Doctors Are Idiots Four

In contrast to conjuntivitis, most doctors will treat an upper respiratory infection with a negative strep test with Tylenol and little if anything else.

Which is too bad. First, there are other germs besides viruses and strep which cause these infections, and second, because four out of five people with upper respiratory infections due to viruses will develop secondary bacterial sinusitis.

You know the mucous you get (you see the little yellow guys in commercials all the time on tv). Well, its warm, dark, moist, and filled with the foods bacteria love best. And every time you breathe in, millions of bacteria find a new home there.

So antibiotics are a good bet from the get go, despite our academic background.

But if you don't get rid of the mucous too, with antihistamines and nasal rinses as well, you'll have a recurrence two weeks later.

And if your sinuses have mucous, because of allergies, you'll get infected.

The good news is that nasal rinses and antihistamines work, are sold without prescription, and generally don't have little yellow yucky guys in their ads.