Why is Overusing Antibiotics So Dangerous?
Antibiotics are not inherently dangerous. In fact, when prescribed for bacterial infections like pneumonia, tuberculosis and meningitis they can be, and often are, life-saving. However, the problem with antibiotics is that they are often prescribed to treat viruses — against which they are useless. Viruses like upper respiratory infections, measles, mumps, chickenpox, flu, and gastroenteritis are all viral infections, which antibiotics do nothing for. Antibiotics do kill bacteria, and they do this quite well. The problem is that they not only kill the bad bacteria that may be causing your illness, but they also kill ALL bacteria, including the good kind in your digestive tract that your body needs, leaving barren territory for all sorts of trouble to brew. If you have taken antibiotics unnecessarily, for a virus, for instance, you have therefore killed off all of the good bacteria in your system and may be more vulnerable to MRSA and other infections. On a larger scale, using antibiot
