Herbal Antibiotics: Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria (10 page)

For streptococcal intestinal infection:
Tincture of equal parts berberine plant, cryptolepis, and lomatium, 1 tsp–1 tbl, 3–6x daily, depending on severity of infection

For streptococcal meningitis:
Treat as you would enterococcal meningitis (see
page 50
).

One of the most important things to remember in treating Gram-negative infections is that the use of a synergist will significantly increase the impact of the herbs on the bacteria. For instance, when treating diseases caused by
Shigella
spp.,
Serratia marcescens
,
Salmonella
spp.,
Klebsiella
spp.,
Enterobacter
spp., or
E. coli
, add licorice to the mix. It strongly inhibits several of the main efflux pumps in this family of bacteria (AcrAB-TolC). You can use piperine when dealing with a
non–gastrointestinal tract infection,
but this is important: Don't use it with a GI tract infection such as
E. coli
or cholera. Piperine allows more of the herbs to pass through the GI tract, increasing the presence of their antibacterial compounds in the body.

The Gram-negative organisms are:

•
Acinetobacter baumannii

•
Campylobacter jejuni

•
Enterohemorrhagic E. coli
(
E. coli
O157,
E. coli
O157:HM,
E. coli
O157:H7)

•
Haemophilus influenzae

•
Klebsiella pneumoniae

•
Neisseria gonorrhoeae

•
Proteus
spp. (
P. vulgaris
,
P. mirabilis
)

•
Pseudomonas aeruginosa

•
Salmonella
spp. (
S. typhi
,
S. enteritidis
,
S. typhimurium
)

•
Serratia marcescens

•
Shigella
spp. (
S. dysentariae
,
S. flexneri
,
S. sonnei
)

•
Stenotrophomonas maltophilia

•
Vibrio cholerae

Of the many species in this genus that can infect humans,
Acinetobacter baumanii
, the most common, is multidrug resistant; its name is often abbreviated as MDRAB. As of this writing it has become resistant to nearly all the antibiotics that can affect it. The only drugs still useful for fully resistant MDRAB are the older polymyxins that have not been in use for decades due to their toxicity—tigecycline has been the most recent drug of choice but
Acinetobacter
's resistance to it is increasing rapidly. In some hospitals it won't work at all. It is inevitable that as they are used more regularly to treat the bacteria, the polymyxins will also become ineffective.

Acinetobacter
spp. are highly responsive to the exchange of DNA strands with other bacteria that contain both resistance and virulence factors. Many of the soldiers wounded in combat overseas tend to return with active MDRAB infections that then spread across hospitals. The bacteria enter the body through wounds, breathing tubes, catheters, injection sites, anything that breaks the surface and
allows foreign pathogens in. They are generally spread by health-care workers and are especially troublesome because they can live on hospital surfaces (and the hospital staff's hands) for up to 5 months.

Most hospital infections from these bacteria, aside from those due to combat, come from the insertion of contaminated breathing tubes during hospital procedures; 82 percent of these patients develop severe pneumonia and die as a result. Catheter insertion can cause severe infections of the urinary tract. Injections, blood draws, intravenous lines, surgical drains, and open wounds invite infection of the bloodstream, a.k.a. bacteremia.

These bacteria like to live in aquatic conditions and are often found in the irrigating and intravenous solutions used by the physicians; they love the lungs. They may enter the peritoneal fluid during peritoneal dialysis and can also find their way into the cerebral spinal fluid under some circumstances.

The herbs active against
Acinetobacter
are alchornea, cryptolepis, sida, juniper, isatis, ginger, lomatium, honey, oregano essential oil, epigallocatechin,
Acacia aroma
,
Zuccagnia punctata
, and
Sechium edule
fluid extract.

Note:
Ginger juice taken internally is especially effective in reducing the resistance of
Acinetobacter
organisms. It is crucial to use if the infection is serious and has not responded to antibiotics.

