Did you know that about 2.5 percent of us carry the antibiotic resistant “superbug” MRSA in our noses all the time? While medical experts aren’t sure if its presence there is harmful, a new study may have uncovered a way to rid your nose of this hitchhiker.

Researchers have found that those who drink hot coffee or tea were about half as likely to have MRSA in their nasal passages as people who drank no hot tea or coffee. No such association was found in drinking iced tea or soda. The study notes that coffee and tea have been shown to have antimicrobial effects in other settings.

MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a particularly nasty pathogen that has developed a resistance to the antibiotic methicillin, one of our main lines of defense against such bacteria. The bacteria can cause infection when they enter the body through a cut, sore, catheter, or breathing tube. The infection can be minor and local such as a bug bite, or more serious involving the heart, lung, blood, or bone.

When MRSA infections do occur, it is typically through one of two scenarios:

• Community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) infections occur in otherwise healthy people who have not recently been in the hospital. The infections have occurred among athletes who share equipment or personal items (such as towels or razors) and children in daycare facilities. Members of the military and those who get tattoos are also at risk. The number of CA-MRSA cases is increasing.
• Healthcare-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA) infections occur in people who are or have recently been in a hospital or other healthcare facility. Those who have been hospitalized or had surgery within the past year are at increased risk. MRSA bacteria are responsible for a large percentage of hospital-acquired staph infections. The rate of MRSA infections in healthcare facilities has been climbing steadily in recent years.

The study suggested that further research is warranted before we consider using coffee and tea to combat MRSA infections system-wide. In the meantime, enjoy your next cup of tea or joe knowing it just might keep your own nose MRSA-free.

Sources:

CBS News

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institutes of Health: National Library of Medicine

Occasionally, it almost seems magical that a hot beverage and flowers under our very noses have the power to fight diseases like brain cancer successfully, but they do, according to a pair of recent studies.

In one report, drinking less than a half-cup of coffee or tea daily or more was linked to a reduced risk of glioma, the most common form of brain tumor that starts in the spinal cord or brain by 34 percent. Also, the protective effect was connected only with gliomas and slightly stronger for men.

These results were such an eye-opener, one medical expert told HealthDayNews a drug that could reduce the risk of any disease by 34 percent would be considered a "great" one.

In the other study, narciclasine, a naturally occurring chemical in a bulb of the daffodil, may slow down the growth and spread of very aggressive cancer cells in tests on mice with grafted human melanoma brain metastatic cells. Even better, scientists suspect the effect of narciclasine on very aggressive cancer cells is selective, and doesn't harm normal cells.

Makes you wonder what scientists will discover next…

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 92, No. 5, p. 1145-1150, November 2010

healthfinder.gov October 20, 2010

The FASEB Journal, Vol. 24, No. 11, p. 4575-4584, November 2010

PhysOrg.com November 1, 2010

While it seems like bottled teas have been around forever, they really hit the U.S. market with a vengeance in the 90s as the anti-soft drink. Having grown up in Southeastern Texas drinking too much sweet tea, I fell in love with the bottled stuff almost immediately while living in the Midwest, for their flavor and convenience.

But I didn't try to fool myself into believing I was making a healthier choice either, despite claims about higher amounts of antioxidants and such. I was merely trying to avoid consuming too many carbonated, sugary sweet soft drinks, a problem many of us deal with (me included) every day.

So I wasn't surprised to learn that bottled teas couldn't stand the test of closer scrutiny in a recent study, particularly when a half-dozen were examined in the laboratory for the amount of polyphenols they have with high-performance liquid chromatography, a process that separates compounds that are dissolved in a solution. That said, you may be surprised to discover just how little they actually contain.

The level of antioxidants in bottled teas is so low, you'd have to drink 20 bottles of some processed, store-bought teas to get the same amount from just one cup of home-brewed black or green tea, as three of the six bottled teas contained almost no polyphenols (13 mg. or less). The best of the bunch had 81 mg., not too shabby until you consider one cup of home-brewed tea may contain almost twice that amount (150 mg.).

And if the taste of tea is a turn off, you don't have to forgo it's healthy benefits. Try CNCA's Green Tea Extract capsules, standardized to 80% catechins (the active ingredient) for twice the potency of other brands - with very little caffeine!

ScienceDaily August 23, 2010

LiveScience August 22, 2010