Clay May Help Fight Drug-Resistant Germs, Researchers Find

[Celebration]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=abTk9IWZiw9g&refer=worldwide

TApril 6 (Bloomberg) -- Mud clay, used as a folk remedy to heal wounds, soothe indigestion and beautify the complexion, may help doctors fight drug-resistant infections.

In tests of more than 30 clay samples from around the world, researchers found clays from Oregon and Nevada that killed almost all the cells of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus auereus, a staph infection that can be fatal, according to Arizona State University researchers. The results are being presented today at the American Chemical Society meeting in New Orleans.

While clay today is mostly associated with the mud baths of health spas, people have used it for thousands of years to treat ailments, by eating it or applying it to the skin. If the study findings hold up in human tests, doctors may have new ways to combat infections, the researchers said. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is the first to look at the antibacterial activity of natural clay.

``Since people existed, they have used clays for medicinal purposes,'' said Lynda Williams, a research professor at Arizona State University, in Tempe, in an telephone interview on April 2. ``If we can understand its antibacterial mechanism, then I expect clays will be more prevalent in people's lives.''

The Oregon and Nevada samples also killed almost all cells of E. coli, which causes food poisoning, and destroyed pseudomonas aeruginosa, which causes urinary tract and gastrointestinal infections, as well as deadly infections in people hospitalized with cancer and burns.

[jody]

1. Clay will never be popular if big pharma can't make a profit off it. n/t

[phillysuse]

2. Pfizer Clay ....

from the Mudpits of Connecticut Sound.

I can see the advertising now.

[jody]

4. Along the Georgia-Carolina cost, Gullah/Geechee tales include eating clay for various purposes.

No link, just memories of tales told to me by a former slave.

[trotsky]

5. Threefer madness ahead of schedule!

Look, no one says that "big pharma" doesn't put profits first. But then, EVERY business does, or they wouldn't be in business. Not even the herbalist can ignore the rules of the marketplace.

But consider for a moment the ability of science to find out what causes the effect, to extract it, to manufacture it, to concentrate it, and to make sure it is pure. Ever taken penicillin? Would you go swab just any mud over an open sore? Of course not. Along with antibiotic organisms, soil can contain all sorts of deadly critters too. "Big pharma" can play a role here by helping identify the most efficacious agents and making them easier to get.

There is no need to engage in knee-jerk bashing. Big pharma is neither purely good NOR purely evil.

[jody]

6. I see our opinions differ. Have a good day. n/t

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Hey! I was looking for that quote in your sig line, but ...

are you SURE it is correctly attributed to Bucky Fuller? I was thinking it was Arthur C. Clarke.

If not, I sit corrected, but would be interested to know if you have a citation for it. MTIA!

[Celebration]

7. LOL I see it attributed to both

I wanted a Fuller quotation to go along with the Bucky ball, so I just looked and found one I liked. I would have had a LOT of great choices if I had been wanting an Arthur C. Clarke quote. Bucky was usually pretty wordy.

So, the answer is.................

:shrug:

I don't know. If you find out definitively that it is Clarke, I'll change it. Actually I'd probably pick another Clarke quotation that I like even better.

[Celebration]

8. Never mind!

I changed it to another Clarke quotation. I've been meaning to do this for the past week and your post helped motivate me. I hope Clarke likes Bucky balls.

[eppur_se_muova]

9. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo."

First corrolary to Clarke's Law.

[Celebration]

10. Put yourself in the 18th or 19th century mode

Now, television and air travel seem like magic, or a rigged demo? Because to most people they sure don't seem like science.

I have a feeling that most people would have said "magic." A few futurists of the day (ala Clarke) would have said, "science" probably.

And rigged demo? Hmmm, let me think about this. Maybe someone like this dude

-- Michelson, Albert, Abraham
(1852-1931) b. Germany
(In 1903)
The most important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplemented in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote.

http://naturalscience.com/dsqhome.html

[Book Lover]

12. You sadly underestimate the minds of 18th and 19th century people

A) Just because a famous man said it, doesn't make it so.

B) You really think that an 18th-century American would look at an image on a television and conclude "Magic!" without even a stop at the "How did they come up that?!" station?

[Celebration]

13. maybe

But they wouldn't have the scientific context...........so, it would seem like magic. The ordinary person would not be able to come up with a mechanism. With no mechanism, it would probably seem like magic.

Of course, it is all in the definition that one uses for "magic." Magic is either illusion, or, as Clarke probably believes, science without an obvious mechanism to explain it. But, even if it is an illusion, it is scientifically based.

Well, famous men can be correct or incorrect, obviously.

[Warpy]

11. Since the clay is from one region, only

there just might be an antibiotic of some sort lurking in there. We need new antibiotics for systemic MRSAs like pneumonias, urinary tract infections, and septicemias.

What ordinary clay does is draw moisture out of a wound as it dries, thus making the area inhospitable to bacteria. It works well on skin infections but is impractical to inhale into one's lungs.

[FlaGranny]

14. Interestingly, I had a problem

with the skin on my toes and feet once and it was completely cured by mud. Was helping my parents dig a big hole and stood in the muddy bottom of the hole in my bare feet. Whatever the problem with my skin was, it cleared right up.