Antibodies are little cells your body makes that fight infection -- viruses and bacteria, mostly. OM NOM NOM! RAR! (Although the body can also have "auto-immune disorders" which means that the immune system takes a dislike to something "auto" -- self -- and sics antibodies on it. Like my immune system thinks my thyroid needs to die.)
Flu shots and other vaccinations are tailored to introduce a foreign substance into the body, along with an irritant, that tells the immune system, "Hey! Lookie here! Bad stuff!" The immune system feels out the killed bacteria or virus particles, gets a "profile" for them, and churns out some antibodies to the things.
Antibiotics are drugs that destroy bacteria. They don't do anything against viruses. They don't distinguish between the bacteria that you need, in your gut and your vagina, to stay healthy. Is it bacteria? IT DIES, MUWHAHAHA! (This is why one should take probiotics an hour or so after taking antibiotics, to help send more good bacteria into the fray.) But once the antibiotics are out of the system, any remaining bacteria can start reproducing again. This is why it's vital to finish out a course of antibiotics! If you stop just when you "feel better," then there's a very good chance that there are still some bacteria left that were tough enough to survive, but aren't numerous enough to make you feel bad... YET. Those bacteria tend to breed, and now you have macho Chuck Norris bacteria in your system that thumb their nose at antibiotics. That's bad.
Antivirals are things like Valtrex, that work against viruses. They don't do anything against bacteria, and they have to be tailored to a given strain. I take Valtrex -- or the generic, when they have it in stock -- to nuke my cold sores when they pop up. Like antibiotics, once they're out of my system, they're out of my system; the Valtrex dose I took a week ago won't help me if I'm still so stressed out that another cold sore pops up today.
For the shaving... I'd suggest trimming down with a shaving attachment of an electric razor, first. Get a guy's, and you can use both the beard trimmer, and then give the three-rotary-blade part a try on the flatter parts of your mound. Then... this is counter-intuitive, but consider trying a dull razor. Sharp razors are fine for under my arms, and my chin before I laser-hair-removal treated the goatee, but they rip my legs up like woah. Dull razors don't. It's weird. (My leg-shaving goes: rotary-blade shave before shower, dull razor with soap after.)
Other things you can consider would be waxing (yanks the hairs out by the roots), epilators (does the same thing, without wax), or for the permanent route -- if you are pale of skin and dark of hair -- laser hair removal. (The laser hits the dark pigment of the hair and the pigmentation cells in the hair follicle, and turns from light into heat. The heated pigment fries the cells around it, eventually damaging or killing the hair follicle itself. I lost a freckle/flat mole during my laser hair removal treatments! I didn't lose all the hairs, but they stopped being thick, stiff, eyelash/eyebrow quality hairs on my chin, but turned into fine face hairs that I can pluck without getting ingrowns, or ignore without getting sandpaper.)
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Date: 2010-04-12 05:58 pm (UTC)Flu shots and other vaccinations are tailored to introduce a foreign substance into the body, along with an irritant, that tells the immune system, "Hey! Lookie here! Bad stuff!" The immune system feels out the killed bacteria or virus particles, gets a "profile" for them, and churns out some antibodies to the things.
Antibiotics are drugs that destroy bacteria. They don't do anything against viruses. They don't distinguish between the bacteria that you need, in your gut and your vagina, to stay healthy. Is it bacteria? IT DIES, MUWHAHAHA! (This is why one should take probiotics an hour or so after taking antibiotics, to help send more good bacteria into the fray.) But once the antibiotics are out of the system, any remaining bacteria can start reproducing again. This is why it's vital to finish out a course of antibiotics! If you stop just when you "feel better," then there's a very good chance that there are still some bacteria left that were tough enough to survive, but aren't numerous enough to make you feel bad... YET. Those bacteria tend to breed, and now you have macho Chuck Norris bacteria in your system that thumb their nose at antibiotics. That's bad.
Antivirals are things like Valtrex, that work against viruses. They don't do anything against bacteria, and they have to be tailored to a given strain. I take Valtrex -- or the generic, when they have it in stock -- to nuke my cold sores when they pop up. Like antibiotics, once they're out of my system, they're out of my system; the Valtrex dose I took a week ago won't help me if I'm still so stressed out that another cold sore pops up today.
For the shaving... I'd suggest trimming down with a shaving attachment of an electric razor, first. Get a guy's, and you can use both the beard trimmer, and then give the three-rotary-blade part a try on the flatter parts of your mound. Then... this is counter-intuitive, but consider trying a dull razor. Sharp razors are fine for under my arms, and my chin before I laser-hair-removal treated the goatee, but they rip my legs up like woah. Dull razors don't. It's weird. (My leg-shaving goes: rotary-blade shave before shower, dull razor with soap after.)
Other things you can consider would be waxing (yanks the hairs out by the roots), epilators (does the same thing, without wax), or for the permanent route -- if you are pale of skin and dark of hair -- laser hair removal. (The laser hits the dark pigment of the hair and the pigmentation cells in the hair follicle, and turns from light into heat. The heated pigment fries the cells around it, eventually damaging or killing the hair follicle itself. I lost a freckle/flat mole during my laser hair removal treatments! I didn't lose all the hairs, but they stopped being thick, stiff, eyelash/eyebrow quality hairs on my chin, but turned into fine face hairs that I can pluck without getting ingrowns, or ignore without getting sandpaper.)