• Medieval remedy for eye infections found to cure MRSA
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[url]http://www.popsci.com/ancient-medical-remedy-works-against-modern-resistant-bacteria?dom=fb&src=SOC[/url] [QUOTE]Bloodletting, mercury cures, holes drilled in the head—many ancient medical remedies seem ill-advised based on our modern understanding of medicine. But researchers recently found that a thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon treatment for eye infections works as an antibiotic against one of today’s most notorious bacteria, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The British researchers will present their findings this week at an annual microbiology conference held in the United Kingdom.[/QUOTE]
Makes you wonder how many herbs or other strange remedies back then actually did work.
I'm pretty sure MRSA is a superbug isn't it?
[quote]take cropleek and garlic, of both equal quantities, pound them well together, take wine and bullocks’ gall, of both equal quantities, mix with the leek, put this then into a brazen vessel, let it stand nine days in the brass vessel, wring out through a cloth and clear it well, put it into a horn, and about night time apply it with a feather to the eye; the best leechdom.[/quote] The black magic at it's finest.
[QUOTE=TornadoAP;47426083]I'm pretty sure MRSA is a superbug isn't it?[/QUOTE] yeah, along with MDR/XDR-TB it's the new hotness in hospitals with poor hygiene protocols and societies with an over-reliance on antibiotics
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;47426091]The black magic at it's finest.[/QUOTE] And if you get one part wrong it doesn't work. How did they come up with that shit.
Wait, this is fucking [I]huge[/I], we have a working cure to a superbug. At least this gives us hope that, even in the worst-case scenario that antibiotics go tits up, we still have some chance.
[QUOTE=TornadoAP;47426083]I'm pretty sure MRSA is a superbug isn't it?[/QUOTE] I beleive it is, yes. Strep bacteria that laughs at the normal antibiotics, and now we seem to have found something that kicks its arse. [editline]30th March 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=OutspokenGolf;47426245]yeah, along with MDR/XDR-TB it's the new hotness in hospitals with poor hygiene protocols and [b]societies with an over-reliance on antibiotics[/b][/QUOTE] AKA most American hopsitals. We've had problems with MRSA outbreaks in the past. Here's hoping we've won our first battle against superbugs, as that would buy us enough time to find an antibiotic that bacteria can't out-evolve.
I've had Staph infections before and it's fucking nasty. Worst bit is it's extremely contagious, so I'm glad this was discovered because that being rampant is not good at all.
[QUOTE=Deathtrooper2;47426079]Makes you wonder how many herbs or other strange remedies back then actually did work.[/QUOTE] Mmhm. It's easy to go 'Haha they had no idea what they were doing' and disregard everything they did, but they came up with a few good ideas. We still use leeches medicinally, after all, and this is quite a promising find as well. The alchemist that came up with it, if you were able to ask him, likely wouldn't have the foggiest idea how this actually works, but he still had a great idea and it'd be silly to throw it away simply because it came from a time when we thought drilling a hole in your head was a suitable cure for a common headache.
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;47426091]The black magic at it's finest.[/QUOTE] Read that last bit as "the best lichdom" and got a bit concerned.
Frogskins were prescribed for all manner of sickness. Recently a study found that they contain massive amounts of bacterium-killing penicillin-like fungus.
[QUOTE=TornadoAP;47426083]I'm pretty sure MRSA is a superbug isn't it?[/QUOTE] You are correct. MRSA stands for Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. It's also highly resistant to other antibiotics (Methicillin for example, in the name) and as such is difficult to treat as it can spread quickly. A small MRSA infection of, for example, your dermis skin layer will quickly spread to the epidermis skin layer beneath it and soon become blood borne - bacteremia. As soon as it spreads to your blood, the rest of your body is at [I]huge[/I] risk because that blood is getting pumped (ideally) to every part of your body as fast as your heart beat allows. This puts [I]all[/I] of your organs at stake, and greatly reduces the chance of you surviving, since MRSA is resistant to many antibiotics.
[QUOTE=Quark:;47426697]You are correct. MRSA stands for Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. It's also highly resistant to other antibiotics (Methicillin for example, in the name) and as such is difficult to treat as it can spread quickly. A small MRSA infection of, for example, your dermis skin layer will quickly spread to the epidermis skin layer beneath it and soon become blood borne - bacteremia. As soon as it spreads to your blood, the rest of your body is at [I]huge[/I] risk because that blood is getting pumped (ideally) to every part of your body as fast as your heart beat allows. This puts [I]all[/I] of your organs at stake, and greatly reduces the chance of you surviving, since MRSA is resistant to many antibiotics.[/QUOTE] You're not entirely fucked because the immune system is able to fight it quite effectively However in people with autoimmune disorders or are old, then it's pretty grim
Never underestimate the power of stopped clocks, I guess.
