For what it's worth. "Colds" can be baterial or viral. Bacteria reset the body temperature, therefore making you cold at the onset i.e your body is at 37.5 degrees celsius, but it is reset to 39 degrees celsius, therefore you shiver to get warm to get to 39 i.e you are feeling cold.
If you take antibacterial agents you will shorten the process as they help kill the bacteria. It shortens it from a normal two week cycle to about ten days from start to finish. The most common bacteria being Haeophilus Influenzae, cause of the common cold.
The flu is not a cold, but people class it the same. It is caused by viruses. Viruses do not excrete pyrogenic agents i.e those that reset the body temperature, but generally when you have th "flu" it is common to catch a cold as your immune system is compromised. In this case you would take Flu medication. These ease the symptoms, i.e they make you feel better but do nothing to make the Virus (flu) go away. generally they work really well. They actually make the "Cold" last longer as the symptoms are there to help your body to react quicker to the flu. In short they make you much more comfotable and you may even feel at the end that you don't have the flu but in reality you do
Therefore if you have a real cold, it may be worth taking antibiotics. Antibiotics are very specific especially of they are to work well. Unless a doctor swabs you and send it for testing (quite costly) he is hardly going to give you an effective one, theerfore increasing resistance. If a doctor gives you Amoxacyllin (broad spectrum antibiotic) he is probably not very good. It is an unspecific antibiotic that is not very strong and therefore bugs get resistant to it quickly and become "super" bugs. Therefore by the time you know which antibiotic is worth it, you are nearly over it. Say two days to go to the doctor, three days for culture and response, two days to get back to the doctor and then to you, you are more than half way over it!!!!!
For viruses, well they are DNA. your body is DNA so anything that kills them also kills your body cells
In short you are correct, the debate is whether to take medication or not an does it help. If you take the right medication for a true cold you may gain a few days, it also though has side effects.
For a viral infection the best way to beat it is preventative, ie don't get it in the first place i.e. take a "jab" i.e purposfully take a low level dose of it so that you get immunised to it. ie like they are doing now for the flu for old people and such. Of course this does not help you out on all of them, just the ones more likely to kill you.
So in short you are correct. Do you or do you not take medicine.
If however you just take your cold and flu tablets for symptomatic relief, you are causing no superbugs, you feel better and you are not toxicating your body
It is a long time since I studied this so I hope that it is understandable
Emanuele xx
