Your body doesn’t really need antibiotics. Stay away!

Fighting off a general cold or a temperature that usually goes away in a day or two doesn’t really require medical supervision. However, with the easy availability of medication, we have all become our own doctors. Antibiotics, if taken longer than they are actually needed may lead to a bigger infection and end up hurting your health.

Antibiotics are technically used to treat diseases and infections caused by bacteria and not virus. Many pop in antibiotics the first instance they catch a sign of cold or flu, which are viral diseases.There is no use consuming antibiotic supplements for a flu and thus end up doing the body more harm than good.

While a lot of people are increasingly switching over to home remedies and alternate form of medicines, it is long believed that antibiotic medicines are often misused and have a negative impact on the body functioning. Apart from the risky side effects aside, antibiotics are also misused and can make the body resistant to any other kind of treatment. Since the body gets used to regular dosage of these medicines, it develops antibiotic resistance as the bacteria end up resisting them and in time of a serious illness or treatment, antibiotics prove largely ineffective.

A new study has now proven that they also impact the gut, damage immune cells and make you more infectious to viral diseases.

Our body already has a good stock of white blood cells which boosts immunity and fight off infections naturally. However, when antibiotics are consumed, the good bacteria in the gut are killed off which further deplete the ability of white blood cells (WBCs) in fighting off infections on their own. The same was observed in the study when regular dependability on medicines caused damage to the immune system in place and made the organs vulnerable.

Therefore, a greater stress is placed on only buying or taking medicines once prescribed by the doctor in the right doses. Doctors and physicians should also reassess and check if unnecessary medicines are needed to ward off any infection.

However, it is extremely important that serious infections be taken care of. Antibiotics prescribed to treat bacterial infections should be completed in its entire course duration. For the rest, let the body do its own work.