May 10
30
Doctors Are Considering This Disgusting Treatment for Diabetics
If you’ve ever had an old dog or a horse, you may have had the experience of dealing with a common problems of pet and livestock owners – maggots.
As the animal lives outside most hours of the day, it can come into contact with flies. Flies can choose to lay their eggs under the skin of the animal and within days, maggots appear. Finding them in the fur of your animal is surprising and disgusting at the same time. It’s also disheartening to have to pick out the maggots one by one from the animal and then deal with the horrible slime the maggots leave behind. And then there’s the wretched smell, too!
Well, doctors in Ohio at the Ohio State Medical Center must have been enamored with the life cycle of the maggot or something because it became the subject of their research that appeared in the journal, Int Wound J in April 2010.
They reported that wound infection is a major factor that interferes with proper wound healing, especially in diabetic foot ulcers. Their answer: use maggots because they have unknown antimicrobial properties!
The researchers used antibiotic resistant microbial organisms in cultures and applied maggots to the cultures. Twenty four hours later they checked the culture plates for bacteria. The maggots killed bacteria for more than 5 days. Complete killing of the bacteria or fungus was evident and the scientists are now considering using the maggots for those who have diabetic foot ulcers.
Still not convinced you should get rid of your diabetes? Start today!
Source: Int Wound J, Apr 23, 2010, Assessment of the antimicrobial properties of maggots by L. Margolin and P. Gialanella.
