# 'Antibiotics', the cure-all? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 18, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antibiotics-the-cure-all/510641 "2009-09-18T20:44:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antibiotics-the-cure-all/510641/41 "2009-09-21T15:46:44Z")
> [@](#): > > MRSA of incredible resilience is also found in hospitals and locker rooms… because these areas are disinfected with bleach and other oxidizers. This has nothing to do with bleach. The MR is MRSA stands for Methicillin Resistant. Methicillin and other members of the penicillin class do nothing for MRSA. Its not bleach resistant, its because of antibiotics abuse. Also, athletes get it because of skin to skin contact of sports and close quarter activities like traveling on a bus/hotel together or sharing towels. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antibiotics-the-cure-all/510641/42 "2009-09-21T17:59:49Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > This is my point exactly. Most docs hand out antibiotics like they are candy anyways. A hundred for the doctor’s visit, and they usually prescribe the latest and greatest $50 antibiotics, so for an uninsured person, you are out $150. Which, if you had a decent job and could afford $150, you would have insurance. It’s a double whammy. > > Everyone else can go ahead and keep being the good little sheep of the medical establishment and pay your doctor for doing nothing, or let your insurance pay your doctor for doing nothing. That is one of the things that keep driving up health care costs. One contributing cause to driving up health costs are people like YOU, **jtgain**. By your actions, you are helping to breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria, leading to more involved and expensive courses of treatment. And to state that “Most docs hand out antibiotics like they are candy anyways” is a blatant falsehood. In the past, physicians were indeed more likely to cave in to a patient’s demands and prescribe possibly unneeded antibiotics, or to prescribe them prophylactically (i.e preventatively). These practices have all but ended. Physicians today are far less likely to prescribe an antibiotic unless the need for such is clearly indicated. If physicians do prescribe more expensive antibiotics, it is because past overuse has made the old standbys (like penicillin) less effective. Your actions continue this trend. > [@jtgain](#): > > When I get a script for antibiotics it usually comes with one refill. The original problem is cured before I used the first bottle completely. Yeah, right. :rolleyes: For simple, acute infections, I have NEVER seen antibiotics prescribed with a refill. Not only that, but I have always been emphatically instructed to finish the whole course of treatment. The only way to legitimately end up with leftover antibiotics is if you have an infection that does not respond to a particular antibiotic, and your doctor switches you to another. And what helps create antibiotic-resistant infection? Idiots who think that “their problem is cured” before they finished the full course of treatment. I can hardly express how angry such behavior makes me. IMHO, it is selfish at a minimum, and for someone who blithely states their intent to continue such behavior even after being informed of the harm it causes, it borders on the sociopathic. You might also consider the fact that not only does the abuse of antibiotics hurt all of us, it hurts you, too. The most likely people to first contract antibiotic-resistant infections are the people breeding them in the first place. That is, people like you. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antibiotics-the-cure-all/510641/43 "2009-09-21T18:57:05Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > Do you think that the average doctor does this complex calculation to get the right mix of “poison” that will cure you? Of course not. They see a swollen throat, and try a regimen of antibiotics first to see if it goes away. > > I’m not waiting in a doctor’s office when I’m sick for him to do what I know to do. > I don’t call a plumber when I can fix the leaky faucet by myself. > > And if I am a fool for doing this, what of 90% of the doctors who hand them out like chiclets? Why should I pay 80 bucks for an office visit when he is doing the same thing I am? You are being foolish because you don’t have the training to know which color “chiclet” is appropriate for your illness. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antibiotics-the-cure-all/510641/44 "2009-09-21T19:46:03Z")
