MRSA

There's been a lot in the news lately about MRSA, a type of staph infection that is resistant or immune to some prescription antibiotics. It's not a new disease, but there was a study that just came out lately with some statistics, showing that this disease kills significantly more people than aids.

Staph infections have been with us since the dawn of time, and have always been fairly common. Impetigo is a skin infection that is often the result of staph, and is frequently how this infection gets started. It's also a common bacteria to have as infection in a cut or other wound. Once it gets into the bloodstream, the toxins it produces can lead to symptoms ranging from fever to death.

There are basically three ways to prevent an outcome like that-- sanitation, an effective immune response, and antibacterial substances. Number one is good hygiene and sanitation. We're a lot better in this department right now than we were a hundred years ago, before we had things like running hot water and municipal sewer systems.

The second thing is an effective immune response. No matter how clean your environment is, you're going to run into staph bacteria unless you live in a sterile bubble (and maybe even then). This is usually not a problem. A few bacteria here and there are barely even a challenge to a healthy immune system. The problem arises when you either lack a strong immune system, such as in an infant, an old person, or someone who is already sick with something else; or the bacteria are introduced in such numbers or in such a way that there are too many of them to fight off (for a graphic example, contact with the skin or clothes of omeone who already has a weeping staph infection).

Antibacterial substances, be they herbs, antibiotics, or antiseptics, are really a last resort. They can't do anything until there is already a problem, already an infection for them to work against. Unfortunately, they've been relied upon far too heavily for too long.

MRSA, the antibiotic resitant staph, was first noticed in the late 1960's, almost 40 years ago. For many years, for decades even, it was an infection that was mostly present in hospitals. People would get it after surgery, or get it in a bedsore, or whatever. It existed because people took antibiotics for their staph, which killed off the weaker bacteria and let the stronger ones survive, until finally there was a new race of super-bacteria. In recent years, MRSA has started showing up in schools and in the environment in general, and no longer just in hospitals. It has also become even more powerful and more drug resistant. Unfortunately, the treatability of the illness has gotten worse over time, so that a higher percentage of people with staph infections die from them now than twenty five years ago, in spite of any advances that might have been made in medical technology.

Fortunately, MRSA does not seem to respond any differently to herbal treatment, than regular old staph did deacades or centuries or millenia ago. I've consistently seen good results with people taking antibacterial herbs, even after prescription antibiotics have failed. I think the reason for this is that a germ can develop resistance to a single chemical, like methicillin or vancomycin, much more easily than it can develop resistance to hundreds of substances at once, as it would have to do to survive in the body ofsomeone using myrrh or garlic.

For someone who is at risk of being exposed to MRSA (like anyone who works in a hospital, school, day care, or nursing home), I suggest strengthening the immune system to increase its ability to fight off such an insult. For anyone with an active case of infection, strengthening the immune system is also important, as is suppementing the immune system's function with antibacterial herbs.