A suggestion about flesh-eating bacteria

Discussion in 'Biology & Genetics' started by MetaKron, Mar 11, 2006.

  1. MetaKron Registered Senior Member

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    I suggest that anyone who thinks they have an infection, might have an infection, or are going to have an infection do one thing: Take magnesium.

    Toxic shock syndrome killed numerous women in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The cause was artificial fibers in internal tampons that depleted magnesium from the environments of the vaginas of thsoe women. The bacteria changed when they were deprived of magnesium and became toxic. The obvious solution would be to introduce enough magnesium into those environments to prevent the problem.

    If lack of magnesium causes bacteria to act up and kill people, maybe supplementing magnesium will reverse the process. If you have Mylanta on hand, that is a good source of emergency magnesium. I think that is the reason why people used to soak wounds in Epson salts, which is magnesium sulfate. It is also available in more than one form at any counter that sells vitamins.

    My suspicion is that flesh-eating bacteria are common bacteria that go wild in an environment, a person's flesh, that is deficient of magnesium. That would explain why that kind of infection is rare. It is rare to be that badly deficient in magnesium. In between would be people who get really sick or get bad infections that aren't particularly life-threatening.
     
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  3. Hercules Rockefeller Beatings will continue until morale improves. Moderator

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    I suggest that anyone who thinks they have an infection, might have an infection, or are going to have an infection do one thing: see your doctor and do not listen to wildly unsubstantiated and speculative medical hypotheses on the internet.

    Seriously, you shouldn’t be offering medical advice based on nothing more than your speculations.<P>
     
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  5. MetaKron Registered Senior Member

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    Why not? Doctors do it all the time and kill more people than car accidents.
     
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  7. squishysponge Registered Senior Member

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    'Flesh eating bacteria' is a rare condition. Apart from that your body needs to come in contact (such as a cut from a fall etc) with the bacterium in order to get infected. Even still, not everybody is susecptable to infection.

    I believe that it was the 'superabsorbant' tampons back in the days, that were binding to/absorbing the magnesium in the vaginas that affects the immediate environment of the vagina, generating an environment that alters the growth kinetics of the bacterium in the vagina. My understanding is that I do not believe taking magnesium suppliments will help. Magnsium overdose is also dangerous.

    Why out of nowhere do you make this assertion and what is the point of the post?
     
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2006
  8. squishysponge Registered Senior Member

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    Doctors offer medical advices because they have extensive and formal education on medicine. Unless you have official credentials in the field of medicine/related sciences you are not allowed to and shouldnt give anyone medical advice. Discussion is one thing. Making false medical/scientific advice is another.

    Plus I dont know where you get the idea that doctors kill more people than car accidents as I believe that is completely untrue.
     
  9. MetaKron Registered Senior Member

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    Squishysponge, that's just plain nonsense. Advising someone to take magnesium is not the kind of advice that requires anyone to have some kind of degree. It is a food supplement, available most places vitamins are sold, and it could save someone's life. Of course you don't do it instead of going to the doctor. It's part of a first like of defense, like washing the wound with antiseptic.

    The AMA, American Medical Association, publishes the statistic that 120,000 people are killed in the U.S. by doctor's mistakes each year. The death toll by automobiles runs about 50,000.
     
  10. squishysponge Registered Senior Member

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    Magnesium is a vital supplement of the body, however with reference to your examples of necrotising fascitis or toxic shock syndrome, patients simply will not really benefit and certainly wouldnt be cured from taking oral magnesium supplements nor is it going to be a real preventative measure. You need antibiotics for the cure. Take good care to prevent infection. Stay healthy.

    Im not aware of the actual statistics for either. Assuming your stats are correct (which i wont bother to go find out) then i retract my statement.
     
  11. squishysponge Registered Senior Member

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    A common mistake people make is that they believe they dont need medical professional's or scientist's advice regarding vitamins/supplements. Another common mistake is that they think supplments arn't prescription-based/regulated pharmaceuticals and therefore wouldn't have to worry about its possible negative implication it has on health (from overdose, reaction to your other medications etc); some also believe taking the more the better. so wrong.

    Also wt was the point of the post again?
     
  12. Mmmm, and you can also pick up iron supplements over the counter as well, and an overdose of iron will cause irretrievable liver failure. People chug these things such as vitamin supplements back like they were Smarties, and they really, really shouldn't. Certain antioxidant vitamin supplements presumed to be beneficial in off setting the onset of certain forms of cancer, notably lung cancer in smokers, turned out to actually increase the likelihood of developing the same, not diminish the chances. Vitamin C doesn't do dick to help you stop getting a cold.

