9 votes

How much body fluid required to actually transmit a sexually transmitted disease (STD)?

To get even close to how much bacteria there are in vaginal discharge and penile discharge, we look at how are they diagnosed/detected laboratory wise. Gonorrhea is caused by Neisseria gonorrhea a ...
  • 828
8 votes

How does a MRSA test work?

MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is suspected in the face of any acute staph infection that does not respond to normal antibiotics. Even staph that is more resistant to other ...
7 votes
Accepted

How to increase my gut bacteria? Are there any drugs available?

You have no lack of gut bacteria, that much is very safe to say. Everyone has gut bacteria in spades. The gut bacteria that you do have may not be the optimal, but no one even knows what the optimal ...
7 votes
Accepted

Does stopping fever hinder the process of killing bacteria via fever?

This is a great question, an area of active debate, and a personal interest of mine. I actually just did a presentation on this, so this answer will probably have more information in it than you need, ...
  • 1,261
6 votes
Accepted

Are essential oils good disinfectants?

There are many essential oils and each can work differently and on different micro-organisms. They could affect the skin and mucous membranes in ways that are valuable or harmful. For example steam-...
  • 4,695
6 votes

dangers of keeping blood in a jar

First problem: Blood is an organic substance, and like all organic substances that aren't cooked, refrigerated or otherwise preserved, it will rot. You'll need to freeze or at least refrigerate it. ...
  • 9,564
6 votes
Accepted

Can adults get new gut bacteria from external exposure?

In principle: yes, the gut microbiome can be altered by external exposures. It is the large but and a large range of buts that follow. The newborns indeed get their initial "seeding" by ...
  • 6,827
5 votes
Accepted

Does fasting improve your immune system even when you are already having some infection?

This sounds like dream come true for 'alternative medicine': Water-Only Fasting Can Help The Body To Fight Off Disease – And Can Have The Most Profound Health Benefits Too: A recent news item ...
  • 6,827
5 votes
Accepted

Do all hand sanitizers contribute to antibacterial resistance?

The safest hand sanitizer from the perspective of reducing antibiotic resistance is the alcohol-based sanitizer. It's effective against a wide variety of microorganisms. Remember, though, that hand ...
5 votes

Why stomach ulcer need more than one antibiotic at the same time?

The aim of taking two antibiotics at the same is to prevent an overgrowth of the H. pylori strains that could be resistant to a single antibiotic. The antibiotic choice depends on the individual ...
  • 15.7k
5 votes
Accepted

Prepare tea directly in water boiler - dangerous?

Although the initial question seems crazy enough from the start, the preamble to this answer has to make it clear that you should not use a water boiler with tea – or anything else but water – in it. ...
  • 6,827
5 votes
Accepted

Bacterial growth inhibitors used in Deodorants

Just as aluminium compounds such as: Aluminium chlorohydrate, Aluminium zirconium tetrachlorohydrex glycine, and Aluminium hydroxybromid are the antiperspirant active ingredient in deodourants, ...
  • 6,084
4 votes
Accepted

UTI bacteria climbing up urine stream!

Credit to: No Such Thing As A Fish Podcast. On one of the latest podcasts Harkin descries that with the Mate Tea (a very fine particulate tea) you can get upstream movement of particulates. "The tea ...
  • 1,084
4 votes

how long can H.Pylori last if not cured?

Yes, of course. Helycobacter Pylorii is a gram- bacteria which live is acid envronment, like stomach or duodenum. Common thoughts are that since stomach is acid, HP should die during time. This is ...
  • 197
4 votes

Saliva that has a Anti Bacteria agent

Nothing out of the ordinary, unless it is subjected to testing. Anything proposed outside of what is known about oral health and saliva is simply hypothesis. Oral health could be influenced by diet (...
4 votes
Accepted

Is there any test to identify bacteria?

First, I will explain what tests DO tell you the bacteria, and how they are used. Secondly, I will explain why clinicians rarely do that for respiratory infections. To test for bacteria, a sample ...
  • 5,704
4 votes

I poured out a bulging milk carton - am I in danger?

Extremely unlikely. This is simply unpleasant but not dangerous. The gas is mostly carbon dioxide released by bacteria in the milk fermenting the lactose sugar. Other products of the fermentation ...
  • 2,341
4 votes
Accepted

When taking antibiotics, does every single germ have to die?

No, you do not have to kill every single (targeted) germ. Often antibiotics are bacteriostatic which means they do not kill the germs but stop them from reproducing. Your immune system then does the ...
4 votes
Accepted

Why is sepsis more common with leukemia than with cancers involving physical tumors?

It's a combination. By definition, leukemia affects the production and/or development of white blood cells (MedlinePlus - Leukemia). If not enough white blood cells are produced (AKA neutropenia) or ...
  • 246
4 votes

Can the species of bacteria infecting an open wound be identified through visual or olfactory inspection?

Generally no, not enough to be able to treat exactly for that cause. Otherwise it would be a routine part of the medical diagnostics for infection in a hospital. After all, why send away for a test if ...
  • 2,756
3 votes
Accepted

about one-piece dental implant

The simplest answer is that both types of systems are more or less equal. Long answer: It's actually the dentist that needs to be aware of a few concepts: The angle of the bone in which the implant ...
  • 1,205
3 votes
Accepted

What are the actual symptoms of the common cold?

Common cold is one of the labels used to describe non specific infection of the upper respiratory tract. Other labels include acute rhinitis, acute rhinopharyngitis or acute coryza. Upper respiratory ...
3 votes

Is there a cure for bad breath?

You may actually want to try cutting out the mouthwash. There's some evidence that the bacteria being killed with frequent use of mouthwash may include the healthy sort that your mouth needs, not to ...
3 votes

How do probiotics work?

The internet is overflowing with information regarding probiotics, and since these products are not registered as drugs and are widely sold as nutritional supplements, it might be hard to "separate ...
  • 1,608
3 votes

Can Helicobacter pylori affect the body outside of the digestive system?

A doctor mentioned Helicobacter pylori as a possible culprit for both of those symptoms. H.pylori infection is a latent infection in the human stomach mucous layer (1)(2). This infection is basically ...
  • 2,312
3 votes

How to tell if the common cold has turned to an infection

As has been pointed out in the comments, a common cold is already a (viral) infection. By far the largest part of upper airway infections are viral and the body is very capable of clearing them up. ...
  • 431
3 votes
Accepted

Can you get infections by washing your body with someone else's water?

There are a number of diseases that can be transmitted through saliva. These include: Rhinovirus (colds) Flu virus Epstein-Barr virus (mononucelosis, or mono) Type 1 herpes (cold sores) ...
  • 9,564
3 votes

How to sterilize the human intestine using a safe method?

It isn't possible to completely sterilize the gut of a living person. Repeat: not possible under any circumstance in a living person. You can dramatically decrease the number of organisms by using ...
3 votes
Accepted

Did I catch a cold from eating unwashed fruit?

Unlikely. There are different viruses responsible for the symptoms grouped together as "common cold": ..................................... : Virus : Incubation period : :.................
  • 6,722
3 votes

Do humidifiers help cure the flu?

There is a mixed, but largely unconvincing evidence that increased moisture within the nose would help to prevent or cure flu or common cold. Common colds: Relief for a stuffy nose, cough and sore ...
  • 15.7k

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