Antibiotics

[amateur51]

just trying to work out in my mind how it was discovered to be good for one thing, then the next

On a bright sunny Sunday morning, that thought has set my day off just nicely, mercs

[jean]

It's a bit like 'athlete's foot' and 'halitosis', which were names invented by advertisers to convince us we suffered from something we never knew we had, and which could only be cured by their product.

I take it you've never suffered from athlete's foot? You'd know about it if you had.

The good news is that the best treatment is not any proprietary substance but neat tea tree oil.

[Nick Armstrong]

On a bright sunny Sunday morning, that thought has set my day off just nicely, mercs

With jean's subsequent post to jolly it along....

I just had to check what thread this was... I dozily thought I was still on the 'New World' symphony thread and was suddenly very confused

[Flay]

Jean, personally I'd want terbinafine.

[Anna]

Because antibiotics kill off the good bugs as well as the bad they can cause side effects (upset stomach, thrush) I've always understood that it's best to eat live natural yoghurt, particularly goats yoghurt, or drink miso soup whilst taking them. This may be an old wives tale but it makes sense to me.

[teamsaint]

I take it you've never suffered from athlete's foot? You'd know about it if you had.

The good news is that the best treatment is not any proprietary substance but neat tea tree oil.

Raw coconut oil is fantastic for various skin conditions also.

[Resurrection Man]

Yes, I've noted that tendency from my very early forays into forum world.

What an odd, almost throwaway, comment? With all this talk of Alter Ego's one could, perhaps, be forgiven for thinking that you too were someone else.

If you troubled to dig back far enough you would have seen that once upon a time I did engage more fully. However, although I try and see both points of view and consider all lines of discussion, it soon became abundantly clear to me that I was engaged with some very closed minds. The same closed minds that drag out the same old soap-box time after time after time. There could be a thread on watching paint dry and I guarantee that sooner or later someone will say 'it's the fault of the banks' or Michael Gove. I believe that some of the policies of the Coalition are wrong but equally some are right. But it is pointless engaging in any dialogue as there is nothing like an entrenched bigoted position for one to bash ones head against.

The same goes for posting any thread that is centre or even slightly centre. The Gang of Four will immediately pitch in one after the other...sniggering and back-slapping ad nauseam. Tedious. Boring. Nothing like a stream of Emoticons in lieu of reasoned discussion.

So gradually I have withdrawn from engaging in these pointless discussions. I used to post the occasional riposte against the never-ending stream of generalisations and sweeping statements from some quarters and this is probably what you were alluding to.

However, I soon came to the conclusion that life is too short to waste on trivialities like these or even to get worked up about the sheer rudeness and pedantry of those on the forum who take fellow forum members to task for misuse of English and carp on about them not using the correct grammatical construction.

So to minimise these irritations and bring some harmony into my life, I decided that I would have a much more peaceful existence if I stuck the Gang of Four on Ignore.

Bliss.

[Flosshilde]

You're not supposed to eat it! http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Thrush/...Treatment.aspx (final section - note that this is anecdotal, not evidence-based).

So it wasn't a mis-understanding

[teamsaint]

Although, of course, the problem with RM is that he simply doesn't engage. Present a statistic and he pretends you didn't.Dig back if you can be bothered...I can't.

As somebody else said, its a grenade then retire.

His idea of engaging is a petty insult,(and there are lots of them dotted around the board) and then put you on ignore.That way he can dish it out, and not listen to the response.

Generally, I think that is a sign of fear , in this case of other peoples opinions.
Not much fun in discussion, if you only want to hear views identical to your own.

[Flay]

So it wasn't a mis-understanding

The lactobacillus bacteria family is part of the natural "friendly" flora down below and has a protective effect, especially in maintaining acidity, keeping unfriendly bugs at bay.

Of course lactobacillus is killed off by antibiotics, hence the ability for thrush to take hold. Candida albicans is naturally present in small numbers but given half a chance, it is itching to take over.

[MrGongGong]

So to minimise these irritations and bring some harmony into my life, I decided that I would have a much more peaceful existence if I stuck the Gang of Four on Ignore.

Bliss.

And full of shit

[Anna]

Richard put it well in his initial posting, I cannot better it. There is a difficult, insatiable demand for antibiotics: a human right to be un-poorly.

We need public health promotion information films again, to get these messages through. Health information could easily be wormed into TV programmes like Eastenders. How many people do we see leaving a loo without washing their hands, for example? How often do we see people spitting? Coughing into their palms...

Very good point about incorporating health information via Eastenders or Coronation Street. Statistically it's men who are lazy about apres-loo hand washing, as for coughing into palms, it's better than coughing into someone's face if you don't have a tissue to hand (I don't think I ever see people spitting in the street)
I'd like to ask Flay, in his professional capacity, how he deals with patients wanting antibiotics for a common cold/cough and if he gets aggravation from them? (Perhaps GP surgeries should have leaflets they can hand out pointing out the difference between viral and bacterial infections and why antibiotics have no effect on a virus?)
As for thrush, I think men can have it as well when their 'friendly flora down below' (as Flay so delicately puts it!) gets disturbed! (I have had it, due to a course of antibiotics, it's horrible)

[Frances_iom]

...I don't think I ever see people spitting in the street..

the young must be more civilised in your part of the world - it seems to be quite common in my part of S E England (tho very unusual on the IoM) - my own take is that it is a cultural thing much more common with non-whites - I was brought up in the northwest when spitting was looked down on in disgust as I guess TB had only just been defeated post war and this was seen (rightly or wrongly) as a vector of transmission

[Bryn]

... (I don't think I ever see people spitting in the street) ...

I remember the shock I got when, at the age of 8, we moved to Swindon and on my first bus trip in the town was confronted with a large notice at the front of the upper deck, "Spitting Prohibited". It had never occurred to me that anyone would even consider spitting in a bus. I had never seen a similar notice on a London bus.

[Pabmusic]

I remember the shock I got when, at the age of 8, we moved to Swindon and on my first bus trip in the town was confronted with a large notice at the front of the upper deck, "Spitting Prohibited". It had never occurred to me that anyone would even consider spitting in a bus. I had never seen a similar notice on a London bus.

That was common on the old Hants & Dorset buses in the 1960s (the notice, I mean, not the spitting - though I suppose the notice was there because it was common).