I’ve been superbugged!

Staphylococcus Aureus

Staphylococcus Aureus is a bad bacteria that infects the skin. The most severe form, MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is a highly pathogenic and can eat away at the skin and lungs, and can sometimes be fatal.

After a couple of months on our Fforest Barn Mountain Retreat building site I started to get some very nasty boils that were eating away at my skin. It’s fair to say I was quite run down at the time, suffering from BTSD (Building Trauma and Stress Disorder – fortunately curable!), with over 20 contractors to supervise, getting up at 4am and working each day to the point of physical exhaustion. I tested positive for SA (Staph Aureus), not MRSA, and a particularly nasty form called PVL-SA. Certain strains of SA produce a toxin called Panton-Valentine Leukocidin (PVL) which infect the skin and suppress the immune system’s attempt to fight the infection.

I was prescribed a specific antibiotic, flucloxacillin, and given Hibiscrub, the antibacterial wash surgeons use before operations, and a nasal gel since this bacteria can live in the nose. I scrubbed away but still found that skin wounds – you inevitably get quite a few building – would become infected. I’d open them up and scrub away, using antibacterial creams. But still, these minor wounds kept heading in the direction of infection. (I also took probiotics following the antibiotics, as everyone should do to help restore healthy gut bacteria.)

Then my wife got a couple of ‘spots’ – they appear as red, hard and itchy with a white top. Also, my daughter got the same. She went on antiobiotics and they went away.

Then I remembered a study, back in 2012, where mice infected with SA were given niacinamide (B3) and human blood was similarly infected then exposed to niacinamide. The vitamin treatment in the infected human blood ‘reduced the survival of the pathogen in whole blood by 100 to 1,000 fold’ after 3 hours compared with placebo. This study is very thorough and detailed, explaining how vitamin B3 specifically boosts the body’s own immunity to fight this kind of infection. I like this kind of mechanism – the boost the strength of the host – which also means it would likely be synergistic with antibiotics, which aim to destroy the invader.

So I googled cases and found a guy who had MRSA and, despite 20 courses of antibiotics and trying various natural remedies and diets. He had read the same study ‘ordered some Niacinamide and the next time I got Staph I took it at a high dose alongside my antibiotics and then for another 3+ months. For me, Vitamin B3 (and in particular Niacinamide) was a magic bullet. I haven’t had Staph infection ever since (it’s been about 18 months now!).’ There are no studies on niacin, the blushing form of this vitamin, so it’s hard to tell if it will do the same thing, but it’s highly likely that it will.

I had some NoBlush Niacin(500mg) so I took 2 daily (1,000mg) and sure enough my skin infections disappeared. Last week was my last week building as such. I returned home with five minor hand wounds but they healed fast with no signs of infection.

My wife, Gaby, also took the NoBlushNiacin and my daughter took some niacinamide. Neither have had any reoccurrence for a month now.

It’s hard to know what dosage to recommend since the study gave an amount to effecttively reach saturation in the blood. This was based on an earlier study that had found that high dose niacinamide (6g a day) may enhance radiotherapy’s therapeutic effects in cancer treatment.

High dose vitamin c helps get rid of MRSA

Another angle of attack is vitamin C and alkalising your diet. Since vitamin C (ascorbic acid), is anti-bacterial, but acidic it makes sense to take some alkaline ascorbates to get the best of both worlds. As I searched for evidence of nutrients that help fight off SA infection I came across this recent letter in the British Medical Journal from Dr Sydney Bush entitled ‘Reducing MRSA in orthopaedic wards’. It reads as follows: “It is increasingly widely known that concentrated ascorbate,
 especially at plasma levels that can be safely achieved by intravenous application, has successfully overcome conditions formerly regarded as incurable.

Nakanishi and 1993 reported that application of ascorbate topically to bedsores was able to remarkably enhance the bacteria killing effect of antibiotics. Nakanishi also noted that Staph. aureus which had been antibiotic resistant prior to this treatment, ‘disappeared from the area.”

Dr Sydney Bush went on to cite supporting research all of which can be found in Dr Thomas Levy’s book “Vitamin C, Infections and Toxins. Curing The Incurable”. I interviewed Dr Tom Levy back in 2010 in a report entitled ‘Vitamin C – The Infection Fighter’.

So, if you find yourself infected with a superbug, as well as following your doctor’s advice I recommend you supplement:

• 1000mg of niacinamide or no-blush niacin a day (not pure niacin which makes you blush)
• as much vitamin C, preferably mixed ascorbates, as you can tolerate without loose bowels
until the infection goes away. Also, don’t forget to take probiotics for two weeks after a course of antibiotics.