Can Oregano Oil Eradicate MRSA?

MRSA is the name given to several strains of staphylococcus aureus bacteria which are resistant to different antibiotics. It is an acronym for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. This group of bacteria is actually harmless. They normally live on the surface of our skin and inside our nose. Most of us are carrying them without us being aware of it.

If they get inside your body through a cut, rash or scratch, they can cause minor skin irritation. If you have a healthy immune system, the wound will heal easily if you keep it clean and bandaged. It is when a person’s immune system is compromised that MRSA becomes a problem. Likewise, those who have just undergone surgery will not able to handle them properly. When the bacteria get a foothold, these people can develop boils, septic wounds, impetigo, abscesses, toxic-shock syndrome and heart-valve problems. It can even result in death if the infection is really serious.

How MRSA Developed
Medical scientists believe that MRSA developed because of the pervasive use of antibiotics, general dislike of tablets and genetic selection. The genes of bacteria are constantly evolving. When an antibiotic is used to eradicate them, some bacteria will be killed and some will survive. Those that survive will multiply, and become more antibiotic resistant. Over time, MRSA developed. It is resistant to many types of antibiotics.

How MRSA is Usually Treated
Although this group of bacteria is hard to treat, there are doctors who still use antibiotics like vancomycin, teicoplanin and mupirocin to control their growth. The first two are only administered to people who have weakened immune systems and only in the hospital through injections or intravenous drip. Other people who are found to be infected with MRSA are given the third one, mupirocin. It is in cream form and is applied in the affected area of the body to reduce the chances of the bacteria getting inside the body through an open wound and to prevent it from being transmitted to another person.

But the use of these antibiotics have very serious side effects. For instance, using vancomycin may result in severe blistering of the skin, loss of hearing, severe abdominal pain, kidney damage and breathing difficulties. Using teicoplanin, on the other hand, may result in itching, redness of the skin, skin rashes, abscess on the skin and fever. More serious problems can also occur, such as bone marrow problems, broncho spasms, diarrhea and hearing loss.

Oregano Oil – A Better Alternative
A better alternative for dealing with MRSA is by using oregano oil. It is a 100% natural product, extracted from the wild oregano plant, grown and harvested without using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The processing of the essential oil also does not involve the use of any chemical to preserve the 100% organic composition of the oil. This natural product has been found by many scientists and researchers around the world to have the capacity to kill all types of harmful microbes, including fungi, parasites, viruses and bacteria. A group of scientists have also found that oregano oil can kill staphylococcus aureus without leaving any side effects.

Oregano Oil Can Control MRSA
A team of medical experts from the University of the West of England, working with another team in India found that carvacrol, a major component of oregano oil, can kill the MRSA super-bug. Oregano oil is composed of about 60% to 80% carvacrol. They discovered that this substance was able to eradicate MRSA from hospital wards. These scientists concluded that it is more effective for controlling this group of bacteria than 18 pharmaceutical drugs used in mainstream medicine.

As a result of their experiments, Ben Heron, the head of the research team in India, stated that oregano oil can kill MRSA with dilution ranging from 1 to 1,000 and its antimicrobial properties are not affected by heat treatment. This cannot be said about pharmaceutical anti-bacterial medicines. He strongly recommended the use of oregano oil in the production of hand soaps, anti-bacterial wipes and other cleaning products intended for hospitals. This will impact positively in hospital care. In 2007 alone, there were more than 4,000 MRSA cases reported in England.

Oregano oil has truly extraordinary abilities to control harmful microbes. The Journal of Applied Microbiology published an article in June, 1999 stating that of all 52 plants oils tested, only oil of oregano was acknowledged to have pharmacologic action against common microbes like Candica albicans, Salmonella enterica and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. If it could destroy viruses, fungi, parasites and bacteria, it could very well do it with MRSA.