# Anglo-Saxon remedy kills hospital superbug MRSA



## pardus (Apr 4, 2015)

Fascinating stuff! The ancients did have some remarkable technologies that we could learn from.



> _Take cropleek and garlic, of both equal quantities, pound them well together… take wine and bullocks gall, mix with the leek… let it stand nine days in the brass vessel…_
> 
> So goes a thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon recipe to vanquish a stye, an infected eyelash follicle.
> ---------------------------------------
> The potion was tested on scraps of skin taken from mice infected with methicillin-resistant _Staphylococcus aureus_. This is an antibiotic-resistant version of the bacteria that causes styes, more commonly known as the hospital superbug MRSA. The potion killed 90 per cent of the bacteria. Vancomycin, the antibiotic generally used for MRSA, killed about the same proportion when it was added to the skin scraps.





http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27263-anglosaxon-remedy-kills-hospital-superbug-mrsa.html


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## Totentanz (Apr 4, 2015)

Very cool.


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## Crusader74 (Apr 4, 2015)

pardus said:


> Fascinating stuff! The ancients did have some remarkable technologies that we could learn from.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Learn from... We had all of that information but it was lost... Garlic is an amazing super food... Taken by itself will kill bacteria and the cold virus..


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## pardus (Apr 4, 2015)

Crusader74 said:


> Learn from... We had all of that information but it was lost... Garlic is an amazing super food... Taken by itself will kill bacteria and the cold virus..



Yes, lost it, then assumed everything old was useless. We used to laugh at leech therapy and used it as the example of the stupidity of old remedies, now it is commonplace. As is the use of honey to fight infection. 
I love garlic, I used to take it all the time when I had colds, i could do with some right now actually...


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## Crusader74 (Apr 4, 2015)

pardus said:


> Yes, lost it, then assumed everything old was useless. We used to laugh at leech therapy and used it as the example of the stupidity of old remedies, now it is commonplace. As is the use of honey to fight infection.
> I love garlic, I used to take it all the time when I had colds, i could do with some right now actually...



If I feel under the weather, which luckily is rare, I dose myself with a concoction of turmeric, lemon and honey tea... I also throw in ground cinnamon, ginger and  black pepper.. Drink every 3-4 hours and I'm brand new. Boom!


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## TLDR20 (Apr 4, 2015)

The thing is killing systemic MRSA. Killing it in the skin isn't the hardest. Killing it once it becomes systemic is the issue. I don't think this remedy would have any effect on systemic MRSA.


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## TLDR20 (Apr 4, 2015)

Crusader74 said:


> If I feel under the weather, which luckily is rare, I dose myself with a concoction of turmeric, lemon and honey tea... I also throw in ground cinnamon, ginger and  black pepper.. Drink every 3-4 hours and I'm brand new. Boom!



We make Bourbon hot toddys: bourbon, lemon peel, clove and honey. Cures the shitty part of the cold stat.


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## pardus (Apr 4, 2015)

TLDR20 said:


> The thing is killing systemic MRSA. Killing it in the skin isn't the hardest. Killing it once it becomes systemic is the issue. I don't think this remedy would have any effect on systemic MRSA.



OK... but considering "we" didn't have a commonly produced anti-biotic until mid last century (roughly a millennium later), I think that's pretty impressive.


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## TLDR20 (Apr 4, 2015)

pardus said:


> OK... but considering "we" didn't have a commonly produced anti-biotic until mid last century (roughly a millennium later), I think that's pretty impressive.



Yeah it is awesome. There are ancient remedies(leeches, maggots, this) that are awesome. Unfortunately they tend to be more for surface infections. Not a lot that treats sepsis. I was simply pointing out limitations, not commenting on the importance.


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## pardus (Apr 4, 2015)

TLDR20 said:


> Yeah it is awesome. There are ancient remedies(leeches, maggots, this) that are awesome. Unfortunately they tend to be more for surface infections. Not a lot that treats sepsis. I was simply pointing out limitations, not commenting on the importance.



Yeah gotcha, and agree.


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## 8654Maine (Apr 4, 2015)

I'm willing to bet that there are many hidden ancient remedies just waiting to be re-discovered.

Notice that 10% of the MRSA survived this concoction.  This is the crucial bad part:  Surviving organisms that subsequently reproduce or exchange plasmids that confer antibiotic resistance.

Life is that snail crawling along that razor's edge.


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## JHD (Apr 5, 2015)

Crusader74 said:


> If I feel under the weather, which luckily is rare, I dose myself with a concoction of turmeric, lemon and honey tea... I also throw in ground cinnamon, ginger and  black pepper.. Drink every 3-4 hours and I'm brand new. Boom!



I also add some whiskey.


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## WarfighterDoc (Jun 29, 2016)

JHD said:


> I also add some whiskey.


Jameson preferably


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