Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Persistent Bacteria Go Down

[Katee]

May 16, 2011
Doctors have discovered that adding sugar to antibiotics increases their ability to knock out persistent staph infections
(abstract). Certain types of bacteria called persisters shut down their metabolic processes when exposed to antibiotics. Adding sugar keeps the bacteria feeding, making them more susceptible to drugs. From the article: "Adding such a simple and widely available compound to existing antibiotics enhances their effectiveness against persisters, and fast. One test showed that a sugared up antibiotic could eliminate 99.9 percent of persisters in two hours, while a regular antibiotic did nothing. Doctors believe that this discovery will help treat urinary tract infections, staph infections, and strep throat, but its most life-saving application may be against the age-old disease tuberculosis. This infection of the lungs kills many people, and is hard to fight off. A little sugar could help save a lot of lives."


Slashdot

I don't know how to read the abstracts/stats well enough to know if this is a well-designed study. Katee

[Reesacat]

It is hard to read-I don't even know what Slashdot is......these type of blog posts without an author's name drive me buggy. At least there are 2 links to another article with author name and abstract.

Ummm, might work.

In the meantime, for a kidney infection there is a sugar called D-Mannose that you can take that coats the E-coli lectins preventing them from sticking to urinary track walls.
See more info at:
http://www.hawkeshealth.net/communit...ight=d-mannose