Asking Questions

[LoreD]

I went in to see the doctor.  I have some off and on psoriasis issues on my scalp.  He looked at it and said it would go away by itself.  Recommended some over the counter scalp remedies, and then said he was giving me a prescription for an antibiotic.

 

I have only taken an antibiotic once in the last 30 years, for a dental infection.

 

When he told me was giving me the antibiotic prescription; I said, "Why do I need the antibiotic?"  Looooong pause.  Then he said, " I guess you don't need it. "

 

We need to start questioning our doctors about the "everyday" prescriptions that we are receiving.

[TheOldBarn]

On 1/21/2020 at 7:20 PM, LoreD said:

I went in to see the doctor.  I have some off and on psoriasis issues on my scalp.  He looked at it and said it would go away by itself.  Recommended some over the counter scalp remedies, and then said he was giving me a prescription for an antibiotic.

 

I have only taken an antibiotic once in the last 30 years, for a dental infection.

 

When he told me was giving me the antibiotic prescription; I said, "Why do I need the antibiotic?"  Looooong pause.  Then he said, " I guess you don't need it. "

 

We need to start questioning our doctors about the "everyday" prescriptions that we are receiving.

well now, that's on your chart now.

She's impossible to deal with. Just prescribe to her a placebo.

 

 

[bludog]

On 1/21/2020 at 8:20 PM, LoreD said:

I went in to see the doctor.  I have some off and on psoriasis issues on my scalp.  He looked at it and said it would go away by itself.  Recommended some over the counter scalp remedies, and then said he was giving me a prescription for an antibiotic.

 

I have only taken an antibiotic once in the last 30 years, for a dental infection.

 

When he told me was giving me the antibiotic prescription; I said, "Why do I need the antibiotic?"  Looooong pause.  Then he said, " I guess you don't need it. "

 

We need to start questioning our doctors about the "everyday" prescriptions that we are receiving.

 

By the overuse of antibiotics, we have come close to squandering the most powerful class of medical tools ever discovered.  Except for organically grown meat, all varieties of healthy livestock are routinely dosed with antibiotics as a protective measure.  The same for farmed fish.  And, as in the OP, antibiotics are widely prescribed for patients, often when they don't even need them.  Antibiotics leach into our waterways and even our food.

 

With constant exposure to antibiotics, a small portion of microbes, with better coping abilities, survive.  So only the resistant genes are passed on.   Over time, the microbes become completely impervious.  The result has been a tremendous reduction in the effectiveness of all types of antibiotics.

 

Research is being conducted, with some success, into new antibiotics to which microbes have no resistance.  These new antibiotics should never be made available to the livestock industry.  They should be used as "drugs of last resort" to stop drug resistant infections in sick patients.  This is the only way to preserve the effectiveness of precious, new antibiotics.  We should not make the same mistake of overuse, again.

 

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/superantibiotic-25000-times-more-potent-its-predecessor

Quote

The world’s last line of defense against disease-causing bacteria just got a new warrior: vancomycin 3.0.

- snip -

Still, Boger cautions that the new compound isn’t yet ready for human trials. Next up, he and his colleagues plan to cut down on the 30 chemical steps it takes to make the new compound, in the hopes of producing it more cheaply. Then they’ll test their drug in animals, and finally humans. If it passes this gauntlet, humanity’s last line of defense against dangerous infections will become considerably stronger. 

- snip -

 

 

 

[laripu]

11 hours ago, TheOldBarn said:

well now, that's on your chart now.

She's impossible to deal with. Just prescribe to her a placebo.

 

Yes. She'll have "patient refused treatment" or some blurb like that. Doctors sometimes think a reasonable question is a threat.

[TheOldBarn]

On 1/21/2020 at 7:20 PM, LoreD said:

I went in to see the doctor.  I have some off and on psoriasis issues on my scalp.  He looked at it and said it would go away by itself.  Recommended some over the counter scalp remedies, and then said he was giving me a prescription for an antibiotic.

 

I have only taken an antibiotic once in the last 30 years, for a dental infection.

 

When he told me was giving me the antibiotic prescription; I said, "Why do I need the antibiotic?"  Looooong pause.  Then he said, " I guess you don't need it. "

 

We need to start questioning our doctors about the "everyday" prescriptions that we are receiving.

Yes we should. I don't know the doc you went to see and whether or not the doc was a dermatologist or just a GP, but it shouldn't matter much with something as simple as psoriasis.

We looked up to docs, when I was a kid we, a family of eight kids back in the 1960's went to this old time doc who would always just say, upper respiratory infection to everything, and then say, drink lots of fluids, wash your hands with cold water and soap and stay warm - I lived in Northern MI at the time. 

He was right.