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hey joe
Thanks.
As far as the "mechanism" this is in fact "THE" question. I posed this to my surgeon and got silence. No answer. He clammed up. After an uncomfortable silence he moved on to other details.
This leaves us to figure it out on our own, and to postulate openly would only invite ridicule from the medical industrial complex. We are not biochemists.
On a conspiratorial note, I suspect it's a well kept secret in the medical echelons. If everyone knew what could be achieved, then everyone would want it and the human race would suffer a terrible decline down the road as so many people would become walking MRSA incubators and humanity would loose the benefit of antibiotics.
Ok. I will postulate, so I invite doctors to hurl insults at me. I think that my soft tissue doesn't like foreign items at the party, so I get inflammation. And somehow inflammation caused by this particular problem can in fact be greatly reduced with antibiotics.
Something down there in miniature land is put to sleep with anty- b's and then inflammation disappears.
I don't think my idea will be published. LOL
Replies to "hey joe Thanks. As far as the "mechanism" this is in fact "THE" question. I posed..."
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Actually, we do know that SOME antibiotics have anti-inflammatory properties as well. And it is that which provides you pain relief. Inflammation and infection are 2 different mechanisms, so it has been a surprise to the research community. And it is not universal - an antibiotic that helps with lung inflammation may or may not help with other types like orthopedic or nerve pain. More work is being done on the subject - trying to figure out which property of the antibiotic they might be able to replicate as a pain med instead of using and compromising the primary effectiveness of the entire drug for its intended use.
Also, as you mentioned, with wider use of antibiotics for off-label purposes, there is a very high probability of creating even more superbugs, so in most cases docs will not prescribe them that way, except as a last resort.
What makes decision even harder is that the most effective antibiotics at relieving pain are the "big guns" doctors save for hard to treat infections - if they lose antibiotic effectiveness we're in trouble Also, long-term use of many antibiotics have their own terrible side effects. They attack the gut biome causing digestive issues, and can affect hearing, vision, kidneys, liver, even the heart. They were never tested or labeled for long-term use as pain medication so many of these problems only become apparent when it is too late.
So your idea is being studied, and will eventually be published, if those two issues can be worked out. This is why even a new use for an old drug must often undergo several rounds of lab, animal and human testing before it is approved.