The question: How long does it take for amoxicillin to start working? One has to refer to findings made by experts in the field of medicine who confidently claim that antibiotics such as amoxicillin jump to the task almost immediately after ingestion. The actual relief may come later but typically, patients with bacterial infections show improvements within 1 to 3 days. Let’s find out more about the curative qualities of amoxicillin.
Antibiotics either kill or sterilize bacteria
Antibiotics, such as amoxicillin, are capable of performing two very significant tasks which render the effectiveness of bacteria to cause infections a thing of the past
They can either kill or immobilize bacteria with their own arsenal of whatever they use to make man free from bacterial domination but it doesn’t end there. Here are a few more selected ‘purging’ abilities that amoxicillin possesses:
- Antibiotics treat infection in two ways. They effectively destroy their cell walls or prevent the bacteria from reproducing thus preventing their spread
- While antibiotics completely neutralize bacteria some also contain anti-inflammatory features that can help treat other kinds of illnesses.
- Antibiotics take action the minute they are taken but you may not feel any curative action taking place until your immune system gets used to their presence and action.
So how do antibiotics actually work?
There are many different ways in which antibiotics gets rid of bacteria from your body. The actually attack and disrupt the various ways bacteria use to asexually reproduce by working together in the following fashions:
- They kill bacteria by ruining the protective cell walls that protect the inner bacteria. And they also prevent the cell walls from initially forming so they can’t protect the bacteria.
- In order to survive, bacteria have to be able to copy its own DNA in order to activate their reproductive process. Antibiotics also disable this ability by interfering with the copying process.
- Metabolism allows bacteria in the body to multiply and quickly spread. However, amoxicillin also interferes with this process and therefor hampers with bacteria’s ability in multiplying and spreading throughout the body.
So there are two main types of drug medications in addition to amoxicillin than prevent bacteria from succeeding in their destructive mission.
The first group is the bactericidal antibiotics which actually kill bacteria period! Some of these antibiotics include penicillin, vancomycin and cephalosporin.
The second group is the bacteriostatic antibiotics which have the ability of preventing bacteria from multiplying their kind. Examples of these antibiotics include ciprofloxacin, tetracycline and rifamycin.
There are also other antibiotics that can both kill and prevent bacteria from living and roam further afield in the recesses of your body. But these depend on the prescribed dose prepared for you and how well advanced your bacterial infection has spread in your body.
So now you know how antibiotics fight and neutralize bacteria but not type of infections that they actually treat so let’s take a look.
What types of infections do antibiotics treat?
Whatever type of antibiotics that your doctor prescribes for you, will depend on the type of infection that has invaded your body and they will usually be of two types of antibiotics: broad-spectrumor narrow-spectrum.
The basic difference between the two antibiotics is that broad-spectrum antibiotics impact a wide range of bacteria, while narrow-spectrum antibiotics only attack specific kinds of bacteria.
Usually, the first step that physicians take when they know which type of bacteria gave rise to the infection is to prescribe narrow-spectrum antibiotics for you.
For instance, in a situation where Streptococcus pyogenes causes the infection pharyngitis, your doctor or pharmacist will prescribe the drug medication benzypenicillin.
This is done because broad-spectrum antibiotics may cause antibiotic resistance because of the drug’s inability to focus its curative properties on the bacteria.
As aptly put by physician Kaveh, “Unfortunately. The side effects of antibiotics must be taken into account…”. “In particular bacterial resistance must be considered whenever using antibiotics for non-bacterial infections.”
So in actual fact, physicians may have to prescribe an antibiotic as a precautionary measure only.
As Kaveh also admits, “We do not yet have accurate tools for determining when an infection is bacterial or vira. And in those cases, an antibiotic may be given empirically if deemed appropriate by the physician.
But how long does it take antibiotics to work?
It has been observed and proven that antibiotics will begin to work in the body immediately after being ingested.
For instance, amoxicillin will usually take about one hour to reach maximum levels in your body. The person being treated however, would not be able to feel any relieving symptoms until sometime later.
“Antibiotics will typical show improvement in patients with bacterial infections within one to three days,” says Kaveh.
The reason for this is that for different types of illnesses, the body’s immune reactions may be responsible for causing the emergence of some of the symptoms.
This also means that the immune system will often take time to settle down after the harmful bacteria are eliminated.
Some other antibiotics such asfosfomycin which is used for treating certain Urinary Tract Infections or UTI cases will immediately go to work once ingested and very often the medication may only require one dose for treating the infection.
Other antibiotics that include tetracycline can be used to treat an extensive list of infections from syphilis to acne.
They may also require several weeks of treatment with many doses before the person infected to be aware if any improvement has taken place.
Again Kaveh explains that: “The timeframe depends on the type of infection and whether the bacteria are susceptible to that particular type of antibiotic”.
Is it wise for me to prematurely stop taking my antibiotics?
It’s very important for you to take your antibiotics until the end of the course even if your condition improves.
If you top the treatment early, some of the bacteria may still be functioning and your condition may be reactivated because the surviving bacteria can multiply rapidly.
Early cessation of treatment may also exacerbate antibiotic resistance which can cause more problems in the effective treatment of infections.
For instance, researchers are now looking at how to control bacteria super bugs by studying the amount of dosage. They have found that shorter regimens of antibiotic treatment may be just as effective as longer courses.
Nevertheless, more research is required to confirm results further so for now a full course of antibiotics you’re prescribed for an infection with is the way to go.
Conclusion
It’s perfectly alright to ask: How long does it take for amoxicillin to start working? It indicates that the person asking wants to know all about the curative features of the drug treatment which indicates that there is faith in the medication and the person asking is likely to take it against possible infection attacks. There is sufficient information in this article to add weight to the efficacy of amoxicillin as an efficient enemy of bacterial attacks.
