MRSA (Multiple-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus)

It has been many years since MRSA (Multiple-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) was discovered in 1961 and we are still plagued by it! In 1993 there were fewer than 2,000 documented infections in U.S. hospitals, but by 2005 the number reached more than 350,000 according to the AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) and by 2007, 2.4% of all patients had MRSA infections according to a study published by the American Journal of Infection Control. It has reached superbug status and is resistant to a lot of our most potent antibiotics, in fact it does not even respond to them.

Superbugs like MRSA come from the over-usage and misuse of antibiotics. The staph bacterium is now more resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics that are usually used to treat staph infections. A few of the newer ones can be effective against certain strains, but some of them are only available intravenously and also are becoming weaker against the bacteria. So now your asking, what can you do to protect yourself?

To help reduce your chances of getting MRSA:

1. Wash your hands.
Make sure you use soap and scrub each hand at-least 15-20 seconds, and if using a public bathroom turn off faucet with a paper towel. It might become handy to carry a small bottle of hand sanitizer with a mid to high alcohol content when no soap and water is around.

2. MRSA is very contagious!
The bacteria is very virulent and unrelenting! Don’t share clothes or towels, combs, brushes, pens. Basically do not share anything personal or that is going to come in direct contact with your body.

3. Keep your injuries covered and sterile!
All it takes is a brush against someones infection or something that was handled by the infected person to spread it, and wounds/cuts will give it a easier time getting into the bloodstream.

4. Shower after being in contact with people.
It does not matter if your in the club/mall/sports you will be in contact with people and things people touch regularly, so keep yourself clean!

5. Wash everything if possible in very hot water!
Some washers and dryers get very hot and some don’t, wash and dry on hottest setting possible with bleach.
I have also read that drying your clothes in the sun for more than 10 minutes will kill the bacteria.

6. Get tested!
Many people don’t realize MRSA commonly colonizes in the nostrils and can cause life threatening pneumonias, necrotized skin and wound infections, and targets children, the elderly, people with weak immune systems, and pets!!

If you or someone you know already has MRSA:

1. Wash hands very often!
Especially after ANY contact with sores, bandages or dressings.

2. Keep all infected areas drained of  pus and covered with a sterile dry bandage.
A little bit of fluid or residue from these areas will spread the infection!!

3. Wash everything separately!
This is very important, wash everything separately. Don’t mix clothes or linens before wash and make sure you use the hottest settings on washer and dryer possible, along with bleach.

4. Clean the infected persons room and possessions often.
You want to make sure everything is disinfected. You can use a phenol containing commercial disinfectant (Lysol/Pinesol can be used) or make your own out of 1 part bleach to 100 parts water, which is 1 tablespoon of bleach to 1 quart of water.

5. Infected person should have designated areas.
I’m not saying quarantine, but a designated spot for things like sitting and eating. Would be good to keep the area covered with a hard easily cleaned surface, like plastic or other similar covering. Nobody should sit or use this area until the wounds are healed, and the area should be disinfected after every use.

6. Wear gloves when dealing with sores/wounds.
Getting the bacteria on your hands can cause others to become infected a lot easier.

7.  Very Carefully dispose of bandages and dressings!
Use plastic bags and make sure it is closed securely.

All this may sound scary, but there is hope for people who contract MRSA and cannot be prescribed adequate medicine. Nature has given us many cures for diseases/illnesses and this is no different. I have read studies showing that Elecampane Root will kill the infection on contact. The good thing is its very versatile in the treatment, you can put tincture under the tongue or make tea. You can even get it in easy to take pill form.

Another is Manuka Honey, there seems to be a combination of chemicals produced from the Manuka Bush that give the honey the extra boost in its antibacterial properties! It also gives it a slightly bitter taste! But be careful because unsterilized honey can cause the infection to get worse if it comes in contact with it, Manuka or not!