Formulation 1 (antibacterial)
Cryptolepis, alchornea, or sida tincture: 1 tsp–1 tbl, 3–6x daily, depending on severity of symptoms

Formulation 2
Lomatium, astragalus, and rhodiola (equal parts) tincture: 1 tsp, 6x daily

Formulation 3 (important)
Fresh ginger juice, stabilized with 20 percent alcohol (see
page 227
): 1 tbl in hot water, 6x daily

Formulation 4
Oregano or juniper essential oil inhalation as aromatherapy: 3x daily

For
Acinetobacter
pneumonia:
Formulations 1, 2, 3, and 4

For
Acinetobacter
surgical wound infections:
Formulations 1 and 2, plus daily topical honey dressings (see monograph,
page 188
)

For
Acinetobacter
UTIs:
Formulations 2 and 3, plus juniper berry–bidens tincture (1 part juniper, 2 parts bidens), 30 drops, 6x daily (or oregano essential oil, 3 drops in water, 3x daily)

For
Acinetobacter
septicemia:
Formulations 1, 2, and 3, plus
Echinacea angustifolia
tincture, ½ tsp–1 tbl, every half hour to hour

Campylobacter
infections generally cause enteritis accompanied by abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, and malaise. They are not usually fatal but can be debilitating. The organism is increasingly resistant to antibiotics.

The herbs for campylobacter are cryptolepis (strongly), sida, ginger, and the berberines.

Formulation 1 (antibacterial)
Cryptolepis or sida tincture: 1 tsp, 3x daily

Formulation 2
Any strong tannin-containing plant (oak, geranium, krameria, pine needles) as a decoction: 6 ounces, up to 6x daily

There are, roughly, three kinds of
E. coli
to be aware of. The first is the enterohemorrhagic
E. coli
strains
(E. coli
O157,
E. coli
O157:HM, and so on). The second is the kind that cause urinary tract infections, especially ST131. And finally, there are the
E. coli
B2 strains that cause what are called extraintestinal infections.

Of the current strains of enterohemorrhagic
E. coli
, O157 is the best known. All of them create similar conditions after infection; that is, hemorrhagic diarrhea and occasionally kidney failure. The infection is generally foodborne, most frequently arising from contaminated ground beef. It can also be contracted by drinking contaminated water
or juices, eating contaminated vegetables, or swimming in contaminated pools.

The early signs are abdominal cramps, then acute diarrhea, often hemorrhagic. In some cases the red blood cells in the body are destroyed and the kidneys fail. Death is most common in the very young and the elderly.

A number of
E. coli
strains, both O157 and non-O157 strains, produce a shiga toxin (very similar to those made by
Shigella
species—all named after Kiyoshi Shiga, who discovered the shigella bacteria in the late nineteenth century). The toxins cause hemolytic-uremic syndrome; hemolytic anemia, acute renal failure, and low platelet counts all occur. Sida is essential to use if there is anemia/red blood cell damage.

The
E. coli
strains that cause UTIs have been fairly easy to treat, but a new strain of
E. coli
, ST131, emerged in 2008 and has begun to spread widely. It is strongly resistant and extremely virulent. The strain is, at this writing, only one resistance gene short of being untreatable. Unlike O157, ST131 causes urinary tract infections, generally in hospital settings, that sometimes lead to death.

The B2 group causes extraintestinal infections in the body, things like sepsis, meningitis, bacteremic pneumonia, peritonitis, and ascending cholangitis.

The first two strains are relatively easy to treat, but severe extraintestinal infections call for much more focus and care.

The herbs that are effective for
E. coli
are the berberines, cryptolepis, sida, alchornea, bidens, nearly all artemisias, juniper, honey, usnea, lomatium, isatis, licorice, ginger, ashwagandha, and reishi. All oak species (
Quercus
) and pomegranate (
Punica granatum
) fruit rind or tree bark are also highly effective against the
E. coli
O157:H7 strains. They are highly bacteriostatic and bactericidal and are very effective in killing the organisms
and
correcting the diarrhea. If you can't find any of the other plants I've listed, use oak bark; oak species grow nearly everywhere.

