hughman1 wrote:
> To add my two cents worth, > When my wife was diagnosed with Crohn`s disease, the cultures of her gut > revealed Clostridium Dificile. > Hugh Hi Hugh, Thats a nasty one. Lets bring the others up to speed on it. Some hospital patients taking antibiotics (or home patients) may develop a severe inflamation of the colon called "pseudomembranous colitis" (PMC). It is characterized be high fever, severe abdominal pain and diarrhea. PMC is caused by "Clostridium difficile" (its that clostridium again), a bacterium that normally occure only in very low numbers in the colon because it competes poorly with the normal flora bacteria. Now, antibiotics that inhibit the normal flora may allow Cl. difficile to multiply in large numbers and produce two toxins. (now a large unbalance in the flora). One toxin causes the diarrhea, which washes out many of the desirable residual normal bacteria from the intestine and colon. Both toxins kill the epithelial cells that line the colon wall, causing blood plasma to leak into the colon and clot. The clots consist of fibrin, dead epithelial cells and white blood cells; they appear as tough, whitist-yellow plaques of pseudo-membrane (false membrane) on the colon wall. The death rate is about 10 to 30%. Fortunately PMC can be effectively treated by using vancomycin or metronidazole to stop the growth of Cl. difficile. They will not kill it but do allow the normal flora to catch up and effect balance again, if you stay off the antibiotics. Bless you Bob Lee -- oozing on the muggy shore of the gulf coast [email protected] -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. To join or quit silver-list or silver-digest send an e-mail message to: [email protected] -or- [email protected] with the word subscribe or unsubscribe in the SUBJECT line. To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
