Green Tea and Superbugs

Most of us are aware of the antioxidant benefits associated with drinking green tea, but a newly released study indicates that green tea has excellent antibiotic qualities as well. In some cases, the effectiveness of standard antibiotic drugs was nearly doubled when combined with drinking green tea. This is a good tidbit to know since "superbugs" seem to be getting more and more resistant to even the "big gun" antibiotics.

In addition to the herbs, thyme, and marjoram that are mentioned in the last paragraph of the article, oil of oregano should also be added. Harry G. Preuss, MD, MACN, CNS, who is a professor of physiology and biophysics, led a research team that tested oregano oil on staphylococcus bacteria - which is responsible for an assortment of severe infections and is steadily becoming resistant to many antibiotics. Oregano oil was combined with the bacteria in a test tube, and the study compared the effects of oregano oil to those of the standard antibiotics streptomycin, penicillin and vacnomycin. Oregano oil at relatively small doses was found to curb the growth of the staphylococcus bacteria in the test tubes as adequately as the basic antibiotics did.

Taking this data to the next level, which often is not done when such information is released in the mainstream media, leads to the conclusion that certain foods and beverages, such as green tea and others, can help the body stay well and resistant to infection so that drugs like antibiotics can be reserved for only the toughest of infections. As with all prescription medicines, there are harmful side effects linked to antibiotics, so the best route to take regarding staying healthy is to pursue a whole natural diet that provides the nutrients designed by our Creator to prevent disease. However, should you need an antibiotic, make sure that you are also consuming an advanced probiotic in order to keep the digestive tract populated with friendly bacteria and the yeast population under control.


Green Tea Helps Beat Superbugs, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (Apr. 1, 2008) - Green tea can help beat superbugs according to Egyptian scientists speaking March, 31, 2008 at the Society for General Microbiology's 162nd meeting.

The pharmacy researchers have shown that drinking green tea helps the action of important antibiotics in their fight against resistant superbugs, making them up to three times more effective.

Green tea is a very common beverage in Egypt, and it is quite likely that patients will drink green tea while taking antibiotics. The medical researchers wanted to find out if green tea would interfere with the action of the antibiotics, have no effect, or increase the medicines' effects.

"We tested green tea in combination with antibiotics against 28 disease causing micro-organisms belonging to two different classes," says Dr Mervat Kassem from the Faculty of Pharmacy at Alexandria University in Egypt. "In every single case green tea enhanced the bacteria-killing activity of the antibiotics. For example the killing effect of chloramphenicol was 99.99% better when taken with green tea than when taken on its own in some circumstances."

Green tea also made 20% of drug-resistant bacteria susceptible to one of the cephalosporin antibiotics. These are important antibiotics that new drug resistant strains of bacteria have evolved to resist.

The results surprised the researchers, showing that in almost every case and for all types of antibiotics tested, drinking green tea at the same time as taking the medicines seemed to reduce the bacteria's drug resistance, even in superbug strains, and increase the action of the antibiotics. In some cases, even a low concentration of green tea was effective.

"Our results show that we should consider more seriously the natural products we consume in our everyday life," says Dr Kassem. "In the future, we will be looking at other natural herb products such as marjoram and thyme to see whether they also contain active compounds which can help in the battle against drug resistant bacteria".

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080330200640.htm