Doxycycline: Uses Side Effects Dosage
Doxycycline is a versatile antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections, acne, and more.
This article provides information about the uses, common side effects, proper dosage, and risks of this widely used medication.
What Is Antibiotic Resistance
Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria survive or resist antibiotic treatment. Bacteria change and mutate to protect themselves after coming into contact with an antibiotic or other bacteria. Once a type of bacteria is resistant, it passes these genes to other bacteria, which continue to grow. Eventually, they create a new strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Misusing and overusing antibiotics increases the likelihood of antibiotic resistance. Over time, this may lead to a shortage of medications that can effectively treat common infections.
When To See A Doctor
Having AFib means working closely with your doctor to manage your condition. You may have a cardiologist or a specialist in abnormal heart rhythms known as an electrophysiologist.
Your particular condition and overall health will determine how often you need to see your doctor for scheduled checkups. However, there may be times, between your regular visits, that you may need medical attention.
For example, if you start to experience noticeable AFib symptoms, it could mean that your condition is becoming more serious or that your current medication is no longer working as effectively as it should.
Make an appointment with your doctor if you start to experience medication side effects, have symptoms that bother you, or have symptoms that last for more than a few days.
More severe symptoms and side effects include:
- a racing heart
- other drugs youre taking
- the side effects youre able to tolerate
- other conditions you may have
You may need to try more than one kind of drug or various doses to find the medication and the dosage best suited to control your AFib safely and effectively. If a drug isnt working or is causing intolerable side effects, your doctor can prescribe a different medication or change your dosage.
Its important to work with your physician and to take your medications exactly as prescribed. If you have any questions about your medications, be sure to talk with your doctor to get the answers you need.
- control your heart rate
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How To Cope With Side Effects
What to do about:
- headaches make sure you rest and drink plenty of fluids. Everyday painkillers, such as paracetamol and ibuprofen, are safe to take with doxycycline.
- feeling or being sick stick to simple meals and do not eat rich or spicy food. It might help to take your doxycycline after a meal or snack but avoid dairy products like milk, cheese and yoghurt. Dairy products can stop your body absorbing your medicine properly. If you are being sick, drink plenty of fluids, such as water or squash, to avoid dehydration. Signs of dehydration include peeing less than usual or having strong-smelling pee. Do not take any medicines to treat vomiting without speaking to a pharmacist or doctor.
- sensitivity to sunlight when you go outside, wear sunglasses and clothes that cover you up. Put sunscreen or sunblock on your skin – with a sun protection factor of at least 15 . Also use a sunscreen product for your lips. Do not use sunlamps or tanning beds. If you get sunburn, there are things you can do to treat your symptoms.
Who Cannot Take Antibiotics
It is very rare for anyone not to be able to take some type of antibiotic. The main reason why you may not be able to take an antibiotic is if you have had an allergic reaction to an antibiotic in the past. Even if you have had an allergic reaction to one antibiotic, your doctor or health professional will be able to choose a different type of antibiotic, which you will be able to take. If you are pregnant, there are certain antibiotics you should not take, but your health professional will be able to advise on which one is suitable if an antibiotic is needed. If you are on some medication, certain antibiotics may need to be avoided, or your regular medication stopped whilst you take the antibiotic. As above, when prescribed an antibiotic, make sure the prescriber knows about any other medication you take.
How to use the Yellow Card Scheme
If you think you have had a side-effect to one of your medicines you can report this on the Yellow Card Scheme. You can do this online at www.mhra.gov.uk/yellowcard.
The Yellow Card Scheme is used to make pharmacists, doctors and nurses aware of any new side-effects that medicines or any other healthcare products may have caused. If you wish to report a side-effect, you will need to provide basic information about:
- The side-effect.
- The name of the medicine which you think caused it.
- The person who had the side-effect.
- Your contact details as the reporter of the side-effect.
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What Happens If I Take Too Much
If you take too much doxycycline, call poison control at 1-800-222-1222 or seek emergency medical care.
You should not take double doses or more doxycycline than is prescribed.
If someone has taken too much doxycycline and they have trouble breathing, collapse, or have a seizure, call 911 immediately for medical help.
Top 10 List Of Common Infections Treated With Antibiotics
Most antibiotics fall into their individual antibiotic classes. An antibiotic class is a grouping of different drugs that have similar chemical and pharmacologic properties. Their chemical structures may look comparable, and drugs within the same class may kill the same or related bacteria.
However, it is important not to use an antibiotic for an infection unless your doctor specifically prescribes it, even if it’s in the same class as another drug you were previously prescribed. Antibiotics are specific for the kind of bacteria they kill. Plus, you would need a full treatment regimen to effectively cure your infection, so don’t use or give away leftover antibiotics.
