Bellevue Health Clinic

Archive for November, 2010

There are special synthetic derivatives of natural antibiotics like tetracycline that can be used for treating acne. There are a lot of generic and branded variations of these drugs you will find in your local pharmacy so if there’s no specific label you may want to try another one. Some may be more effective, others – a bit less. But these antibiotics all serve the purpose of preventing the spread of bacteria, which cause acne development. Doxycycline is a popular wide-range antibiotic available in oral forms such as pills, capsules, syrups and suspensions. This drug is very easy to take as it requires only a full glass of water to swallow the pill. You may also need a full meal if your stomach is sensitive and you experience disorders after taking this antibiotic. This drug has a couple of positive aspects that make it more preferable than other similar antibiotics such as minocycline. Not only Doxycycline is cheaper, but it also doesn’t deliver any serious negative side effects such as dizziness, skin disorders and vertigo. Another great factor that makes this medication so easy to use is that its absorption is not affected by the food you have taken. So you can easily enjoy your regular schedule with meals and eat the type of foods you like when taking this drug. When treating mild forms of acne, it’s enough to take one or two pills daily for a course of up to two weeks. In cases of moderate or severe acne breakouts, you will need a larger dosage – 200 mg to initiate the treatment followed by 100 mg taken every 12 hours to achieve maximum effect. In the next few days the dosage may be lowered depending on your personal tolerance to the drug. In terms of side effects, it’s really hard to find a drug that doesn’t have them, right? And this antibiotic also has certain effects that can be outside of the expected range of us. Fortunately, Doxycycline is generally a well-tolerated drug in most cases. Some of the most common side effects include nausea, diarrhea and discomfort in the stomach. This drug makes part of the tetracycline antibiotic group, meaning that it can lead to teeth discoloration when taken by children younger than 8 years. So it is advised to avoid giving this drug to small children and use antibiotics from other drug groups. Still, there are downsides of using this antibiotic when treating acne. And the biggest disadvantage is that the skin becomes very sensitive to sunlight and there can be sunburns after you have taken a course of medication when exposed to direct harsh sunlight. While this can be not as severe in many cases, it is still recommended to avoid spending too much time in harsh sunlight some time after you have taken the drug. Which can be quite problematic for people living in sunny areas. The medication is usually taken in small doses to prevent the development of acne. This is done to avoid bacterial resistance buildup, since 20 mg of Doxycycline taken daily do not harm the bacteria promoting acne directly, but rather stop the inflammatory effects that manifest in the form of acne. Moreover, this medication was also tested in cases of rosacea – a skin condition similar to acne but not involving bacterial activity – and it was observed that small doses of the drug also promoted significant improvements.

People who can always breathe easily never really understand asthma. Unless and until you have experienced that slow tightening of the chest, the reality of the fear and distress it causes never strikes home. At least, that should be fear and distress in the beginning. People who have it should learn to live with it. Millions grew up before the inhalers and modern drugs came on to the market. Not for them the freedom to squirt relieving chemicals into their lungs. They either learned how to control the problem naturally or ended up in hospital, hooked up to an oxygen bottle. Today, we see children and their parents living in the shadow of asthma as if it’s some kind of death sentence. Yesterday, we had athletes and sporting heroes as our role models – people who had conquered asthma and reached the highest levels of performance. Now children are not allowed to leave home without their inhalers plus back-up. And schools have been trained to deal with asthma attacks. The world is walking around expecting the worst.

This shift in culture has been engineered by the pharmaceutical industry. It has convinced everyone that the sufferers can only survive by using these magic products. This is not completely dishonest. There are times when the attack is severe and the drugs relieve what could have become a serious threat to health. But that does not justify using these drugs routinely.

That said, since no one now learns relaxation techniques to control breathing, the young are dependent on drugs to do it for them. For the more serious cases, it’s become customary to rely on steroids as an anti-inflammatory. Because inflammation of the airways and lungs is not limited to asthma, these drugs are actually used for almost all diseases of the lungs. Indeed, the practice is to pump large amounts of steroids into you through an intravenous line if you present at an emergency room. The most common of the oral drugs is Prednisone. Because of the risk of side effects, this is not used unless the asthma is serious or has been difficult to control over a long period of time. This can avoid the need to go to hospital. There are two approaches. One is a so-called steroid burst where you take a high dose for a short period of time. The other is a very low dose taken for a relatively long period of time.

Prednisone is safe and effective so long as it’s used properly. If you find the asthma continues in seriousness or recurs, this may suggest a different problem. Prednisone will almost always reduce inflammation and ease breathing, if not on the first use, then definitely on the second. If the asthma continues or recurs it suggests a continuous source of infection which should be identified, or that you have an allergy. If you do opt for the long-term, low-dose strategy, monitor your body carefully. If you find you are putting on weight or weight is being redistributed, or that there are swelling around the joints suggesting fluid retention, this is the time to slowly stop taking the drugs. No matter how bad the asthma, the side effects of steroids are worse. So, as with everything connected with drugs, you balance costs against benefits.