How the Healing Properties of Irish Soil Apparently Hold the Key to Fighting Superbug Health Threat

The soil of Northern Ireland has always been reputed to have healing properties – and while it may have previously just been the stuff of local folklore, scientists have found that there is actually some truth to the legends. Upon analyzing the fabled Irish soil, a team of researchers discovered that it contains a previously unknown strain of bacteria that is effective against four of the top six superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics.

Antibiotic-resistant superbugs could result in over one million European deaths by 2050, according to recent research. The World Health Organization (WHO) describes the problem as “one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today”.

Thankfully, the bacteria’s discovery could be a huge breakthrough in fighting antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

The search for replacement antibiotics to combat multi-resistance has prompted researchers to explore new sources, including folk medicines: a field of study known as ethnopharmacology.

The new strain of bacteria, which was named Streptomyces sp. myrophorea, was discovered by a team based out of Swansea University Medical School.

The soil they analyzed originated from an area of Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, which is known as the Boho Highlands. It is an area of alkaline grassland which has long been fabled to have healing properties.


https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/irish-soil-holds-key-to-fighting-superbugs/

Know what? I can actually believe that. I truly think that the earth itself holds the key to all our health issues.

Erm …. devils advocate alert …..
if this bug is more powerful than the other superbugs then isn't it  - well - just another superbug itself?  

I mean, all they've discovered is yet another 'bad bug' and when it's finished devouring all those previous 'bad bugs'  watchout,  it's coming for you!!

Another thing - if Ireland has the best anti bacterial soil, how do you square this up with the fact that this very soil spawned the (in)famous  infection that killed a MILLION Irish folk.  I refer to potato blight of course.


Hmmm now that I've thrown those 2 points out there, i'll go read the article and see if I can get any answers.

Jules wrote:Another thing - if Ireland has the best anti bacterial soil, how do you square this up with the fact that this very soil spawned the (in)famous  infection that killed a MILLION Irish folk.  I refer to potato blight of course.


Hmmm now that I've thrown those 2 points out there, i'll go read the article now and see if I can get any answers.

Good points though. Go and do some detective work and let us know.

Just my initial, instinctive reactions, eds.

It's a good thread too - exciting news if it all goes as planned.

Jules wrote:Another thing - if Ireland has the best anti bacterial soil, how do you square this up with the fact that this very soil spawned the (in)famous  infection that killed a MILLION Irish folk.  I refer to potato blight of course.


Hmmm now that I've thrown those 2 points out there, i'll go read the article and see if I can get any answers.

You are way off the mark Jules with the Potato famine

https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Famine-Irish-history

phildidge wrote:

Jules wrote:Another thing - if Ireland has the best anti bacterial soil, how do you square this up with the fact that this very soil spawned the (in)famous  infection that killed a MILLION Irish folk.  I refer to potato blight of course.


Hmmm now that I've thrown those 2 points out there, i'll go read the article and see if I can get any answers.

You are way off the mark Jules with the Potato famine

https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Famine-Irish-history

I am deliberately 'off the mark' in that the infection wasn't a bacterial one, it was more fungus like. I'm regarding it as a bacterial bug purely for convenience & simplicity. The rest of my post is spot on.

the potato blight wasnt "spawned" by the irish soil.......
the antibiotic producing bug aint a "superbug" in as much as it isnt generally a parasitic (infectious) bacteria

"Streptomycetes are infrequent pathogens, though infections in humans, such as mycetoma, can be caused by S. somaliensis and S. sudanensis"

streptomycin, a common antibiotic comes from the same species....

Jules wrote:Another thing - if Ireland has the best anti bacterial soil, how do you square this up with the fact that this very soil spawned the (in)famous  infection that killed a MILLION Irish folk.  I refer to potato blight of course.


Hmmm now that I've thrown those 2 points out there, i'll go read the article and see if I can get any answers.

Potato blight (a fungal infection -- Phytophera infestans, a waterborne fungus/mould..) doesn't kill people --  it wipes out potato and tomato crops...

Those million Irish died from starvation, disease, exposure..

The underlying cause of the Irish "potato famine" was the English invaders, stealing their farms and handing them over to British aristocrats, merchants and their serf 'farmers'.

By the time their potato crops were being wiped out (another good argument against the "monoculture" systems so beloved by their English landlords..), a large portion of the Irish population was disemplaced, underemployed, impoverished and disenfranchised..

Which then eventually led to millions of Irish emigrating to the USA and Australia, and Canada and NZ to a lesser extent...

Yes, Wolfie, I think you 3 men made similar points to me.  

When I said that potato blight killed millions, I meant thru starvation. Hence why it was known as the potato FAMINE.


Oddly enough it was the Irish speaking areas that were mostly affected. If this happened these days there'd be conspiracy theory accusations of biological warfare.

Potato blight isn't caused by the soil anyway.

The blight itself was not responsible for the starvation of the Irish masses. Food was plentiful. It was price of it, which was beyond the reach of the poor. The first case of blight a 60 years or so earlier, avoided starvation by closing Irish ports and keeping food inside Ireland which caused food prices to drop and become affordable. This didn't happen the second time. And people starved when they couldn't eat what they'd grown.

