How Long Do Antibiotics Stay in Your Bloodstream? How much damage do they have time to cause?

The question that serves as a title for this article often bothers the medication consumers. Well, the answer varies from drug to drug, but most often in a matter of weeks the traces of the active ingredient are washed down effectively from the bloodstream, liver, intestines and other systems affected by the medication. In the opinion of many modern doctors of medicine, however, the main question is not, For how long do antibiotics remain in your body? It is, How much damage do they have time to cause?

Of course, when used with care and caution under the guidance of a professional, antibiotics, like all other medications, work for the benefit of the body. However, the side effects that occur during the therapy alone signify that there can be damage done to the vital systems, as well. This means that extreme diligence is required in determined the necessity of taking antibiotics. As you must have noticed, these drugs are used all the time for nearly all infections. As though not enough emphasis were made on the fact that antibiotics are drugs designed to counter bacteria and useless against viruses! In the modern world, though, these meds are so often used to treat infections clearly viral in nature that some patients do not even consult the doctor before buying over-the-counter antibiotics. Sure enough, antibiotics can provide considerable relief of symptoms like inflammation, malaise, and phlegm production as they inhibit white blood cell activity. But this way of action also lowers the body's natural response and prolongs the illness instead of eliminating the viral pathogen.

Even when the antibiotic has been prescribed correctly and used to, it can be a cause of harm. In the mass media, there are occasional mentions of "super-bacteria" impervious to all of the antibiotics known to science so far. When a new bacterium of this sort emerges, pharmacists rush to invent new, stronger medications, although by now it is clear that these will become useless soon, too. Leaving aside the fact that such a situation actually became possible through the rampant use of antibiotics allover, many people when catching a "super-bacterial" disease continue the use of the old, well-known antibiotic drugs thinking that, because these medicines eliminate the symptoms, they help the cause of the disease, as well. The bacteria passed from such patients becomes even stronger in other people, and the antibiotics taken in the futile attempts to get rid of a "super-bacterium" cause even more damage to the patient's overall health.

Speaking of such damage, you must know at least from the high school biology course that there are plenty of useful bacteria in our bodies, too! These small things are a great help in digesting the toxing our liver dumps from the blood, easing the secreted bile's caustic effect, helping the beneficial nutrients from food be absorbed into the blood from the intestines etc. When we take antibiotic drugs to treat a bacteria-induced infection, the active agent cannot destroy the pathogenic element alone; it kills all the bacteria of a certain kind, including the useful