Question about how antibiotics work

[RidingSixWhiteHorses]

Went to go with sinus infection and between getting prescription for amoxicillin this am and picking it up this pm have also developed cystitis. Google tells me this is Lao treated with amoxicillin. Will same course of drugs treat both or would it need a double dose? Obv the pills don't know whether to direct themselves towards sinuses or bladder, so how do antibiotics work and should this attack two infections at once?

GP. Not go

You don't need double dose. ABs should cure both.

Antibiotics target cells with cell walls (invading microbes) so not our body cells as ours don't have cell walls. They fall into two camps: broad spectrum (which can attack a range of infections) or narrow spectrum ( more specific). They were in a number of ways:-

1. They pump holes on cell walls so the microbes film with fluid and burst by osmosis.
2. Interrupt protein synthesis.
3. Interrupt DNA synthesis ?

Etc Each microbe has a known list (which is ever shortening) of working antibiotics.

Punch,not pump!

Also, antibiotics will be absorbed into your bloodstream and will go everywhere in your body (as do paracetamol and ibuprofen, unlike what the adverts say!).

This is why antibiotics sometimes upset your gut flora or give people thrush (because the "friendly" bacteria are sometimes affected too).