    Basically the body isn't geared up to process vitamins in pill form, only extract them from dietary intake brought about by the digestion of food.

    These things are not without their possible harmful consequences and should never be presumed as such simply because large companies like to push these things at people as being "healthy" and good for you.
     
  13. MetaKron Registered Senior Member

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    5,502
    Every time a good idea comes up we get these net.saboteurs.
     
  14. candy Valued Senior Member

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    I remember reading that an insufficient amount of magnesium in the body could be linked to a few conditions like migraines, muscle spasms, and congestive heart failure so taking the RDA of magnesium as a supplement might not be a bad idea.

    I do know that putting milk of magnesia on a poison ivy rash can help with the ithching and does seem to speed healing.
     
  15. Cottontop3000 Death Beckoned Registered Senior Member

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    honey? is that you?
     
  16. MetaKron Registered Senior Member

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    I think it's like taking vitamin C to help, which it does.
     
  17. Why yes, that's absolutely right. We're a Secret Elite, dedicated to keeping the world in blind ignorance whilst we steal the actually good ideas and innovations of the brilliant and gifted, rubbish their originators publicly and surreptitiously market their original work as our own, coining in the money and laughing as we go.

    This would be a problem pertinent to you specifically in this particular instance in what respect exactly?
     
  18. MetaKron Registered Senior Member

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    5,502
    You're more like the usual neighborhood jerkoffs, actually, and you're no secret to anyone. Haven't been for thousands of years.
     
  19. Light Registered Senior Member

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    Who said it was a good idea - you alone?
     
  20. Do you mind, Madame - I'll have you know I'm not a day over 763!

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  21. MetaKron Registered Senior Member

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    What does the effect of overdoses have to do with a recommendation to take a dose of magnesium to help with an infection? Magnesium is considered to be a safe over-the-counter supplement. It takes a lot of doing to be poisoned by it. I am talking about using a normal dose of a safe food supplement to increase a person's chances of survival.

    There is always someone in the crowd who has to do what he can to make a good idea look bad. I wish you insufferable pricks would BF each other to death in a locked room.
     
  22. Varda The Bug Lady Valued Senior Member

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    having not read the thread, and considering that i am not a medical doctor, i think that it would be a good suggestion for people with hard to heal infectious wounds to ask their doctors about growth factor.
     
  23. Hercules Rockefeller Beatings will continue until morale improves. Moderator

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    No one would have any problems with your suppositions if you were more conservative in your position. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that magnesium is a very important and essential micronutrient. It is needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body. It helps maintain normal muscle and nerve function, keeps heart rhythm steady and keeps bones strong. Magnesium also helps regulate blood sugar levels, promotes normal blood pressure, and is known to be involved in energy metabolism and protein synthesis. There is an increased interest in the role of magnesium in preventing and managing disorders such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.

    And, in relation to this thread, it is known to support a healthy immune system. But so are numerous other micro- and macronutrients. So telling everyone that they should consume magnesium because it is important for general immune system health and function is undoubtedly correct but is no more important or relevant than reminding everyone that they should consume a large variety of other nutrients as part of a balanced diet.

    Even though dietary surveys suggest that many Americans do not consume recommended amounts of magnesium, symptoms of magnesium deficiency are rarely seen in the US. However, there is concern about the prevalence of sub-optimal magnesium stores in the body. For many people, dietary intake may not be high enough to promote an optimal magnesium status. Early signs of magnesium deficiency include loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and weakness. As magnesium deficiency worsens, numbness, tingling, muscle contractions and cramps, seizures, personality changes, abnormal heart rhythms, and coronary spasms can occur.

    Hopefully you will notice that bacterial infection is not listed as a symptom of magnesium deficiency. Where you wander off into your own fantasy land is your perceived correlation between magnesium deficiency and specific aspects of immune system function, particularly necrotizing fasciitis (so-called “flesh-eating bacteria”). There is no strong medical link between magnesium deficiency and bacterial infection, let alone necrotizing soft tissue infections. So you should be prepared for people to call you on your unsubstantiated assertions. It's as simple as that.

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    Here is an authoritative, detailed and referenced fact sheet about magnesium from the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health. It is the source of the information in this post. Perhaps you might care to read it?

    http://www.ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium_pf.asp


    Whatever you're taking, you need to up the dose.

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