6 Things That Are Naturally Antibacterial to Safely Disinfect Your Home

Disinfecting your home with natural, non-toxic cleaners may sound like an overwhelming task, but it’s actually surprisingly simple. In fact, the majority of naturally antibacterial disinfectants can be found right in your kitchen and at a fraction of the cost of those harsh chemical cleaners. Natural cleaners are not only better for your health but are safer for children, animals, and the environment. Keep your home spick-and-span with these hardworking ingredients found right in your pantry.

 White Vinegar

Made from acetic acid and water, white vinegar is a power cleaner—easily cutting through grease and removing mildew, odors, stains, and wax buildup. Thanks to its high acidity, white vinegar reduces surface bacteria, making it a safe alternative to bleach. In a 1994 study, vinegar was found to reduce the amount of bacteria on a hard surface, although it was less effective than commercial cleaners. Vinegar will work for those who value a safe cleaning method and want to rid their homes of harmful chemicals, but it won’t leave surfaces completely bacteria-free.

Vodka

Because most vodka is 80 proof, or 40 percent alcohol by volume, it can be used as a disinfectant to remove mold and mildew. Like vinegar, vodka degreases, removes stains, shines fixtures, and refreshes fabric—but without the lingering sour odor. For the most antibacterial power, look for 100-proof vodka (as most store-bought hand sanitizers contain at least 60 percent alcohol), and let it sit for a few minutes so the alcohol can do its job.

Lemon

The citric acid in lemons works wonderfully on alkaline stains like soap scum found in bathrooms and kitchens. Lemons can also be used to sanitize non-porous surfaces and shine oxidized metal (hint: use it to make old copper pots and pans sparkle). In a study, lemon also worked to reduce bacteria on hard surfaces, but was less effective than both vinegar and commercial cleaners. Although lemon is less effective than vinegar, it certainly wins in the scent department.

Hydrogen Peroxide

If you ever got a cut on the playground as a kid, you may already know the familiar sting of hydrogen peroxide in action. Since the 1920s, hydrogen peroxide has been used as an antiseptic on cuts because of its abilities to kill bacteria by breaking down cell walls. It can also be used to kill mold and remove stains on white clothing. Caution should be taken when cleaning with hydrogen peroxide, as it will bleach colorful fibers and etch the surface of stone over time.

Essential Oils

Versatile and great smelling, essential oils have a wide range of medicinal and healing properties. It comes as no surprise that they are also quite powerful agents against bacteria and fungus. When added to vodka or a solution of soap and water, some essential oils can enhance the cleaning properties, helping rid your home of mold, mildew, and musty smells. There are a bunch of bacteria-fighting essential oils to choose from, particularly tea tree, citronella, geranium, lemongrass, orange, and patchouli. Currently, scientists are still studying essential oils’ bacteria-fighting abilities, including its  potential use as an antibiotic.

Steam

The simple combination of water and heat makes for the ultimate economical and chemical-free disinfectant. When heated to at least 200 degrees Fahrenheit, steam not only eliminates tough stuck-on stains and grease, but can also sanitize both hard and soft surfaces. While steaming may be a slower process—sometimes taking up to 20 seconds to fully sanitize one area—If used properly, steam is capable of removing bacteria, germs, dust mites, and other pathogens.

Honorable Mention: Castile Soap

With its roots in the Castile region of Spain, Castile soap, once made from olive oil, is now often made from a blend of vegetable oils. Quick to lather, a drop of Castile soap is all that’s needed to get dishes, bathtubs, or just about any surface squeaky clean. While the soap generally isn’t antibacterial on its own, a Dr. recommends a homemade solution that adds tea tree essential oil to make your own naturally bacteria-fighting cleanser.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

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New Evidence Shows Wearing Face Mask Can Help Coronavirus Enter the Brain and Pose More Health Risk, Warn Expert

Dr. Russell Blaylock, a retired U.S. neurosurgeon and author, cautions that face masks cannot entirely protect you from getting sick and catching pathogens. He adds that it can also pose a serious health risk for wearers. He stresses that only ill people should wear face masks.

