I was sitting in SC200 the other day when Andrew brought up one of his recent research topics , and it peaked my interest.The basis of his research was patients should not have to continue antibiotics after feeling better. My question is why do doctors highly recommend that we do the exact opposite which, is take these antibiotics for weeks on end, what is the reasoning behind this?

Before I even get into all the deep stuff, let me first tell you what antibiotics are. Ok, so, antibiotics , or antibacterials (whichever you prefer): are  types of medicine that either eliminate bacteria or hinder the growth of bacteria. They are used to treat infections caused by bacteria. Bacteria are microscopic organisms. There are good and bad bacteria , bad bacteria are what causes illnesses. When antibiotics are prescribed it clears out, and/or slows the growth of both good and bad bacteria.

Now, that you know the key terms, you should also know that there are at least three different views on the prolonged used of antibiotics, and in this first blog I am going to cover the first view, which is taking ALL of the prescribed antibiotics is necessary. Most scientist , and doctors believe that  “failure” to take all antibiotics can cause drug resistance , which is a public health problem that is increasing. To understand this concept you have to first understand how antibiotics work. Their purpose is to fight “disease-causing” organisms that enter your body when you are ill, but the problem is antibiotics do not instantly kill all the organisms in your body, it only kills some of them. The “additional dosage” of antibiotics wipes your body clean of good/bad organisms. The problem that most scientist think you will encounter if you cease antibiotics after you feel better , is leaving your body at risk for a serious relapse. This is bad because since you didn’t finish all of the antibiotics, the bacteria that was left behind in your system has grown a resistance against the first round of antibiotics, the reason that there are some bacterias that get left behind is relatively simple. Different bacteria responds in different ways, even if they are within the “same population”. There is a range of tolerance within the bacteria population in your body when you are ill. It ranges from low tolerance to high tolerance. So the doctors beliefs goes as follows: prolonging the length of time in which a patient takes an antibiotic can decrease the chance of any of these stubborn bacterias being left behind and growing a resistance against the first drug. The bacteria would also begin to reproduce and grow at faster rate with this new resilience to the drug. Stopping this process would lead to a patient having to be prescribed another round of a different/stronger antibiotic.  However , if the bacteria gets to the point where it “overwhelms” our immune system and becomes completely resistant to antibiotics, this could mean big problems for Doctors, because there is only but so many antibiotics that they can prescribed, before they run out of drugs.

I don’t know about you , but all of this sounds really scary for a person like me (hypochondriac). However, after looking through numerous articles I am starting to believe that maybe the common belief of “taking all of the prescribed antibiotics” is all based on assumption… There’s actually no research that shows me ,through patients, the actual benefits of taking ALL my antibiotics. It’s kind of like well… you should take it just in case ya know…

  this view is basically a don’t ask just follow.. in my opinion.