MRSA in america is history

[Guest guest]

This was emailed to me, has anyone in the group ever used this clay? I know nothing about it, does anyone have any experience with it? does it have taste? what makes it different? from Bentonite clay, I heard it was way over priced. Any info is appreciated. Elaine

_______________

Pay Dirt? Local businessman banks on healing properties of clay

 

Mike Douglas <mikernsemail

September 4, 2008 - 8:51PM

BRIAN NEWSOME

THE GAZETTE

 

On a moonless April night in the Nevada desert, Michael Douglas drove a rental car down forgotten roads, headlights swallowed by the darkness. Donald Robey, an old friend known for his eccentric behavior, gave cryptic directions from the passenger seat that kept them going in circles from evening well into the early morning hours. They'd come here straight from the Las Vegas airport. Maybe Robey was confused. Maybe he intended to confuse. Eventually, at a pair of telephone poles that marked the turnoff, the two men left the main road, the dust clouds hanging in the red taillights behind them. Soon they arrived at a mine. They weren't here for rare metals or hidden treasures. They came for the dirt itself. They would bring back a couple hundred pounds in hockey bags lined with plastic. Douglas, a 53-year-old Colorado Springs entrepreneur, wondered whether this would be his big break- or a costly waste of time deserving of his wife's anger.

Time-tested idea One has to wonder who in history with a nasty cut fi rst looked down at the ground and thought a little dirt would do the trick. But the practice has a long tradition. In the Bible, Jesus Christ used clay and spit to heal a blind man's eyes. The Greeks, according to historians, used clay or dirt to treat wounds, rashes and other maladies. Cleopatra, say companies that sell clay cosmetic products, may have been one of the first to use clay for skin treatment, a staple of the modern-day health spa.

Not surprisingly, the magic of mud is the rave in the Mother Nature-minded alternative-medicine movement. Dozens of companies tout their clay products as cures for ailments including acne, open wounds, stomach ulcers and diarrhea, to name a few. But Douglas, who has invested nearly $50,000 into the Colorado Springs-based startup called MiraClays, is banking on a day when hard science might back up the anecdotes, and bridge the divide between mainstream medicine and alternative remedies. His hopes are fueled, in part, by one such intersection, albeit a small one. Researching ancient remedy In April, microbiologist Shelley Haydel and geochemist Lynda Williams, both at Arizona State University, released findings to the American Chemical Society in New Orleans that certain clays killed deadly bacteria in the lab. Out of dozens of clay samples studied, three of them killed bacterial bad boys such as methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. They took on the study after seeing compelling photographs from a French diplomat in Africa who used clay to effectively treat Buruli ulcers, a flesh-eating condition that usually requires surgical excision or amputation. Out of about 50 clays they tested, the French clay and two U.S. clays worked. Haydel, the microbiologist, said the researchers can't explain why. No single mineral was highly concentrated in the three samples. Other clays that seemed almost identical to the effective ones did nothing to kill the bacteria. In her words, there was no "eureka" moment. Although she's left with more questions than answers, Haydel said she's impressed. "If I take myself out of the science realm, would I use it? Absolutely. If you asked me that four years ago, I probably would have said, ʽI don't know, I think I'm going to stick with penicillin.' I'm convinced."

Digging for a dream Research ethics prohibit the scientists from revealing which of the many tested clays worked until those clays have been proven safe for consumption and undergone additional tests. And a huge gap remains between the limited lab finding and claims made by clay dealers. Yet a glimmer of scientific proof provided ample intrigue for Douglas to drive into the desert with a friend in search of a wild idea. "I've been there before," he said about gambling on a business idea. "I lost it all before. ... I'm not interested in opening up McDonald's." The pair waited until the sun came up to start digging, shoveling dirt into the hockey bags. They finished their work, went to McDonald's for breakfast and later returned to the site to make sure they could find it again. This time the pair encountered the mine supervisor, full of questions. The company mines calcium montmorillinite used for soil enrichment, mostly in countries abroad. Douglas did what one might assume from a selfpromoting businessman: He asked for the man's business card. Douglas and Robey left with their loot and the promise of a formalized arrangement to obtain more. With any luck, they would need a lot more.

Mysterious dealings Four months later, Mira-Clays is sold online, advertised as being "like no other clay on the planet." The company, Colorado Business Associates LLC, is in good standing with the Colorado Secretary of State's office. From there, things get murky. Douglas says his company has an agreement with the mine owner to obtain the clay, but he refuses to disclose the name of the corporation over concerns about revealing the location of the product. Robey, he claims, is unreachable by phone, even for him. "He calls me," Douglas said, adding that Robey discovered the clay when he encountered some cattlemen in California feeding it to cows for what they claimed was creamier milk. Also involved in the deal, and equally unreachable, is an unemployed scientist named Greg Markowski, he said. It was a letter from Haydel to Markowski about her interest in the clay's properties that caught Douglas' attention. When asked why his partners are so elusive, Douglas replied: "Both of these guys are semi out of touch with society." He has their e-mail addresses; they just don't often respond.

