Words about science and hiking
The short answer is no. Although nearly all plants contain antimicrobial compounds, these compounds are present only at low concentrations. Diet certainly influences microbiome composition. But this influence works through the availability of foods that different bacteria prefer. “Food antibiotics” are not a thing. Sloppy health journalists are responsible for the confusion. They often call Read More …
I often despair when I read some of the papers that pass for phage therapy science, so it’s nice to see a couple of very solid contributions published this month. Neither are attention-grabbing reports of cures of patients who had failed antibiotic therapy and were at death’s door. You won’t see a word about them Read More …
I’ve ragged on various phage groups for what I perceive as their shortcomings in moving phage therapy from proof of principle to an actual product that can be used to treat patients reliably. There are plenty of anecdotal reports and case studies of patients helped by PT, and I’m sure that many of them are Read More …
We’ve been using plants as medicines for a long time. Longer than history — hollyhock has been found in the graves of Neanderthals, and yarrow and chamomile have been found on their teeth [1]. Longer indeed than humanity itself — many animals self-medicate, including chimpanzees, monkeys, baboons and lemurs [2]. A long time. Plants are full Read More …
Clinical research on phage therapy is somewhere between comatose and dead. A search through ClinicalTrials.gov reveals only a few sporadic attempts at bringing PT to the clinic. Many of these are Phase 1 safety/dosing trials which have no apparent follow-up: A 2008 P1 trial of PT for venous leg ulcers found no adverse events, but no difference in outcomes Read More …
The rise of diabetes in the developed world has brought along a rise in persistent ulcers and abscesses. These infections don’t respond particularly well to either systemic or topical antibiotics and as a result, an unfortunately high proportion are resolved by amputation. This is nobody’s notion of an acceptable medical outcome. Phage therapy has been Read More …