Well, we've long used the color of phlegm as a gauge to determine whether to prescribe antibiotics or not: clear implied viral origin while discolored phlegm suggested bacterial origin requiring antibiotics. WRONG! It turns out that phlegm color has nothing to do with infectious etiology. It just sounded good. In fact, in a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial published three days ago in the British Medical Journal, the authors concluded that neither ibuprofen nor amoxicillin-clavulanate shortened the duration of cough or production of discolored phlegm due to an acute bronchitic infection compared to placebo.
Bottom line, antibiotics aren't useful in treating most upper respiratory infections. Your doc is actually doing you a favor by trying to talk you out of your request for antibiotics while the next doc you see is doing you a disservice by quickly acquiescing to your request just to get you out of his/her office that much more quickly. In other words, be careful what you ask.
Tweet
This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here.
