Medieval Medicine
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) is one of the many “Super-Bugs” that are found in just about every hospital on the planet. MRSA (sounds like the “mer” from mermaids and “sa” from the end of salsa…mer-sa) is a particularly nasty bacterial infection that is a root cause of thousands of deaths each year here in the United States and tens of thousands more around the world. MRSA bacteria are “…resistant to all beta-lactam antibiotics such as methicillin, penicillin, oxacillin, and amoxicillin. A MRSA infection can be fatal, and is sometimes called the "Super Bug.",” (CNN, June 9, 2016). It is this resistance to traditional forms of medication that make MRSA such a deadly bug. The current numbers are staggering in the number of cases each year here in the United States, those numbers have fallen off significantly in the last ten years according to the CDC as awareness and education efforts are seeing positive results. As modern medicine struggles to combat this super bug, scientist in England have stumbled upon a medieval remedy that has shown great promise in combating MRSA.
A leather-bound book held in the collections of the British Library in the UK, a 10th-century manuscript known as “Bald’s Leechbook” is considered to be one of the first medical textbooks recorded. One of its recipes designated as a cure for vision ailments was “…a potion of garlic, onion or leek, wine and oxgall (or bile taken from a cow’s stomach) brewed in a brass vessel can be used as an “eye salve” to treat styes and other eye infections,” (Pruitt, 2015). The scientist “…had little hope the remedy would prove effective against such a superbug as MRS—but they were amazed at what they found. While none of the individual ingredients had any effect, when combined according to the recipe they killed up to 90 percent of MRSA bacteria,” (Pruitt, 2015). Scientist have reproduced the study in different labs both tin the UK and here in the United States with equal success and they are now trying to refine it to see how this medieval miracle can be incorporated into modern medicine to help fight this deadly super-bug. The scientific team that has made this startling break through is also investigating other cures promoted from the ancient text stating that the early practitioners of curing people knew about battling bacteria or certain illnesses long before the discovery of bacteria was ever made.
Sometimes the way forward is by looking back to see where we have been and taking that information to learn from it and to not just scorn it because it is information from the past. I hope as the scientist of today sift through the work of the scientist from a thousand years ago, they can apply modern methods to help combat the super-bug that we have created today. I found the article fascinating and can be found at www.history.com/news/researchers-use-medieval-remedy-to-kill-modern-superbug. I hope everyone has a great week and as we celebrate our fifteenth year in business, we certainly welcome any comments or calls to see if we can meet any of your needs or the needs of a loved one. Remember to take care of yourself and each other, remember, we’re all in this together.
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Pruitt, S. (2015, June). History.com — American & World History. Researchers Use Medieval Remedy to Kill Modern Superbug - History in the Headlines. Retrieved 2016, from http://www.history.com/news/researchers-use-medieval-remedy-to-kill-modern-superbug