It’s another HEALTH AND #WELLNESS WEDNESDAY everyone — and thanks again for joining me!
This week we have a really interesting story from researchers at the University of Nottingham in merry ol’ England.
We begin with an ancient book known as Bald’s Leechbook — a medical text from the Middle Ages. In the title, “Leech” is derived from the Old English word for “doctor.” It was written between the 5th and 11th centuries and there is only one known surviving manuscript of this book in existence today. It’s a compilation of suggestions, incantations and home-brewed remedies to treat everything from infections to joint pain to insanity — with many of the “recipes” calling for ingredients that in today’s world are considered laughable if not down-right insane themselves!
YET — recent British studies have found that this rather “laughable” medieval text may have real applications in modern medicine. In the midst of studying the infamous antibiotic-resistant bacterium known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) researchers recreated a thousand year old recipe from the text for curing styes — otherwise known as infected eyelash follicles.
To their great amazement, researchers discovered that this eye salve of garlic, wine and cow’s bile proved surprisingly lethal against the ferocious MRSA superbug. Indeed, in lab results this particular concoction killed the superbug even faster than the strongest antibiotic used to treat MRSA, vancomycin.
Of course, we know that studies need to be replicated many times to firmly establish their findings. But, this research team led by Dr. Freya Harrison and their work with “AncientBiotics” is remarkable.
We’ve said before that nothing under the sun is new — it appears there are just new ways of interpreting and utilizing old information. And that is truly amazing!
Thanks everyone and until next time, Be Well!!
TAKE THE COURSE AND TAKE CHARGE!
Image courtesy of renjith krishnan at www.freedigitalphotos.net
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