Thursday 12 February 2015

Essential Oils as the new antibiotics to counter "superbugs"

ESSENTIAL OILS MIGHT BE THE NEW ANTI-BIOTICS



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Below is a simple summary of the debate on why essential oils might be a better alternative than antibiotics in the war against bacteria and viruses.
Essential oils are ultimately just plant extracts—and those are used in countless products and and are the main ingredient in some insecticides and some over-the-counter medications, like Vicks and some hair lice sprays. They’re used in food and beverage industry because of their preservative potency against food-borne pathogens—thanks to their antimicrobial, antibacterial, and anti-fungal properties. Various oils have also been shown to effectively treat a wide range of common health issues such as nausea and headaches, and a rapidly growing body of research is finding that they are powerful enough to kill human cancer cells.
A handful of promising, real-life studies have been conducted with humans and other animals, but most  has been conducted in the lab. More controlled trials will be required before some of these applications will be available to the public, but meanwhile, scientists have turned up exciting results in another area of use: countering the growing antibiotic-resistance crisis. “The loss of antibiotics due to antimicrobial resistance is potentially one of the most important challenges the medical and animal-health communities will face in the 21st century,” says Dr. Cyril Gay, the senior national program leader at the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service.
Can you believe that 80% of antibiotics consumed in the US is fed to livestock, and the percentages are increasing. We are now more resistant to antibiotics because we are not only consuming it directly but ingesting it via the meats we eats. There is now a strain of "super bugs" which are resistant to drugs in both humans and animals. The result - uncontrollable death rates in human and animals and billions of dollars in cost to the global economy (est. US$100 trillion by 2050), not to mention the billions of dollars needed (est. US$20 billion) to come up with new drugs to keep up with these "superbugs".
Livestock still need small amounts of antibiotics to treat infections. However, they are getting inventions (and the prevention of infection) in the first place because they are forced fed with growth hormones and live in cramped unsanitary conditions. The biggest misuse of antibiotics have in the farms!
Some evidence that natural antibiotics work
Published in October 2014, Poultry Science, found that chickens who consumed feed with added oregano oil had a much better survival rate than untreated chickens. Other research from a 2011 issue of BMC Proceedings, showed that adding a combination of plant extracts—from oregano, cinnamon, and chili peppers—actually changed the gene expression of treated chickens, resulting in weight gain as well as protection against an injected intestinal infection. So, there are even alternatives to growth hormones in poultry.
Some evidence that essential oils are just as powerful as manufactured antibiotocs
A study published in March 2012, Journal of Animal Science, found that rosemary and oregano oils resulted in the same amount of growth in chickens as the antibiotic avilamycin, and that the oils killed bacteria, too. Essential oils help reduce salmonella in chickens, and another study found that a blend of several oils can limit the spread of salmonella among animals. One of the co-authors of that study, Dr. Charles Hofacre, a professor at the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine, says it’s such a new area of research that they don’t yet know exactly how the essential oils work, but “there is some strong evidence that they are functioning by both an antibacterial action in the intestine and also some have an effect to stimulate the intestinal cells ability to recover from disease more quickly–either by local immunity or helping keep the intestinal cells themselves healthier.”Lavender (Florin Gorgan/Flickr)
Evidence that essential oils may work better than antibiotics in humans
1) The healing of wounds from staff infections in hospitals were significantly faster when treated with tea tree oil
2) Sanitising gel made with lemongrass oil reduced the spread of infection from contact.
Research published in December 2013 reported that a hand gel made with lemongrass oil was effective in reducing MRSA on the skin of human volunteers, and previous research has shown that a cleanser made with tea-tree oil clears MRSA from the skin as effectively as the standard treatments to which bacteria appear to be developing resistance. This type of simple, inexpensive fix—an essential-oil-based hand sanitizer—could be a major boost to hospitals, in particular, since MRSA infections are so common in healthcare settings.
Recent studies showed that lavender and cinnamon essential oils killed E. coli, and when combined with the antibiotic piperacillin, the oils reversed the resistance of the E. coli bacteria to the antibiotic. Anotherrecent study found that basil oil and rosemary oil were both effective in inhibiting the growth of 60 strains of E. coli retrieved from hospital patients. Other research has produced similar results for many other essential oils, both alone and in combination with antibiotics. Researchers believe that one mechanism by which the oils work is by weakening the cell wall of resistant bacteria, thereby damaging or killing the cells while also allowing the antibiotic in.
Much research is needed to understand essential oils better but the money needed for this research is difficult to source as most research dollars come from the pharmaceutical industry.
Essential oils are a fix of a problem that still will continue is major changes to commercial farming are not sort out. If essential oils are to be a proper long term alternative, they must demonstrate that this practice is really useful, and essential oils must be given the same scrutiny that antibiotics haven’t been given.