. Or your illness can suddenly turn for the worse. Perhaps, for colds, you even have to seek emergency medical care or go to the hospital, where by means of a dropper you will be given the medications your body still perceives.
Treat antibiotics responsibly
Here are three things you need to remember when you are going to take antibiotics.
- Listen to your doctor. Before appointing you for treatment, the doctor must determine which infection has become the cause of your illness: bacterial or viral. He will prescribe antibiotics only if necessary.
- Use antibiotics in the prescribed manner. Take all the medications prescribed for your illness, at that time and in the mode as indicated by your doctor. If you stop taking the pill before you finish the treatment, you can get sick again.
- Do not use medicines just because they are antibiotics. Do not be guided by the principle that if it helps someone, it will help you. All antibiotics are different, this is not the same thing. When you need a certain medicine, consult your doctor.
Antibiotics and colds, as you already understood, can be partners only if you are attacked by a bacterial, not a viral infection. Armed with this knowledge and do not self-medicate.
Attention!
To simplify the perception of information, this instruction for use of the drug "Antibiotics and colds: when they can hurt?" translated and presented in a special form on the basis of the official instructions for medical use of the drug. Before use read the annotation that came directly to medicines.
Description provided for informational purposes and is not a guide to self-healing. The need for this drug, the purpose of the treatment regimen, methods and dose of the drug is determined solely by the attending physician. Self-medication is dangerous for your health.