ScienceDaily (Apr. 4, 2010) — Essential oils could be a cheap and effective alternative to antibiotics and potentially used to combat drug-resistant hospital superbugs, according to research presented at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting in Edinburgh.
Professor Yiannis Samaras and Dr Effimia Eriotou, from the Technological Educational Institute of Ionian Islands, in Greece, who led the research, tested the antimicrobial activity of eight plant essential oils. They found that thyme essential oil was the most effective and was able to almost completely eliminate bacteria within 60 minutes.
The essential oils of thyme and cinnamon were found to be particularly efficient antibacterial agents against a range of Staphylococcus species. Strains of these bacteria are common inhabitants of the skin and some may cause infection in immunocompromised individuals. Drug-resistant strains, such as meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are extremely difficult to treat. "Not only are essential oils a cheap and effective treatment option for antibiotic-resistant strains, but decreased use of antibiotics will help minimise the risk of new strains of antibiotic resistant micro-organisms emerging," said Professor Samaras.
Essential oils have been recognised for hundreds of years for their therapeutic properties, although very little is still known about how they exert their antimicrobial effects in humans. Australian aborigines used Tea tree oil to treat colds, sore throats, skin infections and insect bites and the remedy was sold commercially as a medicinal antiseptic from the early 20th century. Various scientific studies have demonstrated that essential oils are not only well tolerated, but are effective against a range of bacterial and fungal species. Their therapeutic value has been shown for the treatment of a variety of conditions, including acne, dandruff, head lice and oral infections.
The Greek team believes essential oils could have diverse medical and industrial applications. "The oils -- or their active ingredients -- could be easily incorporated into antimicrobial creams or gels for external application. In the food industry the impregnation of food packaging with essential oils has already been successfully trialled. They could also be included in food stuffs to replace synthetic chemicals that act as preservatives," they said.
posted at http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/PineHillGroup/message/39905
Sue Chao, director of Young Living's Quality Control Laboratory, has been
working with Gary Young for more than a decade studying the chemical
compositions of essential oils. I recently listened to her lecture about one
of her latest experiments studying the effects of essential oils on
methicillin-resistant staphylococcus, or MRSA.
MRSA is an infection caused by a bacteria often referred to as "staff." Most
MRSA infections occur in healthcare settings such as hospitals and nursing
homes. This general type of bacteria is resistant to many antibiotics and
can be fatal to those with weakened immune symptoms.
Sue's explained that there are many types of MRSA bacteria, and her study
focused on Staphylococcus aureus. During her study, Sue grew these bacteria
in dozens of Petri dishes. Once the bacteria were visible in the dish, Sue
placed a few drops of oil on a piece of paper and placed the diffuser in the
middle of the culture. Sue repeated this experiment with 91 single essential
oils and 64 Young Living blends.
Of the 91 single essential oils, 78 killed the bacteria all at varying
degrees. Sue said lemongrass, lemon myrtle, mountain savory, cinnamon, and
melissa essential oils had the highest levels of inhibition. Of the 64 Young
Living Therapeutic GradeT blends that were tested, 52 proved effected
against the bacteria with R.C., Motivation, and Longevity having the
highest level of inhibition.
With so many types of MRSA bacteria and so many means of essential oil
delivery (taken orally, diffusion, topical, etc.), Sue was quick to mention
that her research is only the beginning in discovering what effects
essential oils have on MRSA. Sue also added that this research was conducted
on a specific strand of MRSA in a controlled environment; the effects on
other MRSA strains are not known.
Interested in reading more? Sue's article on essential oils and MRSA is
published in volume 23 of the Flavour and Fragrance Journal (2008, pages
444-449).
-Toby Palmer
Posted at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100330210942.htm
Here is the full article:
http://www.youngliving.com/export/sites/youngliving/en_US/pdfs/MRSA_article.pdf
RESISTANT STRAINS OF BACTERIA
by David Stewart
When a resistant strain of pathogenic bacteria results, people get infected and allopathic medicine has no remedy. People so afflicted can die, and often do, or suffer permanently from the effects of the infection.