Note: Tables below are not all-inclusive, generics are available for many brands.
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How Can I Prevent Antibiotic Resistance
To prevent antibiotic resistance, avoid taking antibiotics unless it is essential. Donât take them for viral infections, such as a cold or the flu. Always follow the instructions from your healthcare professional about how much to take when. To prevent infections, clean your hands and living spaces regularly, and take steps to strengthen your immune system.
How To Take It
Always swallow your doxycycline capsule whole and have it with a full glass of water .
You can take this medicine with or without food. However you’re less likely to feel sick if you have it with food.
It’s important to take doxycycline while you’re in an upright position. You can be sitting, standing or walking. This will stop the medicine irritating your food pipe or stomach.
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What Are The Side Effects
Doxycycline may not be appropriate for everyone. Anyone who has previously had a serious reaction to doxycycline or any other tetracycline should avoid doxycycline.
During tooth development, which occurs in the second half of pregnancy, in infancy, and childhood up to 8 years old, doxycycline may cause permanent tooth discoloration. Teeth may become a yellow-gray-brown color.
Doctors must evaluate the risks and benefits of prescribing doxycycline to young children or women during pregnancy.
Some people may develop Clostridium difficilediarrhea when taking doxycycline. This intestinal infection can range from mild to fatal.
The following table lists the possible side effects of doxycycline by body system.
| Body system |
When Are Antibiotics Usually Prescribed
Antibiotics are normally only prescribed for more serious infections with germs .
Most common infections are caused by viruses, when an antibiotic will not be of use. Even if you have a mild bacterial infection, the immune system can clear most bacterial infections. For example, antibiotics usually do little to speed up recovery from most ear, nose and throat infections that are caused by bacteria.
So, do not be surprised if a doctor does not recommend an antibiotic for conditions caused by viruses or non-bacterial infections, or even for a mild bacterial infection.
However, you do need antibiotics if you have certain serious infections caused by bacteria, such as meningitis or pneumonia. In these situations, antibiotics are often life-saving. When you are ill, doctors are skilled at checking you over to rule out serious illness and to advise if an antibiotic is needed. Urine infections also commonly need antibiotics to prevent spread to the kidneys.
Antibiotics can also be prescribed to treat acne – a less serious condition. For acne, antibiotics can be taken by mouth or applied directly to the skin.
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Blood Thinners To Prevent Clots And Stroke
AFib can interfere with the normal, healthy flow of blood throughout your heart. The irregular beat of the atria allows blood to pool rather than move into the ventricles and out to the lungs or the rest of the body.
Blood that pools can easily become a blood clot. Once that clot leaves the heart it can become lodged in an artery supplying blood to the brain. If it blocks circulation, that clot can cause a strokethe disruption of blood flow to brain tissue.
An estimated 1 in 7 strokes are caused by AFib, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There are two main types of blood thinners medications that either slow down or interfere with the blood clotting process. They include:
The most common side effects from blood thinners are episodes of excessive bleeding. This may include:
- prolonged bleeding from a cut or scrape
- heavy periods
- blood in urine or stool
- nosebleeds without an obvious cause
Blood thinners may also cause excessive bruising just under the skin and internal bleeding complications. If you suffer an injury, such as a fall, be aware that weakness or numbness on one side of the body or a sudden headache or change in vision or hearing may indicate internal bleeding.
Treat these symptoms as an emergency and get to a hospital. People who take blood thinners are advised to wear a medical alert bracelet detailing their heart condition and the medications they take.
How Should I Use Digoxin
Take digoxin exactly as prescribed by your doctor. Follow all directions on your prescription label and read all medication guides or instruction sheets.
Try to take oral digoxin at the same time every day.
Measure liquid medicine carefully. Use the dosing syringe provided, or use a medicine dose-measuring device .
Take digoxin regularly even if you feel fine or have no symptoms. Get your prescription refilled before you run out of medicine completely.
Digoxin injection is given as a shot into a muscle, or as an infusion into a vein. A healthcare provider will give you this injection if you are unable to take the medicine by mouth.
Your blood pressure and heart rate will need to be checked daily.
You may need frequent blood tests. Your kidney function may also need to be checked.
You should not stop taking this medicine suddenly. Stopping suddenly may make your condition worse.
Store at room temperature away from moisture and heat.
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Cdc Efforts To Support Antibiotic Stewardship
The Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs is one of a suite of documents intended to help improve the use of antibiotics across the spectrum of health care. Building upon the hospital Core Elements framework, CDC also developed guides for other healthcare settings:
CDC has also published an implementation guide for the Core Elements in small and critical access hospitals, Implementation of Antibiotic Stewardship Core Elements in Small and Critical Access Hospitals .
