Antibiotics May Do More Harm than Good - HSV in Rats

[Evaluate]

Many of us have seen the ads that say "not all bugs need drugs" - that "super bugs" may be created when we overuse antibiotics as a society.  There has (and perhaps still is) an over tendency by many physicians to prescribe antibiotics.  A team in Korea has shown that when rats were given antibiotics and were infected by HSV, those rats died.

Now before you throw those antibiotics out that your doctor gave you (don't do that, finish them as prescribed), rats are not people.  We won't die because the rats did, but it goes to show that antibiotics could play a major role in lowering the immune system's ability to fight viruses (which are different than bacterial infections which antibiotics are used for).

As a personal side note, I am weary of antibiotics unless I really need them for whatever I have.  People die from infections and antibiotics save them and speed up recovery.  But when not needed, they certainly can cause more harm than good.  Another study I read some time ago looked at the good bacteria in our stomachs, that help us digest food, greatly decreases when antibiotics were taken.  After reading that study I usually take a probiotic after I finish a course of antibiotics to help bring the good bacteria back.

http://koreabizwire.com/antibiotics-more-harm-than-help/50334

tl;dr - antibiotics should only be used when necessary as it may lower the body's ability to fend off viruses like HSV.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Evaluate

[Sanguine108]

Antibiotics are damaging to the body (period).

...But viral infections typically come with bacterial infections so the host can be helped with antibiotics.

...If the practitioner isn't able to gauge the robustness (or how feeble they are) of the patient and prescribes antibiotics then they can be essentially blowing out the patient's metabolic/immune flame, which would be helping them fight the virus.

traditional medicine perspective, like chinese medicine, antibiotics are cold in nature.  bacterial infections are hot.   Bitter herbs clear heat.   Goldenseal is one of the most bitter herbs out there.  Olive Leaf (extract) is bitter and cold in nature.   Their effects go further than that, though.  Bitter typically has alkaloids in it that have other actions aside from clearing pathogenic heat.  But then there are herbs that are warming and help fight infections because they're supporting the body instead of carpet bombing it.

I read a post about someone who went to the ER (during her initial hsv infection) and they Dx'd her with a uti and/or yeast infection (it's been a while since I read it).  The doc Rx'd her and 2 days later she went back to the ER and dx'd with meningitis.  Docs said she had an allergic reaction to the meds and then they found genital sores that they swabbed for hsv2.   They put an acyclovir IV drip in her for 3 weeks.   People put way too much trust into docs but maybe that's the karma we've earned for whatever level we're at.   I'm not saying other types of practitioners are immune to such mistakes but there's a reason why malpractice insurance of MD's is well into the $100,000 spectrum, because it's a _____________________ medicine.

Ima chill out.

I know there's the petition to congress and various letters/messages sent to higher up people trying to encourage better attention to HSV.   Lately, I've been a bit inspired, with US politics and reading various traumatic hsv experiences, to compile and submit something expressing the urgency to do something about HSV.   I know there's a lot of money already invested in it but I think something emotionally charged would be appropriate. 

I don't want to potentiate a stigma,  but I definitely don't want to pretend like nothing is wrong.

So here's what's up.  If you're interested in helping me out then send me a message with a link to a thread of a traumatic experience, copy and paste the experience, or if you want then type your experience out for me.     I'll just start compiling data.