Fountain Valley inspiration Douglas himself is a man of contradictions. A Fountain Valley School graduate who played ice hockey on scholarship, he initially blew off college to rock climb, ascend mountains and ride Colorado's rivers as his peers went on to big-name colleges. He's a registered nurse and Navy veteran, and he also practices kung fu and tai chi. He has taught people, including a marching band and football team in Grand Junction, to "fire walk" across hot coals, a team-building exercise. His experience in prep school, where some of America's household brand names such as DuPont were found on attendance rolls, gave him his entrepreneurial spirit. "At Fountain Valley I saw people that built businesses and whose parents had built businesses." Several years working as a nurse at Penrose Hospital, combined with the mystique of his kung fu, sold him on molding that business out of clay. He ingested the clay when he started seeing symptoms of a bad prostate and was convinced when he says the symptoms went away. Whether MiraClays or any other clay product will be understood by science is uncertain. Haydel said research funding is running out. If not renewed, her list of additional experiments on antibacterial clay could languish. Other scientists, while not critical of what the scientists have found, are not flocking to ind out more, she said. For Douglas, that jump from alternative to mainstream could mean the difference between selling people on the idea to eat dirt because everyone else is doing it, or a proven scientiffc treatment that he hopes could someday be fed by IV in a hospital. Right now, many of his customers are like Sid Mackey, a Greeley woman who used the clay as a paste on a MRSA-related wound. She uses the clay in conjunction with antibiotics, and is open to an assortment of alternative remedies so long as they are safe. Her wound has healed quickly, but she realizes it may or may not be because of the clay. As a nurse, Douglas knows exactly how important that distinction between alternative and clinical can be. "If you call an infectious disease doc," he said about using clay to treat something like MRSA, "he's going to say I'm full of (expletive)." -

Contact the writer: 636-0198 or brian.newsome

DETAILS For more information on MiraClays, go to www.miraclays.com.

 

[Guest guest]

Namaste to all members,All clays have ion exchange properties. They can interchange cations. The undersigned had developed an Ion Exchange method for converting Calcium-Monmorrilonite to its Sodium form, way back in the nineteen seventies. This was done when a party in Kolkata wanted help to substitute the Wyoming Bentonite (Sodium Bentonite) imported from USA. It is no wonder that a miracle clay has been located, which contains various cations, which are beneficial possibly for the slow ion-release ( ion-exchange) properties of the clay.Regards,Sunil K. BhattacharjyaM.M. <MedResearch1211 MedicalConspiracies <MedicalConspiracies (AT) googl (DOT) com>; 1 HH ; 1 Paranormal <Paranormal_Research >Tuesday, September 9, 2008 2:55:17 PM[HealthyIndia] MRSA in america is history

 

 

 

 

This was emailed to me, has anyone in the group ever used this clay? I know nothing about it, does anyone have any experience with it? does it have taste? what makes it different? from Bentonite clay, I heard it was way over priced. Any info is appreciated. Elaine

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ________

Pay Dirt? Local businessman banks on healing properties of clay

 

Mike Douglas <mikernsemail@ >

September 4, 2008 - 8:51PM

BRIAN NEWSOME

THE GAZETTE

 

On a moonless April night in the Nevada desert, Michael Douglas drove a rental car down forgotten roads, headlights swallowed by the darkness. Donald Robey, an old friend known for his eccentric behavior, gave cryptic directions from the passenger seat that kept them going in circles from evening well into the early morning hours. They'd come here straight from the Las Vegas airport. Maybe Robey was confused. Maybe he intended to confuse. Eventually, at a pair of telephone poles that marked the turnoff, the two men left the main road, the dust clouds hanging in the red taillights behind them. Soon they arrived at a mine. They weren't here for rare metals or hidden treasures. They came for the dirt itself. They would bring back a couple hundred pounds in hockey bags lined with plastic. Douglas, a 53-year-old Colorado Springs entrepreneur, wondered whether this would be his big break- or a costly waste of time deserving of his wife's anger.

Time-tested idea One has to wonder who in history with a nasty cut fi rst looked down at the ground and thought a little dirt would do the trick. But the practice has a long tradition. In the Bible, Jesus Christ used clay and spit to heal a blind man's eyes. The Greeks, according to historians, used clay or dirt to treat wounds, rashes and other maladies. Cleopatra, say companies that sell clay cosmetic products, may have been one of the first to use clay for skin treatment, a staple of the modern-day health spa.

