Antibiotic treatment does not help sore throats. The scenario takes place very day all over the world. A person with a sore throat goes to a medical doctor. After the pre-requisite command for the patient to "say ahh" while the doctor peers down a red, irritated throat. he or she hands over a prescription for penicillin or some other antibiotic. That may be the worst thing the doctor can do according to a research study published in the British Medical Journal. Prescribing antibiotics for a sore throat has only marginal benefit and makes the growing problem of antibiotic resistance bacteria even greater.

In a randomized trial of three approaches to sore throat a 10 day prescription of antibiotics no antibiotics and a delayed prescription if the sore throat had not begun to improve after three days the authors found there was no difference between the three groups in the incidence of complications.

Partly because of air pollution and other environmental factors respiratory conditions have increased greatly in recent years and more people are trying to find medical solutions to the problem. In fact in Britain the number of people visiting doctors because of sore throats and related health complaints has increased by 14% in 10 years.

Yet, there’s nothing medical doctors can do that the human body can’t do by itself given time. According to the researchers the average duration of a sore throat is five days and almost 40% of people have a sore throat for longer than this with or without antibiotics.

Source; British Medical Journal N0 7104 Volume 315, August 9, 1997