Otzi The Iceman And His Natural Antibiotics

In 1991 the well preserved remains of a man were found in the melting ice of an alpine glacier.

This discovery was of great importance for archeologists because he is the oldest human mummy found in the area.

There are a lot of interesting things about the remains of Otzi.

There was a legal dispute over who actually was going to claim ownership of his remains, which interested me a bit. 

Then there was talk about a curse related to his remains, this interested me a lot more.

There have been seven people who were involved with the discovery of Otzi that have died some what untimely deaths. Some believe that he was killed in a ritual sacrifice and there for his remains are cursed to this day.

But what really interested me was the fungus that was found with his remains that he was using to treat a case of intestinal parasites that he was suffering from.

Found with Otzi’s remains was two pieces of organic material, that was something between cork and leather in its consistency.

At first this was believed to be tinder for starting fires (not the tinder for starting fires that single people use today), but was later found to be the fungus piptoporus betulinus, which can be found on the birch tree in cold climates.

The fungus contains chemicals that are toxic to certain parasites and when taken by humans can cause diarrhea.

An autopsie of Otzi’s intestines found eggs of the parasite trichuris trichiura, and it is believed that he was trying to treat the condition using the fungus.

Today there is research into new antibiotics that have been found in the piptoporus fungus.

Also very interesting is that Otzi had tattoos in the areas of his body where he was found to be suffering from arthritis. This may have been a form of pain relief similar to that of acupuncture.    

Otzi is estimated to have lived about five thousand years ago. I thinks its amazing to see that people had the ability to diagnose and treat disease with out the use of any of the modern sciences. 

But if you are thinking to your self “where can I get some Birch fungus extract”, you are out of luck. It has not made it to the health food stores yet.

It seems that it will be turned into a new anti biotic or even a cancer fighting medicine first.

But if you are looking for a strong natural anti biotic, you can try oregano oil.

There are a good number of studies showing it to be use full at killing viruses, parasites, and bacteria.