Were doctors a lot smarter in the ‘dark ages’ than today?
Any time they want to ridicule a natural cure — even alternative treatments that people have relied upon for centuries — the mainstream falls back on its favorite insult.
They’ll describe it as “out of the Dark Ages.”
But could 21st century practitioners possibly have something to learn from treatments used a thousand years ago? A long-lost secret that might actually save many lives?
Recently, a group of British researchers decided to find out.
To do so, they used a remedy from “Bald’s Leechbook,” a 10th Century manuscript thought to be one of the earliest medical textbooks.
The recipe was chosen because it contained ingredients such as garlic, whose antibiotic properties were already being studied.
The instructions in the old book were very precise, and were followed to the ancient letter.
The concoction had to be prepared in a brass vessel… and then strained through a cloth… and then left to sit for nine whole days. And it absolutely had to include two species of Allium (garlic and onion or leek) and wine.
I know what you’re thinking — this strange brew had everything except bile from a cow’s stomach.
No, it had that, too.
But when the formula was finally complete, it did something that left Big Pharma’s fanciest, billion-dollar drugs in the dust.
It destroyed MRSA, one of the deadliest antibiotic-resistant superbugs on the planet.
When the solution was tested on mice, it managed to kill up to 90 percent of MRSA bacteria – and not just once, but in repeated tests, done with entirely new batches of the mixture.
Microbiologist Freya Harrison, who led the effort, said the scientists “were just utterly dumbfounded. We did not see this coming at all.”
She added that based on the initial results, the recipe’s potential use as an antibiotic was beyond her wildest dreams.
It looks like the world may have a new (if a bit unusual) superbug killer on its hands – and the mainstream is going to have to come up with a new insult.
Source:
“Thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon potion kills MRSA superbug” Nick Thompson and Laura Smith-Spark, March 31, 2015, CNN, cnn.com
