On an antibiotic? Be sure to finish the entire prescription.

St. Joseph’s/Candler Primary Care Physician Dr. Russell Lake stresses the importance of always taking medications as prescribed

It happens quite often. You feel better so you stop taking your prescribed antibiotic. Or, you suddenly have a sore throat and grab some leftover medication from the cabinet.

It may seem harmless but it’s important to always take medications as prescribed and never take something without consulting your physician first.

“Commonly with antibiotics, we stop taking them once we feel better,” says Dr. Russell Lake, primary care physician with St. Joseph’s/Candler Primary Care in Richmond Hill. “We feel like the problem is over but in reality some of the bacteria that are tougher to kill are still there, so you may end up with a worse infection as those resistant bacteria begin to reproduce.”

Antibiotics are powerful medicines used to treat certain illnesses, but they aren’t the cure for everything. Antibiotics don’t kill viruses. So a runny nose, most coughs or the common cold won’t go away with an antibiotic. And remember, antibiotics used when not needed may be harmful.

Antibiotics are most often prescribed to treat bacterial infections, such as ear infections, strep throat or urinary tract infections. Your physician will evaluate your symptoms and may order lab work to determine the cause of your illness and if an antibiotic is needed.

“The antibiotic duration is based on how long experience has told us it takes the body to rid those bacteria, whether it’s in your urine or in your lungs or an ear infection,” Dr. Lake says.

Why it’s important to take your medication as prescribed

Each time you take an antibiotic when it’s not needed or stop taking it before all the medicine is gone, you raise the risk of making resistant bacteria. Resistant bacteria are bacteria that don’t respond to the medicine. These bacteria can continue to cause infection, possibly making you feel worse. If you remain infected, whether you feel better or not, you can pass that infection to another person.

“We want to make sure we have killed all of the bacteria and not just most of them, because if we’ve killed 80 percent of the bacteria, then the 20 percent that remain could be the super strong bacteria that become resistant to the antibiotic,” Dr. Lake says. “Now we have a more difficult infection to treat.”

Saving leftover antibiotics to use “just in case” also can lead to resistant bacteria. You should always consult your doctor because that leftover antibiotic may not be the specific medication needed to treat your new infection.

“And if you save it for later, chances are you don’t have enough to treat the next infection, so you are going to end up in the same situation,” Dr. Lake says. “Also, when we take antibiotics sporadically, it increases antibiotic resistance in the community because now I may have these bacteria that are not necessarily causing me a problem, but it gets transmitted to someone else who is now infected. That’s how we’ve wound up with antibiotic resistant infections like MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).”

“It’s definitely important to finish them.”

Both children and adults can become antibiotic resistant, so it’s imperative not only for you to take medications as prescribed, but make sure your children do so as well.