The correlation of sinus infection and antibiotics is pretty clear cut, but for some reason it is a natural response of the doctor to dole out prescription antibiotics when you go to his office complaining of a sinus infection. I am thinking maybe this is because if the pain, swelling, cloggy feeling is bad enough to get you there then it must be bad enough to treat. A good thing to know in sinus drainage is, that if it is clear it is viral and if it is colored it is bacterial. You only treat bacterial infections with antibiotics as they will not work on viruses.

Another bit of advice for people that is good to know is that colds are not sinus infections. The sinus infection can be caused by the cold and the doctor will not prescribe an antibiotic until you have had the sinus infection longer than 7 days.

There are two thought to prescribing antibiotics; one is to prescribe a broad spectrum one that will “most likely” catch the bacteria and kill it that is causing the problem. The other is to provide a specific antibiotic for a specific bacterium. In order to that he will have to take a culture and identify the bacteria.

Once you are on a course of antibiotic usually ten days worth there are certain things you should expect. The first is that you should feel fifty percent better within 24 hours. After that you will get better a bit each day. This means that if you are taking the antibiotic and just slowly getting better and not feeling good till the tenth day that the antibiotic did not really work and it was your own immune system fighting off the infection. Yes our bodies have the ability to fight infections, even bacterial ones without antibiotics. So the advice here would be if you are not much better in 48 hours call your doctor so he can prescribe something else.

It is also very important that if you start an antibiotic that you take the full course, for if you stop as soon as you feel better two things can happen: one you will get sick again and two your body might build up antigens for the bacteria and the antibiotic that would have initially worked will not work anymore.

Another thing to know is that not all antibiotics work on all bacteria. That is why there are so many antibiotics out there. There are broad spectrum antibiotics and narrow spectrum antibiotics. The broad will try and catch a bunch of different types of bacteria and the narrow will go for specific bacteria.

Scientific studies have shown that treating patients with a broad spectrum antibiotic is the best way to go, but it has one big draw back. People are more apt to become resistant to broad spectrum antibiotics. This is why most doctors will prescribe narrow first and if they do not work will follow up with the broad spectrum.

Narrow spectrum antibiotics

Amino glycosides- This can be administered by inhalation or through irrigation. They have serious side effects and are only given in the presence of a doctor. The side effects include: kidney damage, balance problems and hearing damage. Common name: gentamicin, neomycin, streptomycin and tobramycin.

Macrolides- Made to fight Cocci bacteria. This can be taken orally and tests have shown that it is very effective in slowing or blocking protein formation in the bacteria and thus killing them. Common names: Zithromax, biaxin and erythromycin.

Broad Spectrum Antibiotics

Cephalosporins- Is taken orally or in the ear. They are mostly used for people allergic to penicillin. Side effects tend to be rash and diarrhea. Common names: Duricef and Keflex.

Penicillin- Is the original broad spectrum antibiotic. It inhibits the metabolic processes needed in bacterial cell wall formation by stimulating the enzymes that will destroy the cell walls. It is one antibiotic that will only attack actively multiplying bacteria. Commonly used as Amoxicillin, PenVK

Other antibiotics that deserve mention are Quinolones and Fluoroquinolones. They are rarely used but if needed are used for legionella and mycoplasma. They are harsh antibiotics with strong side effects that can actually interfere with the DNA activity of the patient.

So even with just the basics explained it is pretty evident that you will need to let you doctor decide what is good and right for what you have. Knowing expectations is always useful when you begin to take a new medicine. When something is prescribed to you it is never wrong to ask for documentation on the drug.

The three factors that influence the immune system of a human is calm, nutrition, and age. Certain activities and outside influences can contribute to the added pressure on the immune system.

The immune system, with its innate part, is our first line of defense. So our natural barriers and nonspecific mechanisms are responsible for arresting the attackers who seek to invade our bodies. The skin and mucous membranes are the first barriers that the invaders must confront in seeking to enter. But within these ancient structures are also mechanisms that are responsible for eliminating pathogens, and which act as natural antibacterial.

Nutrition is by far the most important thing when it comes to the task of supporting the equine immune system. Human being and animal need different levels of food and nutrition in their diet depending on age, current weight, activity level and overall health. The diet asset should be a delicate balance of protein, grain, hay, minerals, vitamins, supplements and proper digestion of these substances. Dry food should be high in quality and portion control should be stay to.

Even so, large numbers of microorganisms able finally to penetrate the body and are capable of causing disease. Most of the time however, a competent immune system can eliminate these incursions. In cases in which our immune system is unable to do so, that’s when we’re in trouble.

Previously the result was almost always the same: death. However, since the discovery of penicillin in 1942, we were able to kill microorganisms using exogenous substances.
The advent of penicillin has allowed human beings that we achieve will survive previously fatal infections by necessity in most cases. However, the use of antibiotics has led to another serious problem for us: resistance to antibiotics. This phenomenon occurs when some microorganisms survive the administration of antibiotics. These survivors develop genetic mutations that allow them to evade the effect of antibiotics. The trouble is that this information may be shared with other organisms, including different species, which allows the display antibiotic resistance among previously susceptible microorganisms.

We must consider the indiscriminate use of antibiotics and that antibiotics are emerging increasingly seeking to use new mechanisms of action in order to avoid the phenomenon of resistance. So more and more in the world are being found strains of organisms that are now resistant to antibiotics that were previously considered first-line. There is even talk that currently there are already some organisms that are resistant to all existing antibiotics.

Now, contrary to popular belief that they are antibiotics that kill the microorganisms, it is actually our own immune system which is responsible for removing them. So, after a course of antibiotics, what we do in fact decrease the bacterial load is enough for our immune system can eliminate those remaining. This is how our immune system also becomes the last line of defense.

Given the above, the question arises: would it not be better to try to boost the immune response instead of finding new antibiotics?
But … Is there a way to enhance our immune response?
Maybe …
It does tell the next…