Drink green tea w/antibiotics

[ThinkGutBacteria]

Before I run to my little lecture, I wanted to make sure we all knew about this one...

 

Green Tea Boosts Antibiotics for Superbugs

Egyptian study finds drink increased effectiveness threefold

 

Posted 3/31/08

 

MONDAY, March 31 (HealthDay News) -- Green tea can help antibiotics be three times more effective in fighting drug-resistant bacteria, even superbugs, according to a study by researchers at Alexandria University in Egypt.

 

Green tea is common in Egypt, and it's likely that many people there drink it while taking antibiotics.Therefore, the researchers wanted to determine if green tea would decrease or increase the effectiveness of antibiotics or have no effect.

 

"We tested green tea in combination with antibiotics against 28 disease-causing microorganisms belonging to two different classes," Dr Mervat Kaseem, of the university's pharmacy faculty, said in a prepared statement. "In every single case, green tea enhanced the bacteria-killing activity of the antibiotics. For example, the killing effect of chloramphenicol was 99.99 percent better when taken with green tea than when taken on its own in some circumstances."

 

More at

http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/healthday/080331/green-tea-boosts-antibiotics-for-superbugs.htm

[rowingmom]

Wow. Will have to try green tea for breakfast/dinner (abx dosing times). Thanks.

[ThinkGutBacteria]

Wow. Will have to try green tea for breakfast/dinner (abx dosing times). Thanks.

 

Just remember it has a bit of caffeine in it too. (The decaf process removes some of tea's polyphenols and would likely reduce the benefit, so I don't recommend decaf. Or milk, for that matter. Casein proteins bind up many of tea's healthful polyphenols too. Honey's okay, thank goodness.)

[philamom]

I haven't had a chance to read the link, but is there a certain brand of green tea you recommend?

[Mayzoo]

I have two kinds on hand, and I have seen a peppermint green tea in my local store. One kind I have on hand is called "Zen Green Tea" by Tazo. It has green tea, lemongrass and spearmint. Makes me wonder if that is caffeine free or very low on caffeine. The other I have is Tazo's "China Green Tips". It has only green tea tips in it.

 

Is there a brand preferred?

[Mayzoo]

I wonder if the green tree capsules would be of benefit as well.....anyone know?

[Mayzoo]

Here is the web md site that sites uses and some side effect for green tea. It appears there are a lot of drug interactions with green tea, including luvox. The web address also goes over the drug ineractions. I am not sure how accurate web md is, I do not typically use it.

 

My link

Edited February 27, 2013 by Mayzoo

[ThinkGutBacteria]

I hate WebMD, but that information is probably correct and it was a very good idea of yours to post it.

 

WebMD pulls info like that from reliable-enough sources like NIH and large professional associations. I used to work at place like WebMD. They're very biased to Big Pharma's marketing messages because that's who butters their bread, so to speak.

Edited February 28, 2013 by ThinkGutBacteria

[Mayzoo]

I hate WebMD, but that information is probably correct and it was a very good idea of yours to post it.

 

WebMD pulls info like that from reliable-enough sources like NIH and large professional associations. I used to work at place like WebMD. They're very biased to Big Pharma's marketing messages because that's who butters their bread, so to speak.

 

I had a site I preferred for homeopathic interactions, side effects, etc and I lost it in a computer crash. Now I cannot for the life of me remember who it was. Do you have a favorite site?

 

I just found this one again, I think this maybe was the one I lost:

 

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/

Edited February 28, 2013 by Mayzoo

[ThinkGutBacteria]

I hate WebMD, but that information is probably correct and it was a very good idea of yours to post it.

 

WebMD pulls info like that from reliable-enough sources like NIH and large professional associations. I used to work at place like WebMD. They're very biased to Big Pharma's marketing messages because that's who butters their bread, so to speak.

 

I had a site I preferred for homeopathic interactions, side effects, etc and I lost it in a computer crash. Now I cannot for the life of me remember who it was. Do you have a favorite site?

 

I just found this one again, I think this maybe was the one I lost:

 

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/

 

For drugs, I try to find its full prescribing information or its monograph and get the info from the horse's mouth. Never go to a drug's website. All of the useful information about the drug is available from non-commercial sources. A drug website's primary mission is to deliver its marketing messages. If it's a dot com, they're just trying to sell you something. Arthitis.com, for example is a Pfizer website trying to sell you their pain drug, it is not trying to educate you about arthritis. If it was, it would have to tell you that, as an NSAID, it relieves pain as well as--not better than--any other NSAID, like Advil, and confers no safety advantage.

 

Here's an example of a full PI (Augmentin's) from the FDA.

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2008/050575s037550597s044050725s025050726s019lbl.pdf

 

The Full Prescribing Information (PI) is a summary of the clinical trial data about a drug. Drug companies are not obligated to report ALL of a drug's trial data to healthcare providers or the public (which is criminal), but at least there's no marketing crap in it.

Edited February 28, 2013 by ThinkGutBacteria

[Mayzoo]

I hate WebMD, but that information is probably correct and it was a very good idea of yours to post it.

 

WebMD pulls info like that from reliable-enough sources like NIH and large professional associations. I used to work at place like WebMD. They're very biased to Big Pharma's marketing messages because that's who butters their bread, so to speak.

 

I had a site I preferred for homeopathic interactions, side effects, etc and I lost it in a computer crash. Now I cannot for the life of me remember who it was. Do you have a favorite site?

 

I just found this one again, I think this maybe was the one I lost:

 

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/

 

For drugs, I try to find its full prescribing information or its monograph and get the info from the horse's mouth. Never go to a drug's website. All of the useful information about the drug is available from non-commercial sources. A drug website's primary mission is to deliver its marketing messages. If its a dot com, they're just trying to sell you something. Arthitis.com, for example is a Pfizer website trying to sell you their pain drug, it is not trying to educate you about arthritis. If it was, it would have to tell you that, as an NSAID, it relieves pain as well as--not better than--any other NSAID, like Advil, and confers no safety advantage.

 

Here's an example of a full PI (Augmentin's) from the FDA.

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2008/050575s037550597s044050725s025050726s019lbl.pdf

 

The Full Prescribing Information (PI) is a summary of the clinical trial data about a drug. Drug companies are not obligated to report ALL of a drug's trial data to healthcare providers or the public (which is criminal), but at least there's no marketing crap in it.

 

 

 

As far as pharmaceutical drugs, I am R-CPhT (registered, certified pharmacy technician) for the last 25 years. So, I have all the drug books with monographs and access to medical web sights.

 

I think that website I posted above is the one I was usually using for the listed items, but if you know of another I would love to look at it.

 

I made a batch of green tea to start kiddo on tomorrow morning. I am thinking about adding home grown Yarrow to it. Hopefully it will help boost us over the hump we are on. I will tweak it as best as I can.

Edited February 28, 2013 by Mayzoo

[Mayzoo]

I started kiddo bear on TAZO green tea (purported to be low in caffeine) with added Yarrow drinks this morning, and I am adding the green tea caps tomorrow. The capsules do not have the caffeine so maybe I can get by with weaker tea boosted by the capsules.