Antibiotic beer in ancient Nubia

[Kassy]

There's so much tetracycline in their bones that it can't be an accident. The therapeutic agent is beer:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0902094246.htm

[Ought Six]

Using that much tetracycline, I bet that they had drug-resistant disease strains.

[Kassy]

Originally Posted by Ought Six

Using that much tetracycline, I bet that they had drug-resistant disease strains.

Maybe not.

A lot of drug resistance develops by medicine misuse (stopping halfway etc). The amount in the bones hints they took it regularly. The amount in the bones in the kid tell they used it in them too. We don't know how much was for specific treament...maybe they always gave them regular doses, we can't tell but the follow up research should provide some hints on their intake over years.

If it varies a lot it was taken mainly as a cure but if it's steady it was just a part of diet or taken in a regular ritual. It might just be diet. For a long time beer was a relatively safe drink, safer then water in populated areas.

Then again it might have happened , we really can't tell since we have no written sources from them just some mummies.

[Ross]

They were not just people living in a hot climate drinking lots of beer
they were actually skilled medical practitioners applying medication.

Yeah right. Where have I heard that before ?

[Kassy]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80...tibiotic-beer/

Turns out they also ate it but almost everybody prefers the beer angle.
Better headline... :beer

There might be a relation to antiobitic resistance in animals in northern Africa too...links in the article.