Antibiotics - myth or goodness

I have never been a huge fan of antibiotics. The late Ma used to always warn me off the drink when I'd be on a course - they'll be no good with the drink she'd say - or they'll make ya sick she'd say. And they did sometimes. I could never work out if it was the tablets or the 15 pints. Anyway due to a recent medical condition I was prescribed these horse strength antibs by the guy who tries to strike up conversations with me while his four knuckles, a small drill and a hoover are in my oral cavity. Do ya drink he asks - the odd one (9, 11, 13 etc) sez I. 'Well you can't drink with these.' For a moment me poor Ma was stood there. Right sez I - no bother. I went out to the receptionist to make an appointment and give her the average industrial wage for the 10 minutes treatment and she looks at me and says - you can't drink with those tablets.

I heads to the poitigéir - tis Friday evening and the Tartan Army in Croker await. The young lass takes my prescription and wanders down the back of the shop (where they feed mice, guinea pigs and Essie's rabbit all manner of stale bread and things to see what happens) to give it to the woman who went to college for longer than her. Up she comes a few minutes later with a white bag and a brown bottle of little pills which I would get in Spain for one fifth of the price. Do you drink sez she. Feeling a little like a guy at his first AA meeting at this point I mutter 'The odd time' - 'Well you can't drink with these - they will make you sick. They cause a chemical reaction.' JC now has visions of his first visit to the mens after 3 Heinos. A quick wash of the hands, a glance at the mirror and - there looking back is a guy with horns, red eyes, purple skin and hair everyhwere - the chemical reaction! They warned me!

So I went to the rugby and put off the alcohol preventers til Sunday night! I am now one away from finishing the course - something I never managed academically! I am thinking of getting up at 3 am - I hear they go through your system in 6 hours - leaving me nicely poised outside Ned Scanlon's on Townsend St at 9am!!! But I can't say I feel the benefit. Four days without the drink is grand but have they done the business? Are antibs all they are cracked up to be? My oral cavity techinician did inform me on prescribing that animals are fed antibs all the time to boost weight, growth etc. They are meant to be clean for a number of weeks before they are unceremoniously slaughtered in cold blood so that we can have a nice Sunday roast but he thinks this does not happen. So we are getting them in the food chain all the time - which is rendering them largely ineffective.

So I suppose my question is this .... is it possible to drink a pint of water while standing on your head?

[quoteThe young lass takes my prescription and wanders down the back of the shop (where they feed mice, guinea pigs and Essie's rabbit all manner of stale bread and things to see what happens)[/quote]



I am not a big fan of solpadene, panadol and other tablets that are all too regularly taken by people. These aren't antibiotics but I prefer to fight off whatever ailment I can, be it a cold, flu etc. without any help from the above or antibiotics. It strengthens your immune system. However, If I had a very bad flu, it is advisable to take antibiotics or the reverse will happen-your immune system will be weakened.

Antibiotics are dangerously over-used in this country. When you take antibiotics, all the harmful bacteria in your body is killed. If a bacteria resistant to the antibiotic enters your body, there is no competition from other bacteria and it can multiply-or evolve. These are resistant Bacteria. Sure MRSA and all the superbugs in the hospitals are down to the overuse of antibiotics. No antibiotics can be given to cure MRSA, just to relieve the symptoms.

Ireland has a serious problem with the over-use of antibiotics, and hence they have a serious problem with bacteria evolving and developing into strains like MRSA.

I've heard that the more you use antibiotics the less effective they are the next time you use them. People use them for minor illnesses and then when they get really sick the antibiotics end up being ineffective. I try and not take anything and let it run its course, Until about a year ago I had gone 3-4 years without going to a doctor, on that occasion I had to go my flu was so bad.

Agree with whats said above - Avoid unless its a bacterial illness that you can't shift
like an infected abcess or similar. They are not a cure for the common cold and over usage will only make them less effective if you ever do need them.

An even bigger evil is over-usage of Painkillers in particular anything with Codeine
e.g Nurofen plus, Solpadine etc. There are tens of thousands of people in thsi country who are hooked on codeine. Most countries in the world you cannot get it OTC and need a prescription. I saw a documentary on this one time where they reckoned that the amount of codeine in an over teh counter tablet was too small to actually have any impact on pain so its only purpose was to create addiction.

And yet an even bigger evil is over-prescription of anti-depresants like Prozac. Ive read that there are council estates in the UK where >75% of the people are on Prozac. It seems to be used on a national scale to pacify people in volatile living environments

They were talking about codine one morning on the RAy Darcy show and they were saying that if your addicted and you fail to feed your habit you get horrible headaches, there also added that its harder to beat than heroin addiction.

I was on Neurofen (ordinary) and Solpadeine for over a fortnight solid with the toothache and wary of the addict possibilities. It eased a bit on Sunday, and I was getting a migraine on Monday and took two Solpos but am clean since ...

Jayo Cluxton wrote:I was on Neurofen (ordinary) and Solpadeine for over a fortnight solid with the toothache and wary of the addict possibilities. It eased a bit on Sunday, and I was getting a migraine on Monday and took two Solpos but am clean since ...

'They tried to make me go to rehab but I said NO, NO, NO!'