When a doctor won’t prescribe antibiotics for a cold, patients can feel like their provider doesn’t appreciate how sick they are.
In reality, it comes down to what’s going to work for your cold, says Morgan White, MD, a family medicine physician at UW Health and assistant professor of family medicine and community health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison. “Your doctor wants to recommend the right tool for the job,” she says.
Rather than giving you an antibiotic for a cold, treatment should focus on easing the symptoms that bother you most, says Dr. White.
Dumford agrees: “The right call is to talk you through how to mitigate your symptoms while the virus runs its course,” rather than put you at further risk by taking an antibiotic that won’t help, he says.
The following strategies can offer relief.