CDC will continue to use a variety of data sources, including the NHSN annual survey of hospital stewardship practices and AU Option, to find ways to optimize hospital antibiotic stewardship programs and practices. CDC will also continue to collaborate with an array of partners who share a common goal of improving antibiotic use.
With stewardship programs now in place in most US hospitals, the focus is on optimizing these programs. CDC recognizes that research is essential to discover both more effective ways to implement proven stewardship practices as well as new approaches. CDC will continue to support research efforts aimed at finding innovative solutions to stewardship challenges.
Antibiotics And Antibiotic Resistance In The Pre Antibiotic Era
Antimicrobials are probably one of the most successful forms of chemotherapy in the history of medicine. It is not necessary to reiterate here how many lives they have saved and how significantly they have contributed to the control of infectious diseases that were the leading causes of human morbidity and mortality for most of human existence. Contrary to the common belief that the exposure to antibiotics is confined to the modern antibiotic era, research has revealed that this is not the case. The traces of tetracycline, for example, have been found in human skeletal remains from ancient Sudanese Nubia dating back to 350550 CE . The distribution of tetracycline in bones is only explicable after exposure to tetracycline-containing materials in the diet of these ancient people. Another example of ancient antibiotic exposure is from a histological study of samples taken from the femoral midshafts of the late Roman period skeletons from the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt . These samples showed discrete fluorochrome labeling consistent with the presence of tetracycline in the diet at that time . The postulated intake of tetracycline in these populations possibly had a protective effect because the rate of infectious diseases documented in the Sudanese Nubian population was low, and no traces of bone infection were detected in the samples from the Dakhleh Oasis .
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Who Can And Can’t Take Doxycycline
Doxycycline can be taken by adults and children over 12 years old. Doxycycline is not usually recommended in pregnancy or when breastfeeding.
It isn’t suitable for some people. To make sure this medicine is safe for you, tell your doctor if you have:
- ever had an allergic reaction to doxycycline or any other medicine in the past
- kidney problems
- myasthenia gravis, an illness that causes severe muscle wasting
Antibiotics: Past Present And Future
The first antibiotic, salvarsan, was deployed in 1910. In just over 100 years antibiotics have drastically changed modern medicine and extended the average human lifespan by 23 years. The discovery of penicillin in 1928 started the golden age of natural product antibiotic discovery that peaked in the mid-1950s. Since then, a gradual decline in antibiotic discovery and development and the evolution of drug resistance in many human pathogens has led to the current antimicrobial resistance crisis. Here we give an overview of the history of antibiotic discovery, the major classes of antibiotics and where they come from. We argue that the future of antibiotic discovery looks bright as new technologies such as genome mining and editing are deployed to discover new natural products with diverse bioactivities. We also report on the current state of antibiotic development, with 45 drugs currently going through the clinical trials pipeline, including several new classes with novel modes of action that are in phase 3 clinical trials. Overall, there are promising signs for antibiotic discovery, but changes in financial models are required to translate scientific advances into clinically approved antibiotics.
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What Are The Possible Side
It is not possible in this leaflet to list all the possible side-effects of each antibiotic. However, as with all medicines, there are a number of side-effects that have been reported with each of the different antibiotics. If you want more information specific to your antibiotic then you should read the information leaflet that comes with the medicine.
Most side-effects of antibiotics are not serious. Common side-effects include soft stools , diarrhoea, or mild stomach upset such as feeling sick . Less commonly, some people have an allergic reaction to an antibiotic and some have died from a severe allergic reaction – this is very rare.
Antibiotics can kill off normal defence bacteria which live in the bowel and vagina. This may then allow thrush or other bad bacteria to grow.
You should tell your doctor if you have any of the following side-effects:
- Severe watery diarrhoea and tummy cramps: signs of a serious bacterial infection of the gut – Clostridium difficile infection.
- Shortness of breath, hives, rash, swelling , fainting: signs of an allergic reaction.
- White patches on the tongue: signs of oral thrush.
- Being sick .
Some antibiotics may interact with other medicines that you might take. This may cause reactions, or reduce the effectiveness of one or other of the treatments. So, when you are prescribed an antibiotic you should tell a doctor if you take other medicines.
How And When To Take It
Your dose of doxycycline depends on why you are taking it.
The usual dose is 100mg to 200mg once or twice a day. If you’re taking doxycycline more than once a day, try to space your doses evenly throughout the day. If you take it twice a day, this could be first thing in the morning, and in the evening.
For preventing malaria, you’ll take 100mg once a day, usually in the morning. Start taking doxycycline 1 or 2 days before going to an area where there is malaria. Carry on for 4 weeks after leaving the area. Check with your doctor or pharmacist that doxycycline is the best medicine to prevent malaria in the country you are travelling to.
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