Since the coronavirus pandemic started, people everywhere have been wearing protective equipment such as face masks, face shields, and gloves. Wearing gloves in public places such as the grocery had been previously debunked as 'unhelpful' or possibly harmful, especially if not used properly. 

Are Face Masks Effective Against COVID-19?

The Cleveland Clinic says that gloves do not provide immunity from viruses, and it doesn't permit you to touch everything within reach. Furthermore, germs that come in contact with your gloves could be transferred to all the other surfaces you touch.

Now, even face masks face the same critique as Dr. Blaylock says that exhaled viruses would not be given a chance to escape if wearing a mask. He says that the virus would further concentrate and circulate within the nasal passages and could eventually travel into the brain.

According to Dr. Blaylock, there have been no studies conducted to establish that either a cloth mask or the N95 mask has an impact on the transmission of the coronavirus. It was not until recently that the Commission on Disease Control and Prevention changed its guidelines for wearing face masks.

Previously, they only advised sick people to wear protective masks, but now they encourage everyone to wear them when out in public since it has been found out that some could be asymptomatic carriers of the virus. The CDC also has guidelines for wearing cloth masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Harmful Effects of Wearing a Face Mask

Now that it has been established that there is no scientific evidence requiring the use of a face mask for preventive measures, several studies have explored the dangers of wearing a face mask, especially for long periods.

These dangers include increased airway resistance, accumulation of carbon dioxide, hypoxia or inadequate oxygen supply, headaches, and even other life-threatening complications.

In a study conducted by the National Taiwan University Hospital, it has been found that the use of N-95 masks in healthcare workers has caused them to experience hypoxemia, the low level of oxygen in the blood, and hypercapnia, an elevation in the blood's carbon dioxide levels.

Another study reported findings of headache in health professionals using the same protective face mask. Similarly, pregnant women wearing N-95 masks were also found to have breathing difficulties associated with the use of the mask.

Researchers suggest that the benefits of using N95 masks to prevent contraction of infectious diseases should be weighed against possible respiratory consequences linked with extended use of N95 masks.

It gets even more frightening as newer evidence reveals that the coronavirus may enter the brain in some cases. By wearing a mask, viruses released upon expiration will not be given a chance to escape and will further congregate in the nasal passages. This allows the virus to enter the olfactory nerves and travel further, eventually reaching the brain.

Dr. Blaylock says that one should not attack or criticize healthy people who do not wear masks, as studies point out that it may be a wise choice after all.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

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Coronavirus treatments: Remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine and vaccines for COVID-19

The coronavirus has spread across the globe with speed and ferocity, reaching almost every country on the planet. The world has been sent into lock down in an attempt to flatten the curve and prevent health care systems from being overwhelmed. Major events, including the Tokyo Olympics, have been postponed or canceled altogether. As health authorities and governments continue to mitigate extensive transmission in the community, scientists and researchers are turning their attention to another goal: Development of treatments and vaccines.

Since coronavirus was first discovered as the causative agent of COVID-19, scientists have been racing to get a better understanding of the virus' genetic makeup and unravel how to effectively treat infections. There's no cure and medical specialists can only treat the symptoms of the disease. Many different treatment options have been proposed and some older drugs seem to be associated with positive outcomes -- but much more work is required. However, the long-term strategy to combat COVID-19, which has spread to every continent on Earth besides Antarctica, is to develop a vaccine.

Developing new vaccines takes time, and they must be rigorously tested and confirmed safe via clinical trials before they can be routinely used in humans. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US, has frequently stated that a vaccine is at least a year to 18 months away. Experts agree there's a ways to go yet.

Vaccines are incredibly important in the fight against disease. We've been able to keep a handful of viral diseases at bay for decades because of vaccine development. Even so, there exists confusion and unease about their usefulness. This guide explains what vaccines are, why they are so important and how scientists will use them in the fight against the coronavirus. It also discusses the current treatment options being used and those that show promise in hospitals.

What is a vaccine?

A vaccine is a type of treatment aimed at stimulating the body's immune system to fight against infectious pathogens, like bacteria and viruses. They are, according to the World Health Organization, "one of the most effective ways to prevent diseases."

