In regards to antibiotics, I previously took them without any regard. Every time that I had previously been prescribed antibiotics, it was from a PA at an urgent care clinic and not my primary physician. I had never thought to discuss the effects. However, since I have read more articles about the impact of our microbial communities on our health, I have changed my perspective on this. I have now decided that I would rather take other routes to improve my microbial health in response to infections or to let my immune system deal by itself. I do not have an autoimmune disease and have never been hospitalized due to an infection, therefore I would rather suffer through the consequences unless I presumed that doing otherwise could cause life-threatening infections. Before I attended Oregon State, I lived in a community in which treatment from physicians, such as vaccines or antibiotics were considered “sinful”, and soon after I decided to neglect these rules after and took them without consideration. I wish I knew the impacts of these before I took them.
