There’s talk of a “game-changing” breakthrough in the fight against superbugs.  New research published in the journal Nature reports the development of a new antibiotic that not only can kill deadly bacteria such as MRSA, but also can prevent superbugs from mutating into new strains that are resistant to treatment with antibiotics.

Most antibiotics come from microbes in the soil, but those microbes can be very difficult to create in a lab. But scientists at Northeastern University in Boston developed a new method of growing up to 10,000 strains of bacteria in their natural habitat of soil. That allowed them to then isolate different compounds created by the microbes and test them against disease-carrying bacteria.

The researchers determined that one particular compound, called teixobactin, was particularly effective in experiments with mice.  It was able to kill the sometimes deadly MRSA bacteria and also bacteria which causes tuberculosis and others that cause skin and lung infections.  Teixobactin is different from other antibiotics in that it actually breaks down bacteria cell walls and that can prevent them from mutating into an antibiotic-resistant strain.

Many antibiotics used today were developed decades ago and in that time disease and infection-causing microbes have evolved into strains against which the drugs are no longer very effective.  That’s why this research is considered a possible big breakthrough.

NEXT: An avocado a day may lower “bad” cholesterol

Sourced from: Live Science, Revolutionary New Antibiotic Kills Drug-Resistant Germs

A new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association suggests that consuming one avocado a day as part of a moderate-fat diet could help lower bad cholesterol in people who are overweight or obese.

For their study, the researchers recruited 45 healthy participants aged 21 to 70 who were either obese or overweight. Every participant was required to follow each of three cholesterol-lowering diets for five weeks. The diets consisted of a low-fat diet without avocado, a moderate-fat diet without avocado or a moderate-fat diet with one Hass avocado a day.

At the conclusion of the study, the researchers found that participants’ levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) were an average of 8.3 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) lower after following the lower-fat diet without an avocado and 7.4 mg/dL lower after following the moderate-fat diet without an avocado, compared with their baseline average. However, after participants followed the moderate-fat diet with one avocado a day, their LDL levels were found to be an average of 13.5 mg/dL lower than their baseline average. Other blood measurements also improved – including triglyceride levels, total cholesterol, and small dense LDL.

The research team did acknowledge that this was a controlled feeding study, as opposed to a real-world situation, but encouraged people to consider replacing saturated fatty acids in their diet with healthier fats from avocados and other sources.

NEXT: Measles outbreak tied to Disneyland

Sourced from: Medical News Today, Avocados may help lower ‘bad’ cholesterol, study finds

When people talk about binge drinking, it’s usually relates to wretched excess at college parties.  But the people most at risk of dying from excessive drinking at middle-aged, according to a report released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC).

The CDC analyzed death certificate data from 2010 to 2012 and found that an average of 2,200 people died from alcohol poisoning each year. The agency determined that more than half of these deaths involved white men and an average of three out of four people who died were between the ages of 35 and 64. Only 5.1 percent of the deaths were young people between 15 and 24.

The bottom line is that people who are still participating in this kind of drinking after college are putting themselves at much more risk than their younger counterparts.

The report noted that while an average of six Americans died every day from alcohol poisoning during the study period, only a third of them were considered alcoholics.  The highest rate of alcohol poisoning was in Alaska, where there were 46.5 deaths per million residents.

The CDC classifies binge drinking as four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men on a single occasion.

NEXT: Smoking tied to cancer: Jan. 11, 1964

Sourced from: Reuters, Binge drinking most likely to kill middle-aged Americans, CDC says