The CDC’s webpage on antibiotic misuse has lots of good info on what antibiotics are and aren’t good for: [http://www.cdc.gov/getsmart/](http://www.cdc.gov/getsmart/) And **jtgain** ’s description of how he uses antibiotics makes me recoil in horror. Any doctor that prescribes the way he reports as typical is not fit to practice, only to disimpact obstipated howler monkeys bare-handed. And any patient who uses that approach to their health care risks consequences as dire as being disimpacted by a howler monkey. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antibiotics-the-cure-all/510641/45 "2009-09-21T20:34:45Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > I’ve never seen any evidence of a bacterial strain developing resistance to bleach. I’d be very interested to see such a report. I guess it must be possible - in any ordinary cleaning regime there will be areas only exposed to low concentrations of the cleaning chemicals - and there must be a threshold exposure dosage below which even chemicals like bleach are not immediately fatal to bacteria. Not (as others have noted) that this would breed MRSA, but It should be at least conceivably possible for variously bleach-tolerant strains of bacteria to evolve. ---
**Author:** ![Vihaga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Vihaga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vihaga)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antibiotics-the-cure-all/510641/46 "2009-09-21T20:47:33Z")
I view people who abuse antibiotics similarly to the way I view anti-vaxxers: morons who make things worse for the weakest members of our society (the old, the very young, and the infirm) for their own short-sighted convenience or unwillingness to consult medical professionals appropriately. The anti-vaxxers are making herd immunity weaker, and antibiotic poppers are making the infectious agents stronger, but the result is the same. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antibiotics-the-cure-all/510641/47 "2009-09-21T20:55:45Z")
\>but It should be at least conceivably possible for variously bleach-tolerant strains of bacteria to evolve. Bleach essentially cooks them. I would be surprised if its possible to even build an immunity to this. Germs cannot have an immunity to a lot of things. Some chemicals just destroy the cell walls. No immunity there either. [http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4AC68720081113](http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4AC68720081113) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antibiotics-the-cure-all/510641/48 "2009-09-22T00:13:28Z")
> [@HorseloverFat](#): > > \>but It should be at least conceivably possible for variously bleach-tolerant strains of bacteria to evolve. > > Bleach essentially cooks them. I would be surprised if its possible to even build an immunity to this. Germs cannot have an immunity to a lot of things. Some chemicals just destroy the cell walls. No immunity there either. > > [http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4AC68720081113](http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4AC68720081113) Understood, however, resistance (I’m not talking about 100% resistance to high concentrations) could possibly arise in the form of thickened or toughened cell membranes, or by going into spore as a response to exposure, or something like that. According to my Google search results, there are apparently such things as bleach-resistant bacteria anyway - what can happen once, for whatever reason, can happen more than once. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antibiotics-the-cure-all/510641/49 "2009-09-22T06:25:41Z")
> [@](#): > > The only way to legitimately end up with leftover antibiotics is if you have an infection that does not respond to a particular antibiotic, and your doctor switches you to another. Well, there’s one other legitimate way…if the patient develops an allergy to that particular antibiotic. I’ve developed allergies to antibiotics that I could previously take. I’ve done this five times. I always promptly stop taking the antibiotic and inform my doctor the next day. I then get a prescription for a new antibiotic. But I will never take the rest of the antibiotics that I’m allergic to. > [@](#): > > Most docs hand out antibiotics like they are candy anyways. Not in my experience. Of course, I’m a rather informed patient, and I ask things like “Do you think that this is a bacterial infection, a virus, yeast, what?” and “Will it get better without medicine?” In return, my doctor says “Hmmm, that yeast infection on your skin isn’t clearing up with Nystatin? Let’s try a different anti-yeast medicine, then. You can buy this stuff (showing me the generic name of a medicine) over the counter, and if you get the stuff that’s meant for vaginal yeast infections, then it’ll be cheaper than the smaller tubes, and just as effective as anything I can prescribe.” I have heard of patients who insist on getting a prescription before they leave the doctor’s office, in the belief that antibiotics will cure ANYTHING. And perhaps some doctors do prescribe Amoxicillin or something similar just to get those dunderheads out of their office. But these days, all the doctors that I go to are careful to prescribe what I need, and ONLY what I need. And they tell me to finish the whole course of the antibiotics, too. Doctors can do a lot, but patients have a responsibility for their own treatment, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antibiotics-the-cure-all/510641.md?page=2)