It doesn’t take much

To find out more, the investigators examined the relationship between leisure-time physical activity and suspected bacterial infections over the course of a year.

Information on leisure-time physical activity was obtained from the 2007 and 2010 North Denmark Region Health Surveys of 18,874 Danes. Suspected bacterial infections were determined based on filled prescriptions for antibiotics.

Low physical activity is defined by the researchers as at least four hours strolling, riding a bicycle, or other light physical activity every week, and moderate physical activity as at least four hours of exercise through sports or heavy gardening or similar activities in a week.

The results showed that compared with sedentary behaviour, even low levels of leisure-time physical activity were associated with a 10% lower risk of any suspected bacterial infection.

For example, women undertaking low and moderate levels of leisure-time physical activity had a a 21% and 32% reduction of suspected cystitis – urinary tract infection.

Potential for prevention

Suspected respiratory tract bacterial infections, did not appear to be affected by levels of physical activity.

Even so say the researchers:

“These results indicate that practitioners should be aware of physical activity as a potential preventive factor for bacterial infections in the work of disease prevention and health promotion.”

The study was published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise – the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.

In Asia turmeric is used to treat many health conditions and it has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and perhaps even anticancer properties.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by an airborne bacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, that typically attacks the lungs, but can also harm the brain, kidneys, and spine.

For a long time now, TB has been successfully treated with antibiotics; but as antibiotic-resistance spreads, some strains of TB bacteria are developing resistance to drugs.

Finding new pathways of treatment for drug-resistant TB (as well as any other antibiotic-resistant bacteria), then, is crucial.

Investigators, reporting in the journal Respirology, found that by stimulating human immune cells called macrophages (a type of white blood cell that clears out any foreign substances, microbes, cancer cells, or cellular waste from the body as part of the immune system), curcumin was able to successfully kill and remove Mycobacterium tuberculosis, from experimentally infected cells in the lab.

Potential new treatment

“With the worldwide emergence of highly drug-resistant tuberculosis, novel agents that have direct antimycobacterial effects or that enhance host immunity are urgently needed,” the authors write in the paper. They note that their results showed that curcumin inhibited the activation of a cellular molecule called nuclear factor-kappa B and stimulated the immune system as to kill the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium.

This ability points to a potential new tuberculosis treatment that would be less prone to the development of drug resistance.

“Our study has provided basic evidence that curcumin protects against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in human cells,” said Dr. Xiyuan Bai, lead author of the study. “The protective role of curcumin to fight drug-resistant tuberculosis still needs confirmation, but if validated, curcumin may become a novel treatment to modulate the host immune response to overcome drug-resistant tuberculosis.”

This research, published in Anales de Pediatría (Annals of Pediatrics), was a collaboration between researchers from the universities of Granada (Spain) and Kvopio (Finland)

It involved 85 children under one year of age and 107 over 1 year old, all of them affected by a recurrent urinary infection. 75 children were administered cranberry extract, while the other 117 were administered trimethoprim, a bacteriostatic antibiotic derived from trimethoxybenzyl pyrimidine, used almost exclusively to treat urinary infections.

Effective in adults and children

The lead author of this work, professor José Uberos Fernández from the Department of Pediatrics (UGR), notes that, according to their analysis, cranberry extract, which in previous researches had already shown effectiveness in preventing urinary infections in adults, is also effective and safe for very young children with this condition.

Cranberry extract’s healing effects are, according to previous research, linked to the amount of antioxidant proanthocyanidins present in the extract, which also have an anti-adhesive effect, preventing bacteria from ‘sticking’ to the walls of the urinary tract.

According to Uberos Fernández it may not be the proanthocyanidins themselves but their metabolites (substances produced as they are metabolised in the body) which help clear the infection. Proanthocyanidins also have an anti-inflammatory effect which adds to their healing properties.

A way to reduce antibiotic use

In this study, female children under 1 responded more favorably to cranberry treatment. In children over 1 trimethoprim was associated with a 35% occurrence rate compared to 26% in those taking the cranberry extract.

The researchers caution that we still do not know exactly which cranberry metabolites are the most effective in fighting recurring UTIs, but given the general effectiveness of the treatment in young children it could help cut the number of prescriptions of antibiotics, and the risk of multidrug-resistant strains of bacteria, associated with UTIs in this age group.

We tend to take it for granted that infection is what causes the symptoms of illness, assuming that the only significance of symptoms is to alert us to the fact that we are under the weather.

In truth, many of our body’s systems are involved in being sick: the immune system and endocrine systems, as well as our nervous system. Moreover, the behavior we associate with sickness is not limited to humans.

Anyone who has a pet knows that animals act differently when they are ill. Some of the most extreme “sickness behavior” is found in such social insects as bees, which typically abandon the hive to die elsewhere when they are sick. In other words, such behavior seems to have been preserved over millennia of evolution.

The selfish gene?

Why does this phenomenon persist? According to the scientists writing in  PLoS Biology symptoms have a meaning beyond the level of the individual. Rather, they suggest, evolution is functioning on the level of the “selfish gene” which ensures that even if the individual organism doesn’t survive the illness, isolating itself from its social environment (such as staying home when you have a cold) will reduce the overall rate of infection in the group.

“From the point of view of the individual, this behavior may seem overly altruistic,” says co-author Dr. Keren Shakhar, of the Psychology Department of the College of Management Academic Studies at the Weizmann Institute,”but from the perspective of the gene, its odds of being passed down are improved.”

