10.17.2007

Antibiotic resistance update

Bacteria are getting better at eluding technological medicine's open attacks. I've been following the mainstream media's reports on this subject for a while now, and especially in this last year things seem to have begun an exponential rise.
Of chief concern is a variety of Staph bacteria, known as MRSA, that is highly resistant to powerful antibiotics, as well as being way more virulent. And now some numbers are in: MRSA has killed an estimated 19,000 Americans in 2005 and made 94,000 seriously ill.
Additionally, a strain of bacteria sometimes involved in middle ear infections (Streptococcus pneumoniae) is evolving antibiotic resistance that may have come as a response to increased vaccination rates and the overuse of drugs for ear infections.
Folks around the country are getting worried as these bugs spread from the hospital to the community. Dallas, where a teenager died from MRSA in March, is monitoring local schools. Bedford, VA has shut down all its schools after a student died of MRSA today.
This is getting scarier, and it seems to me that a moratorium on antibiotic use (unthinkable to mention even 10 years ago) for all but the most dire emergencies is almost in order. But if we can't use antibiotics, what on earth can we use to treat ear, skin, and lung infections? We are powerless!

4 comments:

Holland Franklin said...

What about using colloidal silver? Supposedly it is effective against over 600 different types of bacteria. Does it matter what kind of bacteria it is?
Also, what about clays such as Pascalite that is very effective in topical application for toxic skin and tissue conditions?

Guido Mase' said...

Holland, silver is certainly effective (I've used it often), though it works best on GI tract bugs and topically. Its mechanism of toxicity against bacteria seems multi-faceted, making it hard to evolve resistance, and thus it may function much as alcohol does.
Nevertheless, both silver and clays have limited effectiveness on systemic bacterial infection.
Here's an interesting review:
http://www.worldwidewounds.com/2006/may/Maillard/Focus-On-Silver.html

Marguerite said...

Hello,
I too have been observing the media on the continued overuse of anti-biotics. I concur with your thoughts Guido !
As for MRSA, true, its scary. Yet what I/we have experienced with wild foods and plant medicine, much of that fear can dissappear. I feel so supported by our green beings.

One thought I'd like to ponder is this - the abuse and overuse of something good.
It could be in good measure for those of us whom work with nature medicine to heed western medicine's track record as part of our protocol or prescription of advice for prevention. Yet, sometimes the illusion can be right in front of ones nose and unaware.

Allow me to offer an example ... other than an antimicrobial story.

A 46 y/o phyiscally fit and active woman who was in an auto accident receiving severe nerve injuries to her neck, shoulders, arms and wrists. Drastically changing her activities of daily living. Aside from her working with various herbal formulations, anti-inflammatory food choices, body work, energy medicine and talk therapy, she controlled her nerve pain with dear St. JohnsWort. Taking it on a daily to weekly basis. Never for longer than a 2 week break. After 2 1/2 yrs, she noted her nerve pain was healing by Hypericum.
The Learning: Within 6 weeks of tapering off of SJW she found depression in her life. Though she was using SJW only for nerve pain, her accident had caused great loss. And although talk therapy helped with these issues, the magnitude of the loss had not been truely realized until SJW was therapeutically out of her system.

Two practices I have always encouraged, in my own work and when I share plant medicine therapies, is a rotation method in the use of herbs. And custom formulating.

Sometimes, awareness is escapable. Especially when its personal. That woman ... was me.
All in good learning.

Blessings

Anonymous said...

This was published in the Evening Telegraph, a British newspaper. For a FREE report on safe, daily colloidal silver dosage levels, please visit www.thesilveredge.com


Mans claims colloidal silver cured his MRSA infection...
http://www.northantset.co.uk/675/Man39s-MRSA-cure-claims.941888.jp

An elderly man who lived with a potentially lethal infection for two years claims he has cleared himself of the illness with colloidal silver.

David Sharman, 82, was infected with superbug MRSA in June, 2001, but believes determination and a regular dose of colloidal silver has helped him beat the infection.

He said: "There are so many terrible stories about MRSA in the news, but people seem to just talk about it and are not doing anything.

"I started to use colloidal silver and, after almost two years living with the infection and having regular check-ups, I was told I was clear."

Mr Sharman, of Exmouth Avenue, Corby, claims he contracted MRSA after a series of hip operations at Kettering General Hospital during 2001.

He said: "The wound on my hip became infected and the hospital informed me that I had MRSA before I was discharged for rehabilitation.

"I was determined to help myself and began using colloidal silver directly on my wound daily."

Colloidal silver is a liquid commonly used before the 1930s as an antibiotic treatment and is available at health food shops.
It works by attaching itself to a vital enzyme found in bacteria and disabling the offending pathogen, preventing it from reproducing.

Mr Sharman, who has three children Richard, 22, William, 20, and Sarah, 18, with wife Denise, said: "I could feel myself slowly getting better and the day I got the all-clear, just before Christmas 2003, was an extremely happy day for the whole family.

"Getting MRSA doesn't have to mean it is the end of the road and I really believe colloidal silver helped me."

Dr Richard Slack is a microbiologist based in Nottingham who works in infection control.

He said: "The silver is quite a good antibiotic used in burns units because it does kill MRSA and other bacteria that cause wound infections.

"There is absolutely a possibility that this has been beneficial to Mr Sharman."