4 ms·

I haven't taken antibiotics in decades either. Whenever a doctor suggests it I ask for evidence of bacteria. I.e. do a test, and if that reveals a bacterial inf

• clnq 4y ago
  An antibiotic won't significantly weaken your body. And there are many situations where prescribing antibiotics without a doing culture yields better outcomes because of timing. Particularly with severe illnesses like sepsis or severe cases of pneumonia, UTIs, and so on. I worked in an ER room in Central Europe while I was studying medicine a while ago. We saved many lives by prescribing wide-spectrum antibiotics for advanced pneumonia without waiting for bac culture results. Once patients deteriorate beyond naturally getting enough oxygen, their chances of survival go down for every 12 hours the treatment is delayed. I laugh when I see researchers say that medics should use narrow-spectrum antibiotics for patients like these. They forget "first, do no harm", which delaying treatment would undoubtedly do. Besides, no good doctor wants to kill their patients to be "right". Aside from antibiotics, the off-label use of many medicines has helped many people tremendously. Doctors sometimes do know better than guidelines. I agree that there are other, more grey-area situations with antibiotic use. Especially when doctors are a bit lazy and want to get done quickly with a patient with a mild infection, those situations are not very ethical. However, off-guideline use of antibiotics can save lives. That is my point.