[QUOTE=Quark:;47426697]You are correct. MRSA stands for Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. It's also highly resistant to other antibiotics (Methicillin for example, in the name) and as such is difficult to treat as it can spread quickly. A small MRSA infection of, for example, your dermis skin layer will quickly spread to the epidermis skin layer beneath it and soon become blood borne - bacteremia. As soon as it spreads to your blood, the rest of your body is at [I]huge[/I] risk because that blood is getting pumped (ideally) to every part of your body as fast as your heart beat allows. This puts [I]all[/I] of your organs at stake, and greatly reduces the chance of you surviving, since MRSA is resistant to many antibiotics.[/QUOTE] Good except the epidermis is above the dermis, hence the epi
[QUOTE=TestECull;47426331]Mmhm. It's easy to go 'Haha they had no idea what they were doing' and disregard everything they did, but they came up with a few good ideas. We still use leeches medicinally, after all, and this is quite a promising find as well. The alchemist that came up with it, if you were able to ask him, likely wouldn't have the foggiest idea how this actually works, but he still had a great idea and it'd be silly to throw it away simply because it came from a time when we thought drilling a hole in your head was a suitable cure for a common headache.[/QUOTE] Well i guess back then, the way they figured out stuff to work was probably use random people as "Experiments"
They dumped some shit on a sample of MRSA in a petri dish or and it killed it. So does bleach. Doesn't mean I should drink bleach to treat a MRSA infection. Medical research reporting is so fucking broken.
[QUOTE=TestECull;47426331]Mmhm. It's easy to go 'Haha they had no idea what they were doing' and disregard everything they did, but they came up with a few good ideas. We still use leeches medicinally, after all, and this is quite a promising find as well. The alchemist that came up with it, if you were able to ask him, likely wouldn't have the foggiest idea how this actually works, but he still had a great idea and it'd be silly to throw it away simply because it came from a time when we thought drilling a hole in your head was a suitable cure for a common headache.[/QUOTE] Scientific rigor didn't exist but people were still smart enough to realize "if I give this guy this weird plant when he has this illness, he seems better off. Maybe I should try giving it to more people with those symptoms!"
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;47426091] take cropleek and garlic, of both equal quantities, pound them well together, take wine and bullocks’ gall, of both equal quantities, mix with the leek, put this then into a brazen vessel, let it stand nine days in the brass vessel, wring out through a cloth and clear it well, put it into a horn, and about night time apply it with a feather to the eye; the best leechdom.[/QUOTE] Instructions unclear: Dick stuck in toaster.
[QUOTE=urbanmonkey;47427144]Good except the epidermis is above the dermis, hence the epi[/QUOTE] oops, my bad. sleep deprivation is a cruel cruel bitch.
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;47427342]They dumped some shit on a sample of MRSA in a petri dish or and it killed it. So does bleach. Doesn't mean I should drink bleach to treat a MRSA infection. Medical research reporting is so fucking broken.[/QUOTE] You didn't read the article did you? [QUOTE]The researchers tested the concoction on cultures of MRSA bacteria in synthetic wounds as well as in rats. No individual ingredient had no effect on the cultures, but the combined liquid killed almost all the cells; only about one in 1,000 bacteria survived.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=TestECull;47426301]I beleive it is, yes. Strep bacteria that laughs at the normal antibiotics, and now we seem to have found something that kicks its arse. [editline]30th March 2015[/editline] AKA most American hopsitals. We've had problems with MRSA outbreaks in the past. Here's hoping we've won our first battle against superbugs, as that would buy us enough time to find an antibiotic that bacteria can't out-evolve.[/QUOTE] Can we stop pretending that it's the medical use of anti biotics that's causing this instead of the agricultural use
[QUOTE=SIRIUS;47427771]Can we stop pretending that it's the medical use of anti biotics that's causing this instead of the agricultural use[/QUOTE] It's both though really. Doctors will prescribe them unnecessarily and Farmers will load their livestock with them.
yeah, one's a drop in the ocean, and another is a tidal wave
I picture someone in the 9th century asking "Why isn't this working?" and some wise ass says "Needs more bullocks’ gall, that's what me mum always says" and the rest is history.
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;47427342]They dumped some shit on a sample of MRSA in a petri dish or and it killed it. So does bleach. Doesn't mean I should drink bleach to treat a MRSA infection. Medical research reporting is so fucking broken.[/QUOTE] Yeah i'm pretty sure the researchers know more about research than you do. You know, on account of having a medical study that's more than a few years long and stuff.
Finally, we can start amputating limbs again!
[QUOTE=Deathtrooper2;47426079]Makes you wonder how many herbs or other strange remedies back then actually did work.[/QUOTE] A lot of it. It's called 'medicine' now.
[QUOTE=sltungle;47428307]A lot of it. It's called 'medicine' now.[/QUOTE] Well you are just now presented with case of something that current medicine didn't recognise as something that works even though it clearly does, so no, it's clearly shown that there's cases of old remedies that work and aren't currently considered medicine. This obviously doesn't mean that all or even most of the remedies of back then work, but it does mean that it's worthwhile to research the remedies from back then and figure out and rediscover the ones that work. [editline]31st March 2015[/editline] People fixate a lot on the horrible cases that were honestly terrifying to us but that's only because they are more interesting to write about than the thousands of vague herbal recipes that may or may not work. Also consider that malpractice still isn't as rare as one would wish to believe and even few decades ago we have been commonly prescribing drugs only to find out they do more harm than help in the long run. Medicine is an extremely complicated science full of uncertainties and necessary evil of less than exact methods now and then. The medicine of back then wasn't exempt from that but neither is the medicine of today, and today medicine is further burdened by economical eventualities of this treatment or the other which might be a fact some people over exaggerate way too much but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist at all.
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