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Ancient Potions Work!

If your current collection of medications to fight disease no longer works, look to the past. That is what scientists are doing. They are reading through books hundreds of years old on "home" remedies.

A medieval book mentions a substance that has shown promise in destroying methicillin resistant "staphylococcus aureus" (MRSA), a damaging infection common in hospitals. The potion was used a thousand years ago in Viking times.

Notably, the "cure" was used to treat a simple stye, a common eye complaint in that era. The concoction was found in a book called Bald's Leechbook. Though the title is rather off putting there is a lot of truth in it.

Work is gathering apace with the formation of the AncientBiotics Project. This was the first attempt at testing an ancient remedy. The future looks promising based on this positive finding.

Apparently, medieval medicine was not all quackery. Though misguided by blood letting many of the potions were functioning treatments.

✴ Chemistry by Ty Buchanan ✴

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Australian Binge Drinking Problem

Australia is a society that "molds" itself around a culture of high alcohol consumption. Other countries also have this problem. Germany, Ireland, Scotland and England also have a reputation for excessive drinking behavior. None, though have the strong established culture as that in Australia.

The young learn from the old. Australian youth spend their weekends in a blur of binge drinking. Their parents have openly consumed alcohol at parties, barbecues and in pubs, since the youth were toddlers. And in Australia, children can be brought into pubs.

Cultural change is called for by the federal government. However, cultural norms of behavior are nearly impossible to change unless people feel a real crisis. The Ebola catastrophe in Africa have forced citizens to change their burial habits. Unfortunately, Australians do not take the alcohol crisis seriously. They think it does no apply to them.

The intention to charge mothers with a crime for damage to their unborn babies through heavy alcohol consumption is a step in the right direction. It could also be extended in the future to cover the obesity crisis as well. Regrettably, laws have not stopped illegal drug use. People are stubborn. It is like believing that you can change someone - individuals can change in the short term. They go back to their old ways in the long run.

Science by Ty Buchanan

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Jetstar Warns Passengers of Imminent Drug Search - Jetstar Says it is Routine

Are we becoming too accepting of drug use? When a business advises its customer that intensive drug tests are about to happen it makes one wonder. Is this taking customer service too far?

The flight crew on Jetstar, the Australian cut-price airline, told passengers to flush drugs down the toilet because there would be sniffer dogs and inspectors when they landed. Jetstar said it was just a joke. Passengers took it seriously and it is not known if some avoided arrest. There was a rush to the toilet after the announcement.

Apparently, this isn't the first time this has occurred. Jetstar admitted that such warnings are routine. This undermines its claim of a joke. Is their apology sufficient? Surely a change in company culture is needed.

Drug taking is a drain on the health system. Continuous use does damage the body despite what many users claim. Being blasé about it is certainly not the thing to do. Responses on Facebook were overwhelmingly supportive of the airline. However, many silly things are done by seemingly rational people.

Society by Ty Buchanan

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Give that Kat His Codeine Man!

People are throwing tantrums about being refused addictive pills from pharmacists. This comes at a time when the federal government is setting up a system of "policing" morphine based medications. If patients are frustrated by over the counter tablets what are they going to do when refused prescriptions?

Codeine is the drug of choice for most. Because it is freely available and not officially restricted one can understand the frustration when a sale is refused. It is not much use for pharmacists to call police. Giving people police records is going to make them more antisocial.

Telling people not to use Nurofen Plus for a headache is stupid. The public thinks, "Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot take?" - and rightly so! Pharmacists are not trained to deal with the public. They only learn chemistry, mostly irrelevant at that in today's prepacked world.

Monitoring purchases is a silly idea. It is another layer of costly bureaucracy that the public must pay for. If they are that serious then have it prescribed by a doctor, who now write scripts for extra strength, forte, codeine. That will take the pressure off pharmacists and put it on the doctor. GPs will not thank pharmacists for that.

Pharmacists know that having all codeine put on prescription will reduce sales so they are not calling for this. They want more talk. Yes, talk always helps - if you really want a solution that will reduce sales.

At the moment chemists are judging codeine buyers by the way they are dressed. Put on a suit and you can have as many codeine tablets as you want. I always thought pharmacist are a bit "thick". This confirms it.

Health by Ty Buchanan

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Drug Companies and Pharmacists Want More Regulation

It is always a worry when drug manufacturers and pharmacists force themselves on decision-making bodies. Self interest rules both groups. Drug manufacturers want to increase sells and raise prices by "hook or by crook". Pharmacists want to hold onto their monopoly provided first by a piece of paper provided by a college and secondly by the government paymaster.

Pharmacists are like real estate agents - there is one on every street corner. In a competitive market this shouldn't be the case. Skills learned at university in chemistry is never used. Everything today is prepackaged. An unskilled person could do the job. They even want to do the work of doctors extending prescription repeats.

The Victorian Pharmaceutical Misuse Summit includes the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. They want to bring in a medication monitoring system to reduce the number of drug overdoses. Being cynical, confiscation would be an ideal tact to increase sales. But aren't overdoses mainly taken by those intending to take their own lives? Surely, they are "barking up the wrong tree". More treatment facilities for mental illness are what is needed not medication controls.

We do not need another level of costly bureaucracy that clearly will not have any benefits. Obstructing patients from getting morphine based pain killers will only drive them into the illegal market. More regulation and policing of this "industry" has had not impact whatsoever over the years. In the US they have arrested so many drug dealing people it has become a nation of prisons, Do we want that here?

