Hundreds of different bacteria are able to live on antibiotics alone as their singe "food source".
I recently discovered an article from ABC News and Science, discussing how Harvard researchers have found that hundreds of different soil bacteria literally eat antibiotics, and that they can thrive on antibiotics as their ONLY nutritional source.
It turns out that these many different kinds of bacteria, some which are related to current SuperBug bacteria, can exist solely on antibiotics as their only food source.
Not only were these different bacteria able to thrive on these antibiotics, they did so at highly concentrated levels, some 50 to 100 times greater than levels used for treating patients with bacterial infections like Staph and MRSA. Many were able to live on multiple types of antibiotics, not just one antibiotic.
Scientists are racing to figure out just how these bacteria devour antibiotics, since current human pathogenic bacteria like the Staph SuperBug or MRSA could potentially develop this ability. Bacteria commonly share information with each other on bacterial resistance, thus the worry about this information spreading to other more dangerous bacteria.
On a positive note, these bacteria help keep the antibiotic levels in the soil much lower, as the commercial food industry feeds large amounts of antibiotics - which end up in our soil through animal waste products.
While this way of "eating antibiotics" has fortunately not spread to pathogenic bacteria like MRSA, Staph, Tuberculosis, Clostridium and other bacteria that cause health problems, it again shows how amazing and resilient bacteria are when it comes to adapting to their environment.
Future Implications
This unfortunately also shows that we have a huge reservoir of bacteria in our environment that that can contribute to increasing levels of antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria. Hopefully this will not happen, but as a Microbiologist, I can say it's likely to eventually happen, and it has likely been a contributing factor in the development of current SuperBugs.
This again points to the need for you to be armed with alternative, non-conventional or non-antibiotic treatment approaches. It's only a matter of time before bacteria learn to evolve against the current antibiotic treatments.
These alternative approaches need to be included in your treatment regime for you to have the best chance of success in treating MRSA and other SuperBug bacteria.
Michelle Moore, Microbiologist and Total Health Advocate
www.Staph-Infection-Resources.com
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