Why is taking an antibiotic bad when unneeded?

Question

Does it do any harm to me or does it just make the strain of bacteria stronger?

Is it better for me to just go a few weeks being sick?

Answer 1

OK, here's the deal. Antibiotics don't cause mutations and your body doesn't become immune to them. What does happen is that any bacteria in your system may pick up a gene that confers resistance to that antibiotic (that other guy is wrong, you don't "teach" them resistance, they pick them up either by a random mutation or a plasmid transferred to them from a resistant bacteria that contains a gene for resistance), and when you take the antibiotic, you are killing off all of the susceptible bacteria, leaving only the resistant ones to thrive. Most infections will be cleared normally by your immune system. Also, and don't be offended by the caps, but it is an important point : ANTIBIOTICS DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FOR VIRAL INFECTIONS!!! stop asking for them when you have a cold.
Another problem is that your GI tract has normal symbiotic bacteria, and you kill them off, leaving a nice place for pathogenic bacteria to thrive. This is the most common cause of C. Difficile infections, which unless you really like nasty diarrhea, you might want to avoid.

Answer 2

It doesn't necessarily harm you... at least not directly. What happens is, if you take antibiotics that you aren't supposed to be taking or when you're not supposed to take them, two things can happen. One, you can get an immunity to them, in which case, if you need them, they won't help, and you'll have to pray there is another antibiotic out there that will be effective. Two, the bacteria can actually build up resistance to them, which could make it so you need to take a stronger dose or different antibiotic altogether to treat the illness. And some strains of bacteria are becoming resistant to multiple antibiotics, and then we really get screwed because that means that sometimes you can't get an antibiotic that will be effective.

So if you were to get one of these, then yes, it could end up harming you down the line. It also can harm others if they pick up a resistant strain.

Answer 3

Basically, you are teaching the non pathogen bacteria that are in your body how to resist the antibiotic, they will build a resistance. Later, when a pathogen comes around, the harmless but antibiotic resistant bacteria could share DNA with the pathogen, which will then acquire the immunity.

Take it as doing the same thing as arresting innocent people for nothing; you will drive them mad, and pretty soon, they would do crime as well; hey what's the point if obeying the lay, if you are arrested no matter what you did or did not do, right?

Antibiotics are for where you *really* are sick. Too many people ask for antibiotic even when they have a virus, antibiotic cannot protect against virus, only bacteria.

Answer 4

Hi,

antibiotics are unlikely to do you harm, but it is known that high use of them, especially when there is no infection for them to fight will inure your body's bacteriological resistance to the antibiotic.

In short when you DO need an antibiotic to fight a particular infection the strain of bacteria causing the infection may have developed a resistance to the antibiotic. Hence that antibiotic will not help you.

In the same way any course of antibiotics should ALWAYS be completed, even after the infection has apparently gone because, if not totally eradicated, the next generation of bacterial infection will develop a strong resistance to the antibiotic, just like you, when you have an immunisation shot.

Hope that helps,

BobSpain

Answer 5

It won't hurt you but if you do have an infection and you don't take a strong enough dose or if you don't take the whole course of antibiotics (usually 10-14 days) then the bacteria will build an immunity to that antibiotic, which makes it stronger and harder to fight off.
Your doc will prescribe you the right amount of antibiotics so its not something you should be to concerned about.

Answer 6

EEK! Your body does not build up an immunity to an antibiotic, only the bugs in your body do. Single antibiotic resistance is usually not a huge problem, but you do not know that the bugs you have are not already resistant to something...

When you take an antibiotic it can unbalance the bugs that live in your gut that help digest your food and extract or even make nutrients for you. That is why diarrhea is a side effect of antibiotics. If your bugs get especially upset, you can do some lasting damage to your intestinal lining.

When you take an antibiotic it can unbalance the bacteria that live on your skin in harmony, and cause a few to get a foothold that will be uncomfortable later (like fungus). Also most people harbor things like staph on their skin, which are no harm to your intact skin, but can make a nasty infection in a wound. If you get wounded it is best not to have taught those bugs antibiotic resistance. This is how the 'Golden Staph Aureus' thing has become a problen, and the flesh-eating strep infections that were in the news a few years back: People treated with antibiotics for other things taught those bugs how to live with all the antibiotics we have on hand. These bugs may never bother *you*, but you can go forth and share them with the elderly, very young and/or fragile people you love.

Similar problem with bugs in your lungs and throat, you may never be bothered, but you can go forth and share resistant germs and kill people. TB is one of those that has gotten bad enough to be an emerging public health problem: People did not take the drugs as they should have, or took some without knowing they had TB at the time, and have created a monster to share with us all.

Antibiotics unbalance the bug population in your vagina also (if you have one!) This causes all sorts of discomfort, and sometime requires treatment to get rid of. You can even share this lovely fungus with your partner and watch him scratch and claw for awhile. Lesions from vaginal irritation will make you more suseptible to other nastier infections.

Antibiotics do in fact directly harm you. Anti-Biotic *means* anti-life. You are just in so much better a multi-cellular position to resist antibiotics that it pays you to kill off the one celled invaders. Most people find that they experience fatigue when taking antibiotics. They are minimally poisoning themselves. Weirdly, the most autonomous cells in your body are immune cells, so you are actually knocking back your own natural resistance to bugs.

If you don't need them for something, don't take them. If you do need them, take them properly. Protect yourself and the people you love.

Answer 7

Antibiotic is bad because it will make the bacteria stronger
in your body depending on what type of antibiotic it was so the next time you get sick that antibiotic might not work and it also kills the normal flora in your body (good bacteria),so taking it without being sick is not good.

Answer 8

Antibiotics start to kill the weakest bacteria first. The stronger ones survive and multiply making more stronger ones. That is why directions on antibiotic bottles state you should take the entire prescription; i.e. so it gets them all (or as many as possible).

It should not harm you except for killing some beneficial bacteria along with the disease bacteria.

Answer 9

Go see a GP rather than the emergency room, you're just clogging up an already clogged system with something that isn't an emergency. Let the Penicillin kick in it's only been a day or two. Yellow mucus isn't normally something to worry about, it sounds more like a bad cold with strep than anything. As far as I'm concerned 99.4 isn't too bad, also your throat will feel worse in the morning because you've been breathing through it all night without drinking. Drink lots of water and make sure to take your pills, see a GP monday or tuesday if it's still bad.

Answer 10

There is a competition in your body for resources, and bacteria compete with each other. If you wipe out the ones that are not resistant to antibiotics then the ones that are resistant will take over and multiply even more. Also antibiotics are poisons so you will suffer damage, after taking them, the resistant ones will be left with a weakened body to infect.

Also over large populations of people and animals this compounds and creates the conditions for very resistant strains to develop over time.