In Australia, GPs make a joke to patients when they have to phone up with the patient's details and get a prescription number in order to prescribe strong painkillers. Even doctors see it as an unwanted bureaucratic process. A doctor decides to write the prescription before he makes the phone call and the request is never turned down.

Health by Ty Buchanan

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HIV Reaching Record Levels in Australia

It seems Mankind hasn't moved far away from its ancient existence - living in a literal "bath" of disease. All other living things live in hostile environments, if not from predators then from a plethora of diseases.

Antibiotics are losing their efficacy. They no longer work. There are only a few that are effective against hospital acquired infections (HAI). Furthermore, it will be a shock to many that there is still no real treatment for fungal infections. Once you suffer from fungal problems you have to keep on applying various ointments.

Australia has reached a dangerous point in regard to HIV. Last year new HIV infections rose to their highest point in 20 years. Because younger people are experimenting with sex, this is the group contracting the disease at the highest level. Infections have been increasing since 1999. It is now at a rate of 24 per cent a year, from 10 per cent in 1999.

Despite attempts to destigmatize the way HIV is contracted, the reality is that 60 per cent of new infections are between consenting males. Perhaps there is a strong case for allowing marriage between same sex couples. This would reduce philandering to a significant degree. Otherwise, we could see some countries introducing a register of those with the disease and major penalties for intentionally infecting others.

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Health by Ty Buchanan

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No Improvement in Mental Health

After a great deal of research we still do not know what mental illness is and what causes it. There seems to be only general ways of categorizing individuals suffering mental problems. Each person's illness tends to be unique. Some people are on extremely high levels of medication. Indeed, many have to rotate medications because the drugs lose their effectiveness.

It is no wonder spending on the treatment of mental illness has not increased in the last twenty years. Reforms carried out have not improved matters at all. When sufferers attempt suicide they are kept in the mental health section of public hospitals, given medication and sent on their way a day or so later. There is usually a little talk with them, but they are thrown out to deal with life's problems, alone.

Nearly half of Australia will have mental problems at some time in their lives. This is a frightening statistic. Furthermore, there is discrimination. In OECD countries Australia is near the bottom for the number of people in the workforce who have mental issues.

It is difficult to treat something that is not understood. If your hip or knee fails you, an operation providing a new joint is an option. For mental illness there are many medications that only seem to help for a short time. The only form of treatment that has been there from the beginning is talking to the patient. This will continue of course.

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Health by Ty Buchanan

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Psychedelics Should Be Used to Treat Depression

Perhaps the drive to ban drugs is misplaced. The war is being lost anyway. Since the 1960s research on psychedelic drugs has been frowned upon. However, recent findings show benefits from imbibing these chemicals which come mainly from mushrooms.

Psychedelics alter perception so that an individuals sees strange things that are not there. A side benefit is an improvement in mood. Anxiety and depression tend to disappear. Research in the US and Europe is really taking off. Oddly, although the drugs have been banned they are not addictive.

Australia is not following the lead. It is still stuck in the past with talk about psychedelics being hushed up. A further problem is that chemicals derived from mushrooms and cacti are not patentable. There is no big money in it.

The harm done by regular intake of psychedelics is near zero. Quite different from the common belief. Many of the elderly suffer from psychological problems. If these can be solved by putting the aged into a better state of mind a lot of good will be done.

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Conservation

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The Polluted Environment

As human beings take more medications, so the environment becomes saturated with drugs. Sewerage treatment works are having a difficult problem removing them and providing usable water.

Even low levels of these dangerous chemicals can damage fish, for example. When exposed to anti-stress drugs they get hungry like drug addicts and eat until they are blotted.

Very small microbes that keep the environment running effectively no longer do their work on slime to create food for fish. Chemicals such as shampoo, washing powder, disinfectants, caffeine, antihistamines and antibiotics upset the ecosystem. They slow production of algae a base food source.

Basically, waterways are being sterilized. It is difficult to ascertain the impact of each drug because there are a number of pollutants present at any one time. Pesticides and fertilizers are mixed in with drugs.

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Society

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Calls for Change in Pain Relief May Not Be Possible

When you go into hospital for an operation you either get a "feel good" pain clinician who believes that no one should be in pain when medications are available, or you get an "ethical" physician who gives pain relief when he/she deems it to be "right". The problem is moral judgement differs from person to person.

Another issue is - Can pain be a disease in itself? Some calculate the failure to treat pain in working days lost. The problem is, taking analgesics will reduce some pain from the flu, for example, but you are still too sick to work. Furthermore, taking high levels of analgesics can make for a euphoric state where one does not want to work. Looking at it in terms of days lost is questionable.

Specialists are also calling for pain relieving medications to be shipped in large amounts to poorer countries where medical treatment is not widely available. Considering the drug problem in virtually all countries, this may not be a good thing to do. In Africa UN staff have to give some provisions to rebels in order to operate in particular regions. Would these controlling parties want analgesics? Common sense would indicate that they would.

Physicians who specialise in pain relief may be drawn to the profession because they have strong ethics in this area, but they need to look at the big picture. Some illnesses are just so bad that even strong doses of pain relievers have little effect. To fully remove the pain a high dose causing death would be needed. Long term use of such medications leads to resistance. In other words, pain is no longer reduced, and certainly for drug addicts there are no more highs. Distribution of analgesics need to be dealt with on a national basis. Change in this areas may seem necessary - it may not be possible.

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Health