“Cold And Flu Remedies”
Cold and flu patients are rushing into doctors’ offices in hopes of getting antibiotics to cure them. Even though cautioned, doctors still overprescribe antibiotics for acute respiratory infections even though most are caused by viruses that those drugs cannot help. No doubt, antibiotics can be life-saving, when used in a judicious way. Tragically, antibiotics are losing their effectiveness and bugs are becoming resistant to them due to inappropriate prescribing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that drug-resistant bacteria cause two million illnesses and 23,000 deaths each year in the U.S. The CDC has seen improvement from pediatricians in antibiotic prescribing but overuse remains a big problem for adults, especially with respiratory illnesses. Further, antibiotics are implicated in 1 of 5 emergency room visits for bad drug reactions. Especially troubling is an increase in severe diarrhea caused by C-diff, the Clostridium difficile bug that can take hold in the gut after antibiotics kill off other bacteria. So, instead of sending patients off to fight their viruses alone, here are a few tips that might help.
