ANTIB IOTICRESISTANCE

NHS

Cells are the structural and function-al units of all living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classi-fied as a living thing, except for virus-es, and is often called the building block of life. Some organisms, such as bacteria, are unicellular, consist-ing of a single cell. Other organisms, such as humans, are multicellular, or have many cells—an estimated 100,000,000,000,000 cells! Every cell is amazing; it can take in nu-trients, convert these nutrients into energy, carry out specialized func-tions, and reproduce as necessary. Even more amazing is that each cell stores its own set of instructions for carrying out each of these activities.

Organisms can be classified as uni-cellular; consisting of a single cell; including most bacteria, or multicel-lular; including plants and animals. Humans contain about 100 trillion cells. Most plant and animal cells are between 1 and 100 micrometres and therefore are visible only un-der the microscope. The word cell comes from the Latin cella, meaning “small room”. This term was coined by Robert Hooke when he compared the cork cells he saw through his mi-croscope to the small rooms monks lived in. This discovery then led to a mass surge in microscopic science breakthroughs crossing biology, chemistry and physical sciences.

“EVERY CELL IS AMAZING; IT CAN

TAKE IN NUTRIENTS AND REPRODUCE

AS NECESSARY.”

IMPOSSIBLE

TO DESTROY

The human immune system uses a number of tactics to fight pathogens. The path-ogen’s job is to evade the

immune system, create more copies of itself, and spread to

other hosts.

Characteristics that help a virus do its job tend to be

kept from one generation to another. Characteristics that

make it difficult for the virus to spread to another host tend

to be lost.

Take, for example, a virus that has a mutation that makes it particularly deadly to its human host and kills the host within a few hours of infection.

The virus needs a new, healthy host for its descend-ents to survive. If it kills its host before the host infects others, that mutation will dis-appear. Viruses change con-stantly, resulting in a strand of organism that becomes near indestructible.

When fighting off a bacterial infection, your immune system can be overwhelmed by the invading bugs.

Antibiotics are thrown into the fray to mount a defense against the invaders until your immune system can recover and finish off the remaining

bacteria.

How do antibiotics stave off bacterial growth? Antibiotics stop or interfere with a number of

everyday cellular processes that bacteria rely on for growth and survival, such as crippling production

of the bacterial cell wall that protects the cell from the external environment, interfering with protein synthesis by binding to the machinery that builds proteins, amino acid by amino acid, and blocking

synthesis of DNA.

Antibiotics stop working because bacteria come up with various ways of countering these actions,

such as:Preventing the antibiotic from getting to its

target- When you really don’t want to see some-one, you might find yourself doing things like hiding from them or avoiding their phone calls. Bacteria employ similar strategies to keep antibiotics at bay. Bacteria do this by changing the permeabil-ity of their membranes or by reducing the number of channels available for drugs to diffuse through.

Changing the target- Many antibiotics work by sticking to their target and preventing it from in-teracting with other molecules inside the cell. Some bacteria respond by changing the struc-ture of the target (or even replacing it within another molecule altogether) so that the anti-biotic can no longer recognize it or bind to it.

Destroying the antibiotic- This tactic takes interfering with the antibiotic to an extreme. Rather than simply pushing the drug aside or setting up molecular blockades, some bacte-ria survive by neutralizing their enemy directly.

B A C T E R I A LI N F I L T R A T I O N

S T R E N G T H E N I N GI N F E C T I O NBACTERIA BECOME RESISTANT TO ANTIBI-OTICS DUE TO PATIENTS NOT COMPLETING

THE FULL COURSE

S T R E N G T H E N I N GI N F E C T I O NBACTERIA BECOME RESISTANT TO ANTIBI-OTICS DUE TO PATIENTS NOT COMPLETING

THE FULL COURSE

There are more than 100,000 different species of fungi known to man, and they come in many and varied forms such as; molds, mildew, mushrooms, yeasts, etc. Parasitic Fungi feed on living plants, animals and decaying organic matter. They also cause diseases such as: athlete’s foot, jock itch, shaving rash, nail infections, ringworm, dandruff, and selected res-piratory infections. Candida albicans, a yeast, causes thrush infections and yeast infections, and is part of the diverse fungi family. Our pets can become infected with fungal skin diseases too. Thank goodness that tea tree oil is an effective natural anti fungal medicine! The great thing about it is that it can be easily diluted and applied, whatever the infec-tion, because it is a valuable broad-spectrum anti-microbial substance.Several herbs have the ability to knock out excess fun-gus, bringing the levels back to a healthy normal. Oth-ers can be effective in strengthening the immune system.

The bark of the pau d’arco tree has achieved folk-remedy status as a treatment for fungal infections, including vaginal yeast infections and athlete’s foot. Researchers have examined its infection-fighting pow-ers and have pinpointed lapachol as being the bark’s possible ac-tive ingredient. It can be taken in the form of capsules, extract, or tea.

Goldenseal is one of the most commonly used herbs for its im-mune-boosting properties, and it is also believed effective in stabi-lizing the overgrowth of fungus. It’s often administered as a douche.One group of subjects is given a medicine with the ac-tive ingredient, while another is given dummy prepara-tions - placebos. Neither group knows which they are getting.

So far, several such trials have shown promising results for al-ternative therapies - 29 trials have shown that acupunc-ture can reduce nausea after operations and three have shown that homeopathic remedies can help subdue hayfever.DO

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