The human body is particularly resilient to disease, having evolved a natural defense system against nasty disease-causing microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. The defense system -- our immune system -- is composed of different types of white blood cells that can detect and destroy foreign invaders. Some gobble up bacteria, some produce antibodies which can tell the body what to destroy and take out the germs, and other cells memorize what the invaders look like, so the body can respond quickly if they invade again.

Vaccines are a really clever fake-out. They make the body think it's infected so it stimulates this immune response. For instance, the measles vaccine tricks the body into thinking it has measles. When you are vaccinated for measles, your body generates a record of the measles virus. If you come into contact with it in the future, the body's immune system is primed and ready to beat it back before you can get sick.

What's in a vaccine?

Vaccines contain a handful of different ingredients depending on their type and how they aim to generate an immune response. However, there's some commonality between them all. 

The most important ingredient is the antigen. This is the part of the vaccine the body can recognize as foreign. Depending on the type of vaccine, an antigen could be molecules from viruses like a strand of DNA or a protein. It could instead be weakened versions of live viruses. For instance, the measles vaccine contains a weakened version of the measles virus. When a patient receives the measles vaccine, their immune system recognizes a protein present on the measles virus and learns to fight it off.

A second important ingredient is the adjuvant. An adjuvant works to amplify the immune response to an antigen. Whether a vaccine contains an adjuvant depends on the type of vaccine it is.

Some vaccines used to be stored in vials that could be used multiple times and, as such, contained preservatives that ensured they would be able to sit on a shelf without growing other nasty bacteria inside them. One such preservative is thimerosal, which has garnered a lot of attention because it contains trace amounts of easily cleared ethylmercury. Its inclusion in vaccines hasn't been shown to cause harm, according to the CDC. In places like Australia, single-use vials are now common, and thus preservatives such as thimerosal are no longer necessary in most vaccines.

In developing a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, scientists need to find a viable antigen that will stimulate the body's immune system into defending against infection. 

Why does vaccine production take so long? There are many steps involved and a lot of regulatory hurdles to jump through.

"For any medicine to be sold it needs to go through the standard process of clinical trials including phase 1 [to] 3 trials," said Bruce Thompson, dean of health at Swinburne University in Australia. "We need to ensure that the medicine is safe, will not do harm, and know how effective it is." 

Scientists can't assume their vaccine design will just work -- they have to test, test and test again. They have to recruit thousands of people to ensure the safety of a vaccine and how useful it will be. The process can be broken down into six phases:

    Vaccine design: Scientists study a pathogen and decide on how they will get the immune system to recognize it. 

    Animal studies: A new vaccine is tested in animal models for disease to show that it works and has no extreme adverse effects. 

    Clinical trials (phase I): These represent the first tests in human beings and test the safety, dose and side effects of a vaccine. These trials only enroll a small cohort of patients.

    Clinical trials (phase II): This is a deeper analysis of how the drug or vaccine actually works biologically. It involves a larger cohort of patients and assesses the physiological responses and interactions with the treatment. For instance, a coronavirus trial may assess if a vaccine stimulates the immune system in a certain way.

    Clinical trials (phase III): The final phase of trials sees an even greater amount of people tested over a long period of time. 

    Regulatory approval: The final hurdle sees regulatory agencies, like the US Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency and Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration, take a look at the available evidence from experiments and trials and conclude whether a vaccine should be given the all-clear as a treatment option.

Traditionally, then, it could take a decade or more for a new vaccine to go from design to approval. In addition, once the regulatory processes have concluded a vaccine is safe, the drug companies have to send production into overdrive, so they can manufacture enough of the vaccine to increase immunity in the wider population.

With SARS-CoV-2, the process is being expedited in some instances. As STAT news reports, the vaccine in development by Moderna has moved from design straight into Phase I clinical trials of its mRNA vaccine, skipping tests in animal models. Those tests will take place at Seattle's Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Institute, and patients are now being enrolled.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

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Taming pathogens with mucus and phages

Millions of people are treated with antibiotics each year for infections or as a preventative measure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that at least 2.8 million people are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year, meaning the germs have found ways to overpower antibiotics and continue to grow. Treating antibiotic-resistant infections is costly and time-intensive. Two teams of NIBIB-funded scientists have been working to find alternative solutions for treating bacterial infections, especially antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

How does your runny nose fight bacteria?

