ISLAMABAD: The health experts in a recent study have found dangerous aspects of using lemon slices in daily drinks and warned its stoppage as it can cause serious health issue. According to a study published in the Journal of Environmental Health, researchers swabbed lemon slices that were put into their drinks at 21 different restaurants, a private news channel reported. They discovered that the practice was being done because it makes drinks taste fresh but they have warned that adopting such a habit may cause serious health problems as the fruit used, tends to be really dirty. Moreover, they found that almost 70% of those samples produced some kind of microbial growth, and included 25 different microbial species. The researchers wrote that “The microbes found on the lemon samples in our investigation all have the potential to cause infectious diseases at various body sites, although the likelihood was not determined in this study. Friendly bacteria: Scientists have discovered that in healthy skin, harmful Staphylococcus aureus is kept in check by its friendlier cousins, whose numbers are depleted in people with atopic dermatitis, the most common type of eczema. The researchers behind the new study screened 10,000 colonies of commensal bacteria found on human skin to determine how many had antimicrobial properties. They also investigated how common they were on healthy and non-healthy human skin. First author Dr. Teruaki Nakatsuji, a project scientist in the department of dermatology at the UCSD School of Medicine, explains what they found: “We discovered antimicrobial peptides produced by bacteria commonly found on healthy human skin. These novel antimicrobials have selective activity against pathogenic bacteria, but do not harm other commensal bacteria that have a beneficial effect to us.” Dr. Nakatsuji and colleagues found that other strains of Staphylococcus — including Staphylococcus hominis and Staphylococcus epidermis — residing on the skin of healthy people produce a previously unknown antimicrobial peptide that checks the growth of S. aureus. When they colonised pigskin or mice with these protective strains of Staphylococcus, they found it reduced S. aureus replication. Senior author Richard Gallo, professor and chair of the department of dermatology at UCSD School of Medicine, says when you look at the skin of people with atopic dermatitis, you find their bacteria are not doing the same thing as the bacteria on the skin of healthy people, which are producing previously undiscovered antimicrobial peptides. “After isolating the good bacteria and growing it, we were able to transplant it back to people who were deficient in it and it had an immediate impact by reducing the amount of S. aureus on the skin,” he adds. The team is already carrying out a phase II clinical trial to evaluate whether prolonged use of one of the most potent friendly bacteria offers long-term protection against S. aureus and alleviates atopic dermatitis. Using a natural antibiotic produced in the skin is better than using a pharmaceutical drug because it does not kill protective bacteria, says Dr. Nakatsuji, adding that: “Antibiotic resistance is not likely to occur because the bacteria therapy is attacking pathogens by multiple different ways at once.” Prof. Richard Gallo said that “We now have a rational therapeutic approach for atopic dermatitis by using bacterial transplant technology. It appears that people with this disorder will need to have it reapplied because their body does not naturally promote the growth of these organisms. The good thing is this is easy to do because it’s just a cream.”