Then there is the good ol’ Colloidal Silver! If you haven’t read up on it you should, its said to clean up a lot of illness. But there is a nasty side effect if you take too much, it will turn you blue forever! Its called Argyria and it occurs over time from excess silver in the body, it is untreatable.

Lastly we come across something called Allicin, its found in garlic. But it degrades very quickly, especially during the processing most commercial garlic goes through so make sure the label says it contains Allicin! This is a very potent MRSA killer, in fact its been clinically proven to kill MRSA!! The only problem is that garlic in this form is very potent, and if used irresponsibly can cause rashes and other illness.

Everyone loves honey, and everyone knows that honey has been used for a very long time for many illnesses. Or should!

There is a type of honey produced primarily in Australia and New Zealand that is dark, slightly bitter, and chocked full of MRSA killing awesomeness. Its made when honeybees consume the nectar of the beautifully flowering Manuka Bush. But the flipside of it is researchers don’t know what Manuka component(s) is exactly responsible for the MRSA killings. The only thing they know is that the component or components are only found when bees make honey using the nectar of the Manuka bush and that it has antibacterial properties.

In an experiment done at University of Wales Institute, Cardiff MRSA was grown in a lab, one with Manuka honey and one without for four hours. But sugar alone is known to kill bacteria by not allowing the bacteria to suck up water. So to check the validity of the findings they grew two more batches with and without sugar syrup, just to rule out the other parts of the honey in question.

The findings indicated the MRSA group with the Manuka honey was lacking a protein necessary for synthesizing fatty acids, which is used to build cell walls and the internal “organs” of the bacteria. Which would hinder the cells life-cycle tremendously since it would be unable to sustain form or in most cases reproduce, causing it to wither away and die!!! These findings were unlike the reaction of the sugar syrup group.

But all this does not mean go find some Manuka honey and spread it all over your infection!!! As store-bought honey will not be sterilized like medical-grade honey, which means it can make the infection worse!

I have been researching MRSA for a while now and one treatment that keeps coming up over and over is colloidal silver, but I can never find enough substantial information to convince me that this is a sure cure for MRSA. But now I’ve found that information!

For about 20 years the cure for MRSA has been known, the discovery was made by Dr. Robert O. Becker. During his stay at Syracuse Medical University back in the 1980′s he was doing groundbreaking research on electronically generated silver ions that led to the discovery of the cure which is tiny particles of mineral silver usually suspended in liquid or cream, known as colloidal silver and it is completely natural.

But because the cure was natural the FDA helped downplay the findings. One way this happened was in 1999 the FDA passed a ruling saying colloidal silver is not a effective infection fighting substance and it would be misbranded if advertised for such uses. Which seems counterproductive since colloidal silver has a ~90 year (since the 1920′s) medical history showing its effectiveness against most if not all infectious illnesses and diseases.

But thankfully there are some brand-new studies with fascinating information about colloidal silver proving that it is a win-win in the medical field, especially for MRSA. Which is good because the infection is causing more deaths than AIDS yearly. I will write about the studies in later posts.

But to make things even worse than they are now the EPA has entered the picture and is now claiming the right to regulate silver products including colloidal silver as pesticides. The claim is if colloidal silver gets into the nation’s waterways and ecosystems that it might wipe out ecologically sensitive microorganisms that the environment depends on to sustain itself. Basically this means any colloidal silver manufacturers will need to register silver products with the EPA, which means millions of dollars of experiments and testing, lab equipment, and lots of time.

One thing I’ve found that completely squashes that argument actually is proven by simple high school science, which is when the tiny electrically charged micro-particles reenter the environment they will very rapidly bond with other substances such as minerals And salts. This process is called agglomeration and the effect neutralizes silvers toxicity to microbes and essentially it will return over to its natural state.

At any rate I’m very happy to have found a sure cure for MRSA for other people to benefit from. But one thing that keeps me wondering is why colloidal silver was downplayed for 20 years but when “new” compelling evidence came out it was deemed so potent that it is a danger to the environment and needs to be regulated.