All of these resistant strains of pathogens were created in hospitals and used to be harbored there exclusively. It used to be rare to find one of them elsewhere. Unfortunately, today these resistant strains are finding themseves into public places, such as schools and playgrounds. But hospitals are still the places where the greatest infestations of resistnat bacteria hide and lurk. While hospital patients are particularly vulnerable to incubating a resistant strain of bacteria, even hospital visitors can pick them up and become seriously ill, even to the death.
We have a relative whose wife went to the hospital for a check up while he simply accompanied her as a visitor. He happened to have a small open cut on his leg which became infected with a resistant strain of bacteria. His leg has been swollen, sore, and inflammed ever since. That was more than two years ago. The infection got so bad that twice he was hospitalized, which is an irony since it was in a hospital where he contracted the infection in the first place. As of this writing, he still carries the problem, for which medicine has no cures, only palliative measures.
IS STRONGER AND STRONGER MEDICINE THE ANSWER?
Drug companies address the problem of every-growing, more resistant bacteria by developing stronger and stronger antibiotics and antimicrobial agents. Unfortunately, these pharmaceuticals are also harmful to people, even potentially deadly. For example, vancomycin was a powerful antibiotic developed to attack resistant strains of bacteria which is strong enough to also kill the patient. When prescribed, doctors could only hope that the bacteria within the patient would die before the patient did. Now there are “vancomycin resistant bacteria,” so even that antibiotic is no longer effective.
Drug companies then developed another powerful antibiotic, methycillin, which is also potentially deadly to the patient. With the adoption of this antibiotic in hospitals throughout the country, there are now MRSAs, or “methycillin resistant staphalococcyx aureus” bacteria which can be deadly and for which there are no allopathic remedies.
Essential oils are different. While they are extremely effective against pathogenic microbes, they are not only harmless to humans, but beneficial to our tissues. Furthermore, their application does not result in the production of resistant strains of bacteria. Here is why.
Antibiotics and antibacterial agents are simple compounds or simple mixtures of a few compounds. Every batch of a particular antibiotic or antibacterial agent is identical to the previous batch. Doctors would want it this way. They would want today’s tetracycline or penicillin to be exactly the same as yesterday’s and tomorrow’s. This consistency of product, along with their simplicity, is why bacteria can figure them out and develop resistance such that their offspring are not only immune to the drug, but are even more virulent and toxic to humans.
WHY OILS PRODUCE NO RESISTANT STRAINS
Essential oils are not simple. They consists of hundreds of compounds, the numbers and formulas for which are not completely known even for one species of oil. Furthermore, there are never two batches of essential oils the same.
You can grow lavender or peppermint every year in the same plot of land and every year’s production of oil will be slightly different. The same 200 or 300 compounds will be there that make lavender like lavender and peppermint like peppermint, but the proportions will vary. This year's lavender oil may have more or less linyl acetate than last year's or this year's peppermint oil may have more or less menthol, but they will still be lavender and peppermint.
The variations are because the oils of a plant are dynamic during the life of the plant, changing daily, even from hour to hour, to adjust to the heat of the day, the moisture in the air, and other factors uncontrollable to humans. The oils in plants also vary their composition according to soil types, climate, elevation, latitude, planting time, harvesting time, amount of sunshine, amount of rain, amount of wind, and other factors such as the species of insects that may be pests this year. The conditions that affect plant growth (and its oils) are never repeated two years in a row.
Because the oils of a species vary according environmental factors that are never the same, no two batches of an essential oil are ever exactly the same, even from the same species grown in the same field. Oils are like wines. Vintners put dates on each year’s bottles of a wine because every year will produce a slightly different taste and coloration of the wine because nature never repeats itself.
