Antibiotic is one of the magic discoveries of this world, although it was discovered by coincidence but it is now used extensively all over the world to treat hundreds and hundreds of ailments and diseases but, most people do not know how to deal with antibiotics in the right way and that cause a series of adverse side effects. So, let us first find out what is an antibiotic.

The antibiotic is a natural or synthetic substance that combats Bacteria specifically; antibiotics are only able to show their effect on bacteria and not on viruses. This is one of the major misunderstandings in the market; those who suffer from respiratory tract infections or common cold do not know that taking a full course of antibiotic will not solve the problem because in the majority of cases the causative agent of upper respiratory tract infection is a virus and not a bacterium.

When you go to your doctor the first thing that he will do is to find out the causative agent of your problem to know whether it should be treated with antibiotics or not. In some cases of viral infections, antibiotic could be still used to overcome the secondary bacterial infection that occurs in accordance to the viral infection.

Microorganisms are weak creatures but they have their own way to protect their population and this is called mutation. When you go to your doctor and he or she tells you to take your antibiotic for five consecutive days then you should do this exactly as some people stop taking their antibiotic once the symptoms are relieved and this is another common mistake. The relief of the symptoms does not mean that the microorganism is gone so, you need to take the full course of treatment because the last amount of microorganisms is the toughest because they tolerated the first three or four days of the antibiotic course. This means that you should complete the course of antibiotic to avoid any case of disease recurrence or development of resistance.

When you visit your doctor you should bare in your mind that different drugs may interact in specific ways to produce unfavorable effects. Be sure to mention the drugs that you take to your doctor so he can replace the antibiotic with another one if necessary. Even if you are taking some herbal treatments or those treatment sold over the counter, you should mention them to your doctor as they could be as harmful as conventional medicine when it comes to drug - drug interaction.