A runny nose isn't the only place mucus exists in our bodies; it also lines many passageways, like the digestive system, to keep them lubricated. Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) researchers have found that sugars in mucus help control and disarm pesky microbes in our bodies. Most people think the slimy substance is a nuisance and gross, but it plays a vital role in many bodily systems.

Mucins, the gel-forming component in mucus, are coated in glycans, or sugars, and have been known to suppress the formation of biofilm, a microbial growth form that is often associated with infections and difficult to treat with antibiotics. This study, published in Nature Microbiology, finds a broader range of functions for the glycans attached to mucins. Researchers think they may not need to actually kill the pesky microbes, but instead, disarm them and render them less infectious.

Antibiotics are becoming less effective against fast-adapting bacteria. We need to leverage naturally--occurring defense mechanisms to protect ourselves from microbes."David Rampulla, Ph.D., director of the NIBIB Biomaterials and Biomolecular Constructs program

Mucus is densely packed with harmful microbes, so how does the body use this slimy substance to prevent infections? One would think something in mucus may kill the bacteria. The MIT team, led by Katharina Ribbeck, Ph.D., Professor in the Biological Engineering Department, has found that mucus tames pathogens contained in its sticky matrix so the immune system can kick in and fight when it needs to-;but mucus doesn't kill bacteria on its own.

Many used to think the structural network of mucus was purely for mechanical purposes, but we've learned it plays a critical role in the way it controls problematic pathogens as well. We are testing to see if this function is universal across many species."Katharina Ribbeck, Ph.D., Professor in the Biological Engineering Department, MIT 

The researchers dissected the different parts of mucus and found that the key ingredient that tamed bacteria was glycans. Glycans are chains of sugar molecules that form branched structures. The researchers questioned if the glycans would have the same power without the other components in mucus. Results confirmed that the glycans are robust at defusing pathogens on their own.

This study focused on the glycans' response to a specific bacterium, P. aeruginosa, that causes infections in people with a compromised immune system. Graduate student, Kelsey Wheeler, found the glycans made the bacteria less potent by suppressing genetic pathways responsible for bacterial communications and ones that allow clumping or toxin production. These pathways enable their infectious behavior.

Ribbeck said one of her greatest challenges has been convincing people that mucus is worth studying and not just a waste product. "We can create alternative therapeutic approaches that don't use antibiotics to kill microbes, but instead use nature's form of biological engineering – mucus," said Ribbeck.

Up next for Ribbeck is to break the glycan code and understand which glycans tame a specific pathogen and how they bind together. She also wants to learn more about if and how microbes can sense glycans and consequently try to escape them. Many different types of bacteria coexist in communities inside our bodies and, in part, make up a person's microbiome, which plays an essential role in digestion and immune health. Ribbeck thinks glycans play a significant part in maintaining and altering the microbiome in our bodies, and her lab is beginning to test the theory.

Manufacturing viruses to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Timothy Lu, Ph.D., an MIT Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Engineering and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has been working on another alternative approach to treating antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. Lu has been developing a way to engineer a special type of virus called a bacteriophage or phage to kill different strains of E. coli.

Antibiotics typically inhibit or regulate enzymes that are responsible for controlling the growth and spread of bacteria, giving the immune system time to fight infections. Phages kill bacteria through a different mechanism. Most commonly, phages recognize a specific receptor on a bacterium that allows them to bind and inject their virus into the bacteria. The virus will replicate and eventually kill the bacteria.

"Using phages to treat antibiotic-resistant infections is not a new concept," said Lu. He explained that one could perform an extensive, timely screen to identify naturally occurring phages that kill specific types of bacteria. "But at the end of the screen, you will likely be left with a diverse group of phages that will be difficult to manufacture and scale-up in a commercially reproducible, cost-effective way."

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
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