Therefore, because essential oils are far more complex than any laboratory produced drug and because essential oils are never exactly replicated year to year, bacteria can never figure them out and become resistant. Microbes are smarter than synthetic drugs, but essential oils are smarter than microbes.
We have oils from Egyptian tombs that are just as antimicrobial today as they were 5,000 years ago. The effectiveness of essential oils is permanent, which is why they, and other natural remedies, will eventually replace the synthetic pharmaceuticals of today. This means that drug-based allopathy, as practiced today, is eventually doomed to disappear, being based on transient medicines and a flawed paradigm.
THE TRANSIENCE OF DRUGS AND THE PERMANENCE OF OILS
Sooner or later, all synthetic drugs and antibiotics become ineffective or lethal and have to be discontinued. Hence, drug companies are continually engaged in finding and developing new drugs to replace the old ones as they become ineffective or too harmful to continue. Since they cannot patent a natural product, such as an herb or an essential oil, pharmaceutical companies have no interest in studying or marketing natural products.
In fact, they would like to remove all natural products from the free market to create, for themselves, a profitable monopoly enforced by law and government regulation.
Patented medicines are all unnatural, composed of molecules never before existing on planet earth. Our bodies were not made to utilize, metabolize, and eliminate such substances. This is why all pharmaceuticals, without exception, have negative side effects.
By contrast, properly administered natural products, such as essential oils, have little or no untoward side effects. They can be taken into the body, utilized, metabolized, and eliminated when they have completed their healing mission. The majority of side effects from oils and natural products, if any, are unexpected good ones.
THE END OF ALLOPATHY AS WE KNOW IT
Allopathic medicine, which is what is practiced by todays doctors, nurses, and hospitals, addresses symptoms, not causes. If your symtoms are life threatening, like uncrolled hemorrhaging, stoppage of breath, unconsciousness, severe internal injuries, broken limbs, etc., then treating the symptoms is appropriate and necessary to save your life and get you through the crisis.
Emergency medicine is the best of medicine as we know it today. But after the crisis has passed and your vital signs are stabilized, the healing is yet to come, which does not come through allopathic medicine, but through receiving God's healing energy. While dealing with symptoms is often desirable and necessary, when the treatment stops with symptomatic removal, the body simply produces another ailment elsewhere as a result of the unresolved roots left behind. Hence, simple ailments whose symptoms are suppressed can eventually become serious sicknesses, sometimes even unto death.
Furthermore, allopathic medicines (antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals and synthetic drugs) all eventually become ineffective and obsolete, requiring that pharmaceutical companies engage in endless research to find the next drug to replace the antiquated ones. Hence, allopathy is based on a flawed paradigm employing medicines of only transient value.
Wholistic natural medicine, including essential oils, addresses root causes from the quantum behavior of electrons to the intelligence of the cells to the human mind and spirit. True and permanent healing can occur when the right environment of balance in body, mind, and soul have been established. Furthermore, the medicines of nature, which include herbs and essential oils, will never become ineffective. Their therapeutic, Divinely created properties are forever. Wholistic medicine, incorporating essential oils, is based on a more incompassing paradigm employing medicine of permanent value.
A NEW AND BETTER SYSTEM
Therefore, it is inevitable that allopathic medicine, as we know it today, will eventually shrink into a very minor part of the health care system, dealing only with traumas, crises, and acute situations, while true health care, true healing, and true regimens of wellness will come from the concepts of natural medicine using plants and other natural substances as God made them and intended them for our benefit.
There will always be a need for allopathy because sometimes symptoms are serious and need to be dealt with directly before their causes can be diagnosed, resolved, and the healing can begin. But future health care will not primarily be allopathic in its approach. It will be wholistic and natural and essential oils will be a fundamental and principal element of the new system.
The birth and labor of that new and better system is already well underway and progressing well. All of you who are educating yourselves in oils, herbs, nutrition, healthy life styles, and natural health care solutions are the midwives of the new system.
posted at http://www.raindroptraining.com/messenger/v5n5.html#oils