This post Huge Wealth Potential With ?Healing Waters? appeared first on Daily Reckoning. The idea of water as a holy substance with healing properties is a recurring theme in world history. The founder of Christianity is said to have begun his mission after baptism in the same Jordan River. And to this day, water is a holy symbol for many of the world's 2.2 billion Christians, where it serves as a medium through which people enter the faith in imitation of the religion's founder. Christianity isn't alone in giving water a special significance. H2O is used as a sacred agent in Islam, Judaism, Sikhism and Hinduism? as well as other religions. Millions of Muslims visit and drink from the Well of Zamzam in Saudi Arabia every year as part of the Hajj pilgrimage. In Hinduism, bodies of water are religiously significant, with the Ganges River considered the most sacred. Many Hindus attribute miraculous healing powers to this famous river. Is this all just myth or reality? As it turns out, there may be more to the healing powers of these waters than meets the eye. The answer goes back to when we first discovered why we often get sick in the first place. The Secret of Healing Water = Big OpportunityIn the early 1800s, the general medical consensus was that infectious disease was spread by ?bad air.? However, by the mid-1800s, this idea was starting to change. A physician named John Snow challenged the miasma theory during a cholera outbreak in London. Snow theorized that a tiny microscopic organism was responsible for cholera, although it remained undetectable to him. By the 1890s, English physician Ernest Hankin was spreading theories of germs being responsible for disease in India. He studied cholera outbreaks in the country and noticed that unboiled water drawn from the Ganges killed cholera germs in less than three hours. If the water was previously boiled, however, it didn't! There was something in the water that was killing cholera bacteria. Whatever it is, it appeared to kill many bacteria, and to this day this ?holy agent? may be part of the reason why. By the early 1900s, the antibacterial agent was finally found. It was a tiny virus that kills bacteria called a ?bacteria-eater,? or bacteriophage. Bacteriophages were co-discovered by a Canadian doctor named Félix d'Herelle while working at France's Pasteur Institute. Big Gains from Harnessing This Ignored TechnologyBacteriophages, called ?phages? for short, may be the most common replicating agents on the planet. A single drop of seawater may contain as many as 10 million viruses, the vast majority of which are bacteriophages. A pinch of soil could contain even denser concentrations. Phages are more than just biological curiosities. They might be useful for fighting infectious bacteria. Phage therapy began to spread in the United States in the 1920s. However, in the West, the discovery of antibiotics stopped much of the research into phages as a way to end deadly infections, and they were soon replaced. Now there's a fresh push to enlist these naturally occurring infectious nanomachines and help cure one infection with another. That's because bacteria are developing alarming levels of resistance to even our best, ?last line of defense? antibiotics. Bacterial resistance is turning into a huge problem. A study commissioned by the U.K. prime minister estimated that resistance could cost the world $100 trillion by 2050. If bacterial resistance continues on its current trajectory, it could kill more people per year than cancer. We need new ways to fight the bacteria. Phages can be very specific to a particular strain of bacteria but leave beneficial bacteria and human tissue alone. Moreover, they can penetrate biofilms, which are one strategy that bacteria use to block antibiotics. Researchers are taking note: In addition to our research universities, the Naval Medical Research Center and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research are working on developing phage therapy to combat infection. In humans, we're seeing tantalizing evidence that it's possible to use phages to stop infectious bacteria that are unstoppable any other way. Last year, for example, a man was healed of an infection in his chest after heart surgery. The 80-year-old's immune system couldn't fight off the infection, and none of our stable of antibiotics could bring it to an end. Researchers fished a phage called OMKO1 out of Dodge Pond in Connecticut, and together with antibiotics, the infection was finally stopped. The feat was repeated this year in a man near death with an internal infection that put him in a coma. Researchers created a cocktail of isolated strains of phages that attacked the type of bacteria that were killing him. The FDA issued an emergency exemption that allowed him to receive intravenous doses of the phage therapy ? he regained consciousness a few days after therapy began and was eventually cured. Companies are developing a library of phages that could target some of the most dangerous multidrug-resistant types of bacteria. The problem of bacterial resistance is huge, and phage treatment therapy is a unique approach that has enormous potential once it finds a path forward. And there will be plenty of profit opportunities for you. To a bright future, Ray Blanco for The Daily Reckoning The post Huge Wealth Potential With ?Healing Waters? appeared first on Daily Reckoning. |