April 23rd, 2008 ecoli
Microblogology shares a study by the Evanston Northwestern’s MRSA screening program that demonstrates that the most effective ways to control infectious diseases can also be the cheapest, and least ’scientific.’ To study epidemiology is to be smart about pathogens. Where are they coming from, how do they infect, what physical barriers can we set up to stop the spread of pathogens from patient to patient?
The study found that 8.5% of their patients carried MRSA into the hospital (carried, not necessarily infected with). By isolating these patients and taking special precautions, in terms of hygienic practices, the hospital was able to cut down hospital-acquired infections 70%.
This is a more cheaper way to control MRSA than drug development, and it doesn’t give the bacteria a chance to development new antibiotic resistance in the first place. Simple cleanliness and hygiene can probably to attributed to the lessening of the roles of infectious pathogens to the human death rate perhaps even more than antibiotics or vaccines. We seem to have forgotten this along the way; that chemicals and not efficient planning is the more effective method of preventing infections.
Posted in link out, medicine, microbiology, news | No Comments »
April 15th, 2008 ecoli
What’s with the recent obsession with green tea for its alleged medicinal properties?
Every weekend I turn on the radio, and I’ll hear on at least 3 major stations, and all day long is people talking about how great green tea is. Here’s a short list of the supposed healing powers of green tea, courtesy of the Beauty Blog.
• promotes blood circulation
• increases the body’s natural resistance
• helps with oxygenation
• helps achieve “greater harmony”
• improves the body’s ability to handle the external physical and psycological [sic] pressures of life
• prevents tooth decay and maketeeth more resistant to acids
• promote digestion and cleanses the body internally
• tea drinkers say that they actually feel less tired and brightens their whole outlook
So anything this wonderful, of course makes me immediately suspicious. It sounds like alternative medicine to me, which I immediately wary of, because proponents almost invariably exaggerate the benefits, if there are any.
doing some quick poking around at scienceblogs, I found some mixed results. The Angry Toxicologist found some incorrect reporting in a major news outlet about green tea. Respectful Insolence found a study, the title of which was more enthusiastic than the results indicated.
On the other hand, this webpage from the University of Maryland lists some benefits and references, which I assume are relatively accurate (though I haven’t checked up on all them).
So, for now I conclude that we don’t yet know enough about green tea and the effects on the body to state anything overly positive or negative about it. I know that people who frequent places like the Green Tea blog and forum would like to believe that green tea is the magical mystery cure. However, just from my general experience with biology and medicine, there is rarely any single substance that is a cure all, and that even healthy substances should be rationed appropriately, balance and variety being key to a healthy diet. I also recommend sticking to reputable news sources, try to avoid those radio programs, and make sure to check the sources on all information. When it comes to health, you can afford to be skeptical about miracle elixirs and potions.
Posted in link out, medicine, musings | 4 Comments »
April 13th, 2008 ecoli
Small Things Considered reports on a scientific finding that shows that antibiotic resistance in bacteria strains taken from soil samples is fairly common. Even though in some of these samples, they would be unlikely to have come into contact with man-made antibiotics. Testing 18 antibiotics from man-made and natural sources against 11 different samples, researchers did not find any sample that didn’t have bacteria that could metabolize at least 1 antibiotic.
Its an interesting find, which has implications for medicine and health, but is it surprising? I would tend to disagree. Given the rate that bacteria can evolve antibiotic resistance, it stands to reason that there should bacteria exist in nature that can metabolize them.
I quote Paul Orwin who left a comment in the above blog post:
I thought it was fairly clear that in the environment, there are lots of bacteria making antibiotics, and others that can break them down and/or resist them… I can’t see any way that this doesn’t affect clinical use of antibiotics. First, we know that there is plenty of movement of bacteria between soil and host organisms. Second, we know there is plenty of gene transfer going on in both environments. Therefore, there is a very high probability that within a soil microbial population, there is a potential pathogen (Burk and Pseudo being pretty strong contenders) that eats antibiotics for breakfast.
Posted in evolution, medicine, microbiology | 1 Comment »
March 20th, 2008 ecoli
Helicobacter pylori is a fascinating bacteria with an interesting historical timeline. The Microbiology Blog ran a little segment on it, to announce an upcoming book, and I thought I’d add to the story.
Back in the days before 1979, stomach ulcers were blamed entirely on spicy food and stress. People that came down with ulcers or gastritis were put on a bland diet of oatmeal and soft foods like that.
Enter Australian pathologists, Robin Warren and Barry Marshall. They successfully isolated and cultured H. pylori from mucosal linings of the stomach specimens. They suggested that it was H. pylori in fact, and not diet, that was the direct agent of stomach ulcers and gastritis.
Initially, the response of the scientific community was skepticism. The consensus was that no organism could survive the high acidity of the stomach (pH 2). However, in an astonishing experiment, they proved the entire scientific community wrong.
Dr. Marshall drank H. pylori cultures, subsequently developing gastritis and the organism was recovered from his stomach lining. After ten days, an endoscopy was taken proving his symptoms were, in fact, gastritis and that H. pylori was present. He then treated himself with bismuth salts and Metronidazole, antibiotics to anaerobic organisms. They went on to show antibiotics as an effective treatment for many clinical cases of stomach ulcers.
To make the case even more interesting, in turned out, from later DNA sequencing data, this organism represented an entirely new genus of bacteria. Of which, several other species were discovered in other mammals and birds.
For their work and obvious dedication to ‘hands on’ experimentation, Warren and Barry received the 2005 Nobel Prize in medicine.
*disclaimer: drinking bacterial cultures will not necessarily garauntee a Noble Prize, though if you’re really desperate, it might be worth a try*
Posted in medicine, microbiology | 1 Comment »
March 19th, 2008 ecoli
Orac, from science blogs’s Respectful Insolance, brings to light a disturbing new trend in medicine; Woo invades the military.
Apparently, some German and American medics are (independently) exploring the use acupuncture to deal with pain. Despite the enthusiasm the military seems to have for this new program, they don’t seem to care much about waiting for research to discover if acupuncture is actually does what they say. It seems like this could be a potentially expensive and dangerous display of the placebo effect.
Ask Col. Richard Niemtzow, a radiation oncologist-turned acupuncturist for the Air Force how to deal with phantom pain of amputees and he’ll tell you to put needles into the ear, an organ closely associated with the central nervous system. The needles interfere with pain processing by interrupting and turning “the pathways.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in link out, medicine, news | 3 Comments »
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