There is a lot of controversy about antibiotics because of the studies that have shown health consequences from consuming them (whether it’s regularly or over a short period of time). While part of me knows that these studies hold true and there are definitely risks to taking antibiotics, such as developing antibiotic resistant bacterial strains and compromising your gut microbiome, another part of me completely worships the ground that antibiotics walks on. They are so successful in treating bacterial infections and even preventing them from happening when a patient is especially susceptible to contracting one. I think when antibiotics are taken as directed for no longer than 2 weeks, they can be successful in their treatment. And personally, depending on the severity of the case and what exactly the infection is of course, taking a good over the counter probiotic or eating a lot of yogurt and fermented goodies can significantly help the “good” bacteria that your body hosts that are also being killed off by the antibiotics.
I’ve had my fair share of times when I’ve needed to take antibiotics, and each time they have helped my condition so tremendously that I can’t imagine my body treating itself without them and having a successful recovery. I’ve had multiple UTIs, sinus infections, and ear infections in my lifetime. This is probably too much personal information, but I am extremely susceptible to UTIs and have had to take antibiotics for them so often that I actually developed a sulfa-drug resistance and had to switch antibiotics halfway through treatment because it wasn’t working anymore. To me, it’s crazy how quickly these buggers can adapt for survivability. I’ve always wondered, what happens when I run through the next course of antibiotics for some kind of infection and by the end of my life, the bacteria in my body are resistant to everything the doctors try to treat me with? Is that even possible? Antibiotic resistant bacteria are honestly one of the most terrifying things on the planet so I hope that as a society we are able to either continue developing drugs to combat them or find a way to get less infections so that they can’t develop resistance when we do have to treat them.
