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Antioxidants: Friend or Foe for Tuberculosis Patients

Tuberculosis, or TB, as it’s commonly called, is a dreaded bacterial infection that usually attacks the lungs and can also spread to other parts of the body, like the brain and spine. It’s caused by the bacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and usually spread by inhaling the droplets from the coughs or sneezes of an infected person. The people who are old or young and ill-developed and declining immune system are at a greater risk to get this disease. Besides, the people who are infected with HIV or like smoking very much are also the target group. TB has been found since ancient ages and used to be the leading cause of the death of people in the worldwide, which is also one of the top ten causes of death now. The common symptoms of this disease include coughing, sometimes with mucus or blood, chest pains, weakness, weight loss, fever and night sweats.

Due to it’s a severe infectious disease, its prevention and treatment are very important and with the development of technology and society, TB has been a preventive and curable disease though it takes a long time. Then what can be used to treat the tuberculosis?

Antioxidants have been studied to confirm whether they can be one of effective things for the treatment of tuberculosis. Because the oxidative stress, which can be inhibited via the antioxidants, has been proved to contribute to the development of a wide range of diseases, including tuberculosis, the antioxidants seem to benefit TB patients; while for they are compounds that cause chelation of reactive oxygen species, they are expected to have negative effects on the treatment of TB. The final result shows that co-administration of antioxidants and anti-tubercular drugs has the potential to serve benefit to tuberculosis patients for multiple causes, but the disadvantages will be greater than advantages for the TB patients if the antioxidants are used blindly.

So the reasonable usage of antioxidants should be the key to treat the dreaded infection, TB.

Article by Rajasri Bhattacharyya and Dibyajyoti Banerjee, from India.


Full access: http://mrw.so/3CQkHZ   
Image by Practical Cures, from Flickr-cc.

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