14 DAY TRIAL // One of the greatest problems plaguing the efficiency of healthcare systems around the world are the people who think they know what's best for them more than professional doctors do. In many instances, a defiant behavior as to the doctor may have more severe consequences than you can imagine, moving past hurting another person's feelings. Take the case of a microbial infection, for example. Many people receive recommendations from the doctor to take antibiotics to fight the condition for about two weeks. After they start feeling better, a week later, they discontinue the treatment on their own accord.
Such instances are not at all uncommon, but a new study suggests that they are also one of the primary sources for drug-resistant bacteria and microbes. When the healthcare professional gives you a course of treatment, he or she is also considering things you don't know about, not only the general symptoms you experience. Say you discontinue the treatment one week earlier. The vast majority of whatever microorganisms that were infecting you was destroyed, and you feel considerably better, therefore taking medications seems redundant. However, failing to take them is the biggest mistake you can possibly make under the circumstances.
Even if most microbes are gone, some small populations remain for longer, without causing you further ill-effects. Rather than continuing to take the pills that kill them, and consequently wipe them all out, you stop taking antibiotics. This allows those populations to undergo a series of mutations, or genetic alterations. Some of these changes may be related to the shape of the bacteria or microbes, whereas others may be related to their resistance to the particular substance that killed off all of their companions, in this instance the other microorganisms. And future generations that will spring from these populations will endure because they have the genetic variation that allows them to tolerate the threat.
This is what is called natural selection, and it's the main mechanism through which various pathogens become immune to the effects of our strongest drugs. On the other hand, continuing to take your pills for as long as the doctor prescribed minimizes the chances of that happening, by eliminating a lot more of the population that is infecting you. Still, there is a very small chance that, even with treatment, things will go wrong. However, the percentage jumps significantly when refusing to obey your doctor's prescriptions.