Not surprisingly, the magic of mud is the rave in the Mother Nature-minded alternative- medicine movement. Dozens of companies tout their clay products as cures for ailments including acne, open wounds, stomach ulcers and diarrhea, to name a few. But Douglas, who has invested nearly $50,000 into the Colorado Springs-based startup called MiraClays, is banking on a day when hard science might back up the anecdotes, and bridge the divide between mainstream medicine and alternative remedies. His hopes are fueled, in part, by one such intersection, albeit a small one. Researching ancient remedy In April, microbiologist Shelley Haydel and geochemist Lynda Williams, both at Arizona State University, released findings to the American Chemical Society in New Orleans that certain clays killed deadly bacteria in the lab. Out of dozens of clay samples studied, three of them killed bacterial bad boys such as methicillinresistan t Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. They took on the study after seeing compelling photographs from a French diplomat in Africa who used clay to effectively treat Buruli ulcers, a flesh-eating condition that usually requires surgical excision or amputation. Out of about 50 clays they tested, the French clay and two U.S. clays worked. Haydel, the microbiologist, said the researchers can't explain why. No single mineral was highly concentrated in the three samples. Other clays that seemed almost identical to the effective ones did nothing to kill the bacteria. In her words, there was no "eureka" moment. Although she's left with more questions than answers, Haydel said she's impressed. "If I take myself out of the science realm, would I use it? Absolutely. If you asked me that four years ago, I probably would have said, ʽI don't know, I think I'm going to stick with penicillin.' I'm convinced."

Digging for a dream Research ethics prohibit the scientists from revealing which of the many tested clays worked until those clays have been proven safe for consumption and undergone additional tests. And a huge gap remains between the limited lab finding and claims made by clay dealers. Yet a glimmer of scientific proof provided ample intrigue for Douglas to drive into the desert with a friend in search of a wild idea. "I've been there before," he said about gambling on a business idea. "I lost it all before. ... I'm not interested in opening up McDonald's." The pair waited until the sun came up to start digging, shoveling dirt into the hockey bags. They finished their work, went to McDonald's for breakfast and later returned to the site to make sure they could find it again. This time the pair encountered the mine supervisor, full of questions. The company mines calcium montmorillinite used for soil enrichment, mostly in countries abroad. Douglas did what one might assume from a selfpromoting businessman: He asked for the man's business card. Douglas and Robey left with their loot and the promise of a formalized arrangement to obtain more. With any luck, they would need a lot more.

Mysterious dealings Four months later, Mira-Clays is sold online, advertised as being "like no other clay on the planet." The company, Colorado Business Associates LLC, is in good standing with the Colorado Secretary of State's office. From there, things get murky. Douglas says his company has an agreement with the mine owner to obtain the clay, but he refuses to disclose the name of the corporation over concerns about revealing the location of the product. Robey, he claims, is unreachable by phone, even for him. "He calls me," Douglas said, adding that Robey discovered the clay when he encountered some cattlemen in California feeding it to cows for what they claimed was creamier milk. Also involved in the deal, and equally unreachable, is an unemployed scientist named Greg Markowski, he said. It was a letter from Haydel to Markowski about her interest in the clay's properties that caught Douglas' attention. When asked why his partners are so elusive, Douglas replied: "Both of these guys are semi out of touch with society." He has their e-mail addresses; they just don't often respond.

Fountain Valley inspiration Douglas himself is a man of contradictions. A Fountain Valley School graduate who played ice hockey on scholarship, he initially blew off college to rock climb, ascend mountains and ride Colorado's rivers as his peers went on to big-name colleges. He's a registered nurse and Navy veteran, and he also practices kung fu and tai chi. He has taught people, including a marching band and football team in Grand Junction, to "fire walk" across hot coals, a team-building exercise. His experience in prep school, where some of America's household brand names such as DuPont were found on attendance rolls, gave him his entrepreneurial spirit. "At Fountain Valley I saw people that built businesses and whose parents had built businesses." Several years working as a nurse at Penrose Hospital, combined with the mystique of his kung fu, sold him on molding that business out of clay. He ingested the clay when he started seeing symptoms of a bad prostate and was convinced when he says the symptoms went away. Whether MiraClays or any other clay product will be understood by science is uncertain. Haydel said research funding is running out. If not renewed, her list of additional experiments on antibacterial clay could languish. Other scientists, while not critical of what the scientists have found, are not flocking to ind out more, she said. For Douglas, that jump from alternative to mainstream could mean the difference between selling people on the idea to eat dirt because everyone else is doing it, or a proven scientiffc treatment that he hopes could someday be fed by IV in a hospital. Right now, many of his customers are like Sid Mackey, a Greeley woman who used the clay as a paste on a MRSA-related wound. She uses the clay in conjunction with antibiotics, and is open to an assortment of alternative remedies so long as they are safe. Her wound has healed quickly, but she realizes it may or may not be because of the clay. As a nurse, Douglas knows exactly how important that distinction between alternative and clinical can be. "If you call an infectious disease doc," he said about using clay to treat something like MRSA, "he's going to say I'm full of (expletive). " -

Contact the writer: 636-0198 or brian.newsome@ gazette.com

DETAILS For more information on MiraClays, go to www.miraclays. com.