A common cause of pneumonia can kill by causing bleeding in the lungs, say researchers in a finding that may explain why antibiotics fail to save many patients.
They found the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae secretes a toxin that causes severe bleeding in the lungs in some patients, killing them within days.
The toxin is unaffected by antibiotics, which explains why the drugs often fail to save patients, the researchers reported in the journal Immunity.
Dr. Jian-Dong Li’s team….looked specifically at a toxin known to be produced by the bacteria, called pneumolysin. It was known to lyse, or break open cells, but Li’s team found this also caused widespread bleeding in lung tissue.
And antibiotics kill bacteria by cutting them open, which releases even more pneumolysin.
Now, Doctor Li’s team at the University of Rochester Medical Center is pressing ahead to develop a molecule which will counteract pneumolysin.
::yawn::
why not just stick some colloidal silver in a nebulizer or nose spray and call it a day.. the stuff seems to kill everything else without a hitch. -and it wont crack open the buggers while doing it either.. *shrug*
people love reinventing the wheel, i guess.
-s
#1 – never anyone died of pneumonia in your family, I guess.
#2 Eh, but somebody will be offended by everything, eventually.
#1 Colloidal silver ranks right up there with chiropractics in terms of whether or not it’s of any benefit. Skepticism commends one to discount purely anecdotal testimony since statistically, as evidence such would be an extremely biased sample and more directly, anecdote tends to go hand in hand with confusing correlation with causality.
Silver colloidal is an ancient nanotech particle used for antibacterial purposes since BC times. Apparently it inhibits the enzymes which these pathogens use for oxygen metabolism.
I don’t know whether it’s suitable for use on pneumonia or not but you can’t discount it’s antibacterial properties. Even Johnson & Johnson has caught on it seems as they are selling band-aids with silver nano-particle strips as antibacterial products.
Check your facts.
I once got pneumonia so bad, I could hardly inhale or exhale. I kept getting worse, so I went for a xray. My doc then called me late on a Friday and told me that I needed to rush over and get a CT scan because he saw a “suspicious mass” on my lung. Naturally the CT scan wasn’t read until Monday, so I sweated all weekend wondering if I had cancer. I am 43 and quit smoking when I was 33. I can’t imagine getting double pneumonia. Single pneumonia made it so I could hardly breathe, so I can see how people so easily die from it.
Soundwash:
(Bit late, but in case you happen across this again) — Screw the FDA and big chemo; my reservations stem from my own anecdotal experience with the stuff and alternative medicine in general, which has been simply that too often I’ve run into folks whose metabolism doesn’t respond the same way other people’s might — which can be said of any medicine.
My own experience has been somewhat different, and to qualify experience I mean as a caregiver, since I’ve never had occasion to use it myself — while I can’t say I’ve ever observed it to be specifically harmful (and what’s documented on this is pretty mild contrast to bleeding lungs), my impression where it worked was pretty much what I’d expect of neosporin with a lesser injury and a couple instances where it didn’t seem to provide any particular benefit and at least appeared to impede the process, since the wounds eventually healed when care was reduced to just saline cleaning and application of liquid bandaid.
My own issue here is simply that where it didn’t seem especially effective was for a wound my disabled sister developed who, incidentally, was what made this article of particular interest, since she has congenital myotonic muscular dystrophy, one of the complications of which involves a much higher than usual risk of pneumonia. While this is, itself, somewhat anecdotal, the reason I took issue with the idea is simply that I’ve been unable to locate much about why it DOESN’T work for some people (actually, nothing about this). In this instance, I simply can’t help but be skeptical — while I’d certainly like to see a more Jeebus and “Captialism” resistant FDA, there’s also something relatively satisfying about being able to examine the clinical trials of a given protocol. Not too many years back, one of my friends passed away all of two months after having had him rave to me about the anti-carcinogenic properties of coral calcium and I can cite several dozen instances (were I to really rack my memory) where I’d watched families fall in love with and become disillusioned by alternative medicine in some capacity.
I can totally understand why someone would want to develop a different treatment for pneumonia that have nothing to do with profit motive, and in all honesty, I’d hardly object to such were it the case.
Sadly my otherwise healthy nephew died from pneumonia ay the age of 27! He went tot the ER,started oral anibiotics on Sat or Sunday and Tuesday Am,he as unresponsive …EMT’s brought him to the hopital,tried to revive him,but sadly he didn’t survive! WE are all shocked…they had to do an autopsy,since he was previously healthy…just so wrong! My sister had 6 children,now 5…you “assume” you go to the hopistal and you are going to come out…we are no strangers to illness,long term,caring for our own,hospice, but this is beyond comprehension! I for one am eager to hear the autopsy resuts…my poor sister and brother and siblings..rest is peace Pat! xo