looking for info on the ability of natural antibiotics to cure eczema

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 12 Oct 2002 06:52 PDT

What do you consider to be a "natural antibiotic?" Would penicillin
qualify, or are you referring only to nonpharmaceutical substances
like "Active Manuka Honey," as described here?

"Active Manuka Honey is unique to New Zealand and contains
non-peroxide antibacterial agents which can inhibit the growth of
certain bacteria that cause slow healing wounds such as eczema and
burns."

http://www.natures-fix.com/script_eczema.htm

When you say "cure," would you accept information on substances that
treat eczema? According to The National Eczema Society, there is no
cure:

"There is currently no cure for eczema though research continues to
shed new light on the condition. However, there are many ways to
minimise the discomfort and distress which eczema can bring..."

http://www.eczema.org/faqfile.htm#is

<A recent study in the New England Journal on the 10th October 2002
found that people with eczema lack natural antibiotics. These natural
antibiotics are beta-defensins and cathelicidins. They are peptides –
groups of amino acids that link to form proteins. These antibiotics
could be applied to the skin in the form of a cream to treat the
condition. This treatment is expected to take five years to develop.

The study was carried out by Donald Leung, MD and his team at the
National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver. The study
looked at a type of eczema called atopic dermatitis. It involved the
analysis of six adults, eight with eczema and 11 with psoriasis. Those
with  psoriasis were selected as they rarely suffer from skin
infections. The psoriasis patients were found to have 10 times the
level of natural antibiotics as the eczema patients who had no natural
antibiotics. The antibiotics found in the psoriasis patients were
capable of killing colonies of bacteria that cause staphylococcus
aureus infections. These bacteria are responsible for causing skin
infections that are characteristic of eczema.>


<The following sites give outlines of the study:>

<MedWeb Nieuws – Atopic dermatitis patients deficient in antimicrobial
peptides.> <http://webmd.lycos.com/content/article/1685.53533>

<Drug Digest – Eczema tied to failure of antibiotics.>
<http://www.drugdigest.org/DD/Articles/News/0,10141,509547,00.html>

<Houston Chronicle.com – Study shows chemicals on skin fend off
infection.>
<http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/health/1611156>

<News article – skin, natural-antibiotics studied.>
<http://www.swisstox.net/en/news_e.php?st_lang_key=en&st_news_id=955>

<Newswise – Lack of Natural ‘Antibiotics’ in the Skin.>
<http://www.newswise.com/articles/2002/10/ANTIBTIC.VAR.html>

<Further reading:>

<New England Journal 10th October>
<Article title: Endogenous Antimicrobial Peptides and Skin Infections
in Atopic Dermatitis>
<Author: P. Y. Ong and Others>

<The article is available online at a cost of $10>
<http://content.nejm.org/current.shtml>


<Nature November 22, 2001>
<Article title: Innate antimicrobial peptide protects the skin from
invasive bacterial infection.>
<Authors: Researchers at the University of California, San Diego
(UCSD) School of Medicine and the VA San Diego Healthcare System.>

<The feature is published on line, but you need to register to view
it. I found it by performing a search on the nature.com website using
the date November 22 and the search term peptides.>
<http://www.nature.com/>
<http://www.nature.com/dynasearch/app/dynasearch.taf?sp-w=Exact&_action=search&search_fulltext=november+22+2001&sp-p=Any&search_volume=&search_startpage=&search_title=&search_author=&search_abstract=peptides&issue_start_month=11&issue_start_year=2001&issue_end_month=11&issue_end_year=2001&pickerCount=You+have+selected+1+journal+to+search.&rolloverMessage=&sp_k=NATURE>


<An outline of this study is given in the following feature.>
<http://www.newswise.com/articles/2001/11/GALLO.UCD.html> 

Search strategy:
<Search terms used>
< eczema antibiotics beta-defensins>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=eczema+antibiotics&as_q=beta-defensins>

<nature>
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=nature

<Good luck in your searching!>

Srangely enough, by one of life's little coincidences, I was just
looking at a recent (last week) Newsday article on eczema and natural
antibiotics

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/wire/sns-ap-eczema-natural-antibiotics1009oct09,0,7712732.story?coll=sns-ap-health-headlines

the article cited referred to treating the secondary infections that
occur in areas of eczema; it says nothing about treating the eczema
itself. Antibiotics, "natural" or otherwise, do not treat the process
itself.