Drinking tea and coffee may be linked to reducing antibiotic resistant bacteria carried by healthy people in their noses, a potential benefit of the beverages that baffled researchers.
People who consumed tea and coffee carried methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, in their noses half as often as those who didn’t, according to a study released today in the Annals of Family Medicine.
MRSA can live in people