Posted on 02/16/2007 5:56:02 PM PST by blam
Using tea tree oil can increase MRSA risk
Last Updated: 2:04am GMT 16/02/2007
A common ingredient in many beauty products can increase the user's chances of suffering from "superbug" infections including MRSA, it was warned today.
Scientists have discovered that repeated exposure to low doses of tea tree oil could endanger people.
The experts from the University of Ulster revealed exposure to low doses of the oil made pathogens such as MRSA, E.coli and salmonella more resistant to antibiotics, and capable of causing more serious infections.
Tea tree oil is commonly used in beauty products, but there is no legislation requiring manufacturers to state the concentration of the oil.
Prof David McDowell, of the university's Food and Microbiology Research Group, said this increased the risks that people would use low concentrations of the product, fail to kill bacteria and increase resistance to antibiotics.
• Marks & Spencer has withdrawn two own-brand houmous products after tests found they contained salmonella: Piquillo Pepper Topped Houmous and Reduced Fat Houmous - use by Feb 15.
Aren't tea leaves harvested from a shrub, not from a tree? So, what's growing on the tea tree? Teapots and saucers?
Very sceptical of this one. Tea tree oil has many uses. The Aboriginals in Oz have used it for thousands of years. Ive used it to cure toenail fungus.
This'll probably be one of my last posts as I can feel the superbugs attacking me now.
Farewell, cruel...cruel World!
Isn't that pretty much what happens with all anti-biotics? Doctors are just upset the stuff can be had without going through them as a middle-man.
Tea tree oil comes from the leaf of the Tea Tree. The Brits learned from the natives in Austrailia that it was a cure for scurvey, rickets, and other infections. I encountered a tea tree in Oz many a few years back. It had a paint thinner kind of smell to it.
USING it HOW? topically?
I'm skeptical too. Have used it for decades, and so far, no superbugs.
I think topically--never heard of using it internally, although someone might correct me. I use it for minor cuts, etc., and lately found a shampoo that contains it.
Tea tree oil comes from the maleleuca tree. I hope I spelled it right. I'm very allergic to it, applied topically.
Did you say "macacca"?
If you can read you can see that I did not. Do you want to give me a definition that isn't ugly?
I see dead people!
Women are using tea tree oil to treat finger nail fungus. It's a common home remedy.
There is a 'home remedy' for scabies which uses a series of four baths in three days, 1/4 ounce 100% oil concentrate per 24 gallons of water. Same bath works for funguses also, but who knows ... the native Aussies would know. I think the active ingredient is in the family of terpenes
health ping
"Tea" tree oil is not from the plant one normally associates with the drink. "Tea" tree oil is from an entirely different species, that grows in Australia.
The hill-grown, drinking tea that is used in making the drink does not produce oil in commercially significant quantities.
I buy tea tree oil from a friend who sells Maleleuca products.
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