Symptoms sending a message

In the paper, the scientists go through a list of common symptoms, and each seems to support the hypothesis.

Appetite loss, for example, hinders the disease from spreading by communal food or water resources. Fatigue and weakness can lessen the mobility of the infected individual, reducing the radius of possible infection.

Along with the symptoms, the sick individual can become depressed and lose interest in social and sexual contact, again limiting opportunities to pass their illness on to others. Lapses in personal grooming and changes in body language say: I’m sick! Don’t come near!

“We know that isolation is the most efficient way to stop a transmissible disease from spreading,” says co-author Prof. Guy Shakhar of the Weizmann Institute’s Immunology Department “The problem is that today, for example, with flu, many do not realize how deadly it can be. So they go against their natural instincts, take a pill to reduce pain and fever and go to work, where the chance of infecting others is much higher.”

As cold and flu season is upon us the scientists say they hope its message sinks in: Millions of years of evolution are not wrong. When you feel sick, it’s a sign you need to stay home.

The study in the journal PLOS ONE found that chestnut leaf extract, was rich in two substances – ursene and oleanene – that blocks the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, which causes a spectrum of problems from mild skin irritations to death, in hospitals and in the community.

The use of chestnut leaves in traditional folk remedies inspired the research, said lead researcher Cassandra Quave, an ethnobotanist at Emory University.

“We’ve identified a family of compounds from this plant that have an interesting medicinal mechanism,” she said. “Rather than killing staph, this botanical extract works by taking away staph’s weapons, essentially shutting off the ability of the bacteria to create toxins that cause tissue damage. In other words, it takes the teeth out of the bacteria’s bite.”

Turning down the toxins

A single 50 microgram dose of the extract cleared up MRSA skin lesions in lab mice, stopping tissue damage and red blood cell damage. Further tests showed that this extract inhibits the ability of staph bacteria to communicate with one another, a process known as quorum sensing. MRSA uses this quorum-sensing signalling system to manufacture toxins and ramp up its virulence.

The discovery holds potential for new ways to both treat and prevent infections of methicillin-resistant S. aureus, or MRSA, without fuelling the growing problem of drug-resistant pathogens.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria annually cause millions of deaths each year. Evolving strains of this “super bug” bacterium pose threats to both hospital patients with compromised immune systems and young, healthy athletes and others who are in close physical contact.

Restoring balance

“We’ve demonstrated in the lab that our extract disarms even the hyper-virulent MRSA strains capable of causing serious infections in healthy athletes,” Quave says. “At the same time, the extract doesn’t disturb the normal, healthy bacteria on human skin. It’s all about restoring balance.”

The researchers are doing further testing on individual components of the extract to determine if they work best in combination or alone.

“It’s easy to dismiss traditional remedies as old wives’ tales, just because they don’t attack and kill pathogens,” Quave says. “But there are many more ways to help cure infections, and we need to focus on them in the era of drug-resistant bacteria.”

Intercontinental air travel can be stressful and affect a passenger’s physical and psychological wellbeing. Whilst jet lag and fatigue remain the best known problems, holidaymakers also often experience upper respiratory symptoms.

Researchers from Griffith’s Menzies Health Institute Queensland (MHIQ) have just completed a clinical trial showing that an elderberry supplement can provide some protection from cold and flu-like symptoms following long-haul flights. Presenting their results at the 21st Annual International Integrative Medicine Conference in Melbourne, the research team showed how elderberry appears to reduce the duration and severity of the cold.

The randomised, double-blind placebo controlled clinical trial was conducted with 312 economy class passengers travelling from Australia to an overseas destination. Cold episodes, cold duration and symptoms were recorded in a daily diary and participants also completed surveys before, during and after travel.

It showed that the placebo group had a significantly higher number of cold episode days, and the symptom score in the placebo group over these days was also significantly higher.

The trial used capsules containing 300mg of a standardised, proprietary membrane-filtered elderberry extract which has shown to be effective in working against respiratory bacteria and influenza viruses.

The Australian study follows recent European research which suggests that a combination of Echinacea herb and root extract supplemented with elderberry can be as effective as the conventional antiviral medicine Tamiflu for the early treatment of influenza.

Urinary tract infection is the second most common infectious disease encountered in community practice. Worldwide, about 150 million people are diagnosed each year with UTI, at a total treatment cost in the billions of dollars.

Although UTI is usually treated with antibiotics, “emerging antimicrobial resistance compels us to look back into traditional medicines or herbal products, which may provide appropriate/acceptable alternative solutions,” the authors argue.

Garlic (Allium sativum) has been traditionally used for the treatment of diseases since ancient times. A wide range of microorganisms – including bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses – are known to be sensitive to garlic preparations. Allicin and other sulphur compounds are thought to be the major antimicrobial factors in garlic.

In this study, published in the Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science, the team found that 56% of 166 bacteria strains isolated from the urine of people with UTI showed a high degree of resistance to antibiotics. However, about 82% of the antibiotic resistant bacteria were susceptible to a crude aqueous extract of Allium sativum. According to the researchers, “ours is the first study to report the antibacterial activity of aqueous garlic extract against multidrug resistant bacterial isolates from infected urine samples leading to UTI.”

The researchers at the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences in India, add that “This provides hope for developing alternative drugs which may be of help in fighting the menace of growing antibacterial resistance.”