A new US study suggests that people who regularly drink tea or coffee may be less prone to carry the antibiotic resistant superbug MRSA in their nostrils. In a government study more than fifty-five hundred people participated and people who drank tea or coffee were about half as likely as non-drinkers to harbor methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria.
MRSA is a sort of bacteria that causes staph infections, which are resistant to a number of common antibiotics. In hospital patients, MRSA can cause blood infections or life-threatening pneumonia. While, in the general population it can usually cause painful skin infections. However, those infections can sometimes develop into serious invasive infections.
For the new study, lead researcher Eric Matheson from the University of South Carolina, Charleston looked at if coffee or tea drinkers were any less likely than other people to harbor MRSA in the nose. The idea for the study derived from the fact that, in both the lab dish and in humans, topically applied or inhaled tea extracts have shown some anti-MRSA activity.
Fewer studies have been done on coffee compounds, but there is some proof of antibacterial powers there as well. Matheson and colleagues found that, certainly, tea and coffee drinkers were less prone to carry MRSA. In general, one and half percent of the study participants harbored the bacteria in their noses.
However, those chances were about fifty percent lesser among people who reported they drank hot tea or coffee, in opposition to non-drinkers. Even if, the big caveat is that this association does not prove that tea or coffee, themselves, are the cause for the lower risk. The study shows an association between the two.
The team tried to account for several other aspects such as whether differences in age, income or self-rated health explained the difference between tea or coffee drinkers and non-drinkers. But the beverages were still associated with lower odds of being a MRSA carrier. The study was published in the Annals of Family Medicine.
Hot tea and coffee have been found to have antimicrobial properties. Their findings raise the possibility of a promising new method to decrease MRSA nasal carriage, which is safe, inexpensive and easily accessible, added Matheson. To lower the risk of contacting the superbug, experts advise people to regularly wash their hands, keep skin wounds covered and avoid sharing personal things.