Formulation 1 (antibacterial)
Berberine plant tincture: 1 tsp–1 tbl, 3–6x daily, depending on severity

Formulation 2
Blackberry root or oak bark decoction: 3 tbl–½ cup, 2–4x daily (Note: If the intestines are highly inflamed and sore, add powdered elm bark gruel.)

For enterohemorrhagic
E. coli
with red blood cell damage:
Formulations 1 and 2 plus sida tincture, 1 tsp, 6x daily, along with ginger, licorice, and reishi (equal parts) tincture, 1 tsp, 3x daily

Formulation 1 (antibacterial)
Juniper berry–bidens tincture (1 part juniper, 2 parts bidens): 30 drops, 3–6x daily

Formulation 2
Cryptolepis and either sida or (if you can't get sida) berberine plant (equal parts) tincture: 1 tsp, 6x daily

Formulation 3
Ginger, licorice, and reishi (equal parts) tincture: 1 tsp, 3x daily

Formulation 1 (antibacterial)
Cryptolepis and sida (equal parts; sida is important here) tincture: 1 tbl, 2–4x daily

Formulation 2
Echinacea angustifolia
tincture: ½ tsp–1 tbl, every half hour to hour

Formulation 3
Ginger, licorice, and reishi (equal parts) tincture: 1 tsp, 3x daily

For
E. coli
B2 with sepsis:
Formulations 1, 2, and 3

For
E. coli
B2 with meningitis:
Treat as you would enterococcal meningitis (see
page 50
).

For
E. coli
B2 with bacteremic pneumonia:
Formulations 1, 2, and 3, plus eucalyptus or juniper berry essential oil inhalation as aromatherapy, 4–6x daily

For
E. coli
B2 with peritonitis:
Formulations 1, 2, and 3

For
E. coli
B2 with ascending cholangitis:
Formulations 1, 2, and 3

Four species in this genus are the main sources of
Haemophilus
infection in people, the primary one being
Haemophilus influenzae
, in specific
H. influenzae
type B. Widespread vaccination in the United States and Europe began in 1988 and rates of infection from this particular organism have since fallen, though it is still common in the rest of the world.

The four species that cause infections in people are
H. influenzae
,
H. parainfluenzae
,
H. aphrophilus
, and
H. ducreyi
.
H. influenzae
has a number of types that cause disease: the encapsulated types, identified as A through F (B being the most problematical), and the unencapsulated, non-typeable strains.

The encapsulated strains, especially type B, cause invasive infections: pneumonia, meningitis, epiglottitis, septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, facial cellulitis, and bacteremia, generally in children, generally under 5 years of age. Pneumonia and meningitis are the most common. These forms of infection are generally spread by inhalation of infectious respiratory droplets—in other words, someone coughs, someone else breathes in.

The unencapsulated strains generally cause otitis media (ear infections) in children and lower respiratory tract infections in both children and immunocompromised adults—often those with existing lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis. They can also cause acute sinusitis and acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis. A unique form,
H. influenzae
biogroup
aegyptius
, causes purulent conjunctivitis and sepsis in children, usually 1 to 4 years of age, following conjunctivitis infection.

H. parainfluenzae
typically has low virulence but does occasionally cause endocarditis and bacteremia. However, it carries resistance genes that help increase resistance in other members of this genus.
H. aphrophilus
, uncommonly, causes endocarditis and brain abscesses.
H. ducreyi
causes chancroid, a sexually transmitted disease accompanied by shallow and painful genital ulcers and inguinal lymphadenitis (buboes).

Haemophilus
organisms are common in most people. They usually become a problem only when a person becomes immunocompromised. However, the genus is growing increasingly resistant to antibiotics; it appears that while type B is becoming less of a problem due to vaccination programs, the other types are growing more problematical. Resistant respiratory infections are more common every year and the organisms, once more invasive of children, have now shifted to infecting adults in nearly equal numbers.