Bacteria? See ya later alligator!

The 235th meeting of the American Chemical Society sounded interesting. One of the presentations was a group of biochemists from Louisiana reporting their studies on the antimicrobial activity of alligator blood. I got this from a Science Daily report: Alligator Blood May Put The Bite On Antibiotic-resistant Infections,* and a National Geographic article: Alligator Blood May Lead to Powerful New Antibiotics.

Apparently alligators and crocodiles have an unusually strong immune system that can fight off fungi, viruses, and bacteria including methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. This is likely an evolutionary adaption to frequent injuries due to such things as territorial disputes, and (often) living in swampy, microorganism infested environments.

These scientists separated out the white blood cells and extracted the active proteins from the alligator white blood cells. They found that of the 23 strains of bacteria they tested, alligator serum killed...23 of them. The same tests using human blood serum killed 8.

They are hoping that alligator blood products might be available for human use as pills or topical ointments within seven to ten years.

Is anyone else envisioning a future 50 or so years hence, where crocodilians are dying from infections they never used to get, due to human misuse induced alligator blood resistant bacteria?

Cold "remedies" part II. Vitamin C

The other day my stepson asked me if we could get some vitamin C. I asked him if he thought he had scurvy. He said no, just a scratchy throat. I said we never buy it because IT DOESN'T WORK! He said that he had been taking it recently whenever he feels as though he's coming down with a cold, and then he hasn't gotten one so it must work. I told him "Well I have felt as though I was coming down with a cold numerous times over the last couple of months, DIDN'T take Vitamin C, and also DIDN'T come down with a cold (all true, by the way), so I can say with just as much validity that NOT taking Vitamin C caused me to not come down with a cold. He just looked skeptical.

Studies have proven that vitamin C does not prevent colds, but it may reduce the severity and duration, although if it does it is only by a tiny amount (e.g. 5.8 days without vitamin C and 5.5 with). Both severity and duration are subjective. It is easy to tell whether you have a cold, but when do you call it over? When you start to feel better? When your cough stops? When your nose stops running? What if you start to get better at night, and don't realize it until morning?

In 1983, Charles W. Marshall Ph.D., a biochemist, wrote a chapter for his book Vitamins and Minerals: Help or Harm? called Vitamin C: Do High Doses Prevent Colds? which he updated in 1992. A condensed version was published on Quackwatch.com in 2002. In it, he indicated several difficulties with studies of this type. The most interesting to me was the 1977 twin study where one twin got vitamin C and the other got a placebo. After the study, four of the 44 mothers admitted to tasting the capsules to try and determine which twin had what. How many other mothers did that but didn't admit it? Kind of messes up the double blindedness of the study.

In the experiments where test subject's noses or throats were inoculated with a cold virus (just want to interject--eeeeew), ALL the participants came down with colds, whether or not they were taking vitamin C.

In case you think that these data might be a little old, there have been more recent studies that came to the same conclusions.

Again, as Dr. Dean Edell says, people tend to think that the last thing they did caused what happened (or did not happen) next. However, sometimes you feel as though you're coming down with something and you're not.

Vitamin C works just as well as sticking a banana in your ear to keep the elephants away. No elephants here? Must be working! Or if you're Ernie and Bert it keeps the alligators away:


The ONLY thing vitamin C is really good for is treating vitamin C deficiency, aka scurvy. Washing your hands is still the best cold preventative out there, and if you do get sick, get plenty of rest and drink fluids. And don't waste your money on homeopathic crap like Airborne. At least Vitamin C is cheap.

Cold "remedies"

I had an argument with someone at work the other day. She and I were both just getting over colds. She was telling me how much this Airborne stuff works. I told her that there is absolutely no scientific evidence that it did diddly-squat. She told me that she didn't care. She thinks it works and that’s all that matters. I pointed out that both she AND her husband have colds at the moment, so...how exactly did it work? She said, "Oh, we must have taken it too late." Riiiiiight. Maybe you have colds because IT DOESN’T WORK!

Another coworker takes it because his wife makes him. His wife's logic (or lack thereof) is that she is a teacher and Airborne was created by a teacher so it must work. Riiiiiight. If these so-called cold remedies actually did something (significantly shorten or prevent the common cold, for instance) wouldn't doctors be singing their praises, and doling them out like candy? They would be handed out along with your flu shot. They would be given out in hospital emergency rooms.

ABC News did a story on Airborne in February of 2006.

According to the story, Airborne conducted its own clinical study that showed it was effective in preventing colds. ABC News learned that there were no scientists, no doctors, and no actual clinic involved in the study, and yet Airborne insists the results are valid.

The company removed all references to the study from its website and packaging, but not because of the bad publicity. "We found that it confused consumers," Elise Donahue, Airborne's CEO said. "Consumers are really not scientifically minded enough to be able to understand a clinical study." How nice of her. Translation: She thinks consumers are pretty stupid, but she’s looking out for us. The reality was that her one “study” that "showed it works" was done by a couple of local yokels, at least one of whom apparently lied about having a college degree. I think that consumers can easily understand FRAUD.

As Dr. Dean Edell always says, people believe that the last thing they did or took was was what made them better, but they were most likely just getting better anyway. The body will do that. If you want to reduce your chances of getting a cold, washing your hands frequently is far more effective, and not nearly as expensive.


Airborne contains among other things, Vitamin C, Echinacea, and zinc.
Next up: Vitamin C