I think people forget this. That Ireland was bursting at the seams with food that was mostly exported, leaving its own people to starve. That somehow makes it more obscene. Greedy English landlords, greedy English merchants. In short, the British Government should have ensured that food was distributed to those most in need. That was the failure.

Raggamuffin wrote:Potato blight isn't caused by the soil anyway.

But the soil is where the crop grows. 
This magical soil that is supposed to discourage bugs.

Jules wrote:

Raggamuffin wrote:Potato blight isn't caused by the soil anyway.

But the soil is where it grows. 
This magical soil that is supposed to discourage bugs.

Sorry Jules, you are wrong on this

The disease came from abroad and have nothing to do with the soil but the weather

To be honest, horatio was spot on with her account on this

Give me strength!! Let me start again and explain my point one last time. 


My point was the IRONY,  and it was a very light hearted remark .....….. the one place that supposedly has soil which discourages bugs - is the very place that is famous in history for crops whose bugs resulted in the death of so many people.  


I NEVER SAID THE BUGS CAME FROM THE SOIL ITSELF!!


Analogy: saying someone failed to prevent a crime is not the same as saying it was the person who actually committed it.

Jules wrote:Give me strength!! Let me start again and explain my point one last time. 


My point was the IRONY,  and it was a very light hearted remark .....….. the one place that supposedly has soil which discourages bugs - is the very place that is famous in history for crops whose bugs resulted in the death of so many people.  


I NEVER SAID THE BUGS CAME FROM THE SOIL ITSELF!!


Analogy: saying someone failed to prevent a crime is not the same as saying it was the person who actually committed it.

Jules

Stop taking this personally

The reality is the potato famine has no relavance here

It was a combination of factors of which the soil played little part

HoratioTarr wrote:The blight itself was not responsible for the starvation of the Irish masses.   Food was plentiful. It was price of it, which was beyond the reach of the poor.   The first case of blight a 60 years or so earlier, avoided starvation by closing Irish ports and keeping food inside Ireland which caused food prices to drop and become affordable.   This didn't happen the second time.   And people starved when they couldn't eat what they'd grown.

I think people forget this.  That Ireland was bursting at the seams with food that was mostly exported, leaving its own people to starve.   That somehow makes it more obscene.    Greedy English landlords, greedy English merchants.  In short, the British Government should have ensured that food was distributed to those most in need.  That was the failure.

Ah well in that case it's a scandal.

Historical accounts absolve Queen Victoria and her ministers of all blame and I believed what I read (I used to do a LOT of reading, for the quiz) but now your post is making me doubt what I read.

phildidge wrote:

Jules wrote:Give me strength!! Let me start again and explain my point one last time. 


My point was the IRONY,  and it was a very light hearted remark .....….. the one place that supposedly has soil which discourages bugs - is the very place that is famous in history for crops whose bugs resulted in the death of so many people.  


I NEVER SAID THE BUGS CAME FROM THE SOIL ITSELF!!


Analogy: saying someone failed to prevent a crime is not the same as saying it was the person who actually committed it.

Jules

Stop taking this personally

The reality is the potato famine has no relavance here

It was a combination of factors of which the soil played little part

Not taking it personally at all, just being facetious & saying that this magical soil wasn't quite so magical  in them days lol. 

phildidge wrote:

Jules wrote:Give me strength!! Let me start again and explain my point one last time. 


My point was the IRONY,  and it was a very light hearted remark .....….. the one place that supposedly has soil which discourages bugs - is the very place that is famous in history for crops whose bugs resulted in the death of so many people.  


I NEVER SAID THE BUGS CAME FROM THE SOIL ITSELF!!


Analogy: saying someone failed to prevent a crime is not the same as saying it was the person who actually committed it.

Jules

Stop taking this personally

The reality is the potato famine has no relavance here

It was a combination of factors of which the soil played little part

Not taking it personally at all, just being facetious & saying that this magical soil wasn't quite so magical  in them days lol. 

duplicate post

Jules wrote:

phildidge wrote:

Jules

Stop taking this personally

The reality is the potato famine has no relavance here

It was a combination of factors of which the soil played little part

Not taking it personally at all, just being facetious & saying that this magical soil wasn't quite so magical  in them days lol. 

lol,  that made me chuckle Jules



True, but now today, they have found a use

Give me strength!!!
Let me start again and explain my point one last time.



My point was the IRONY,  and it was a very light hearted remark .....

….. the one place that supposedly has soil which discourages bugs - is the very place that is famous in history for crops whose bugs resulted in the death of so many people.  


I NEVER SAID THE BUGS CAME FROM THE SOIL ITSELF!!


Analogy: saying someone failed to prevent a crime is not the same as saying it was the person who actually committed it.

Jules wrote:Give me strength!!!
Let me start again and explain my point one last time.



My point was the IRONY,  and it was a very light hearted remark .....

….. the one place that supposedly has soil which discourages bugs - is the very place that is famous in history for crops whose bugs resulted in the death of so many people.  


I NEVER SAID THE BUGS CAME FROM THE SOIL ITSELF!!


Analogy: saying someone failed to prevent a crime is not the same as saying it was the person who actually committed it.

The soil played no part in the famine Jules

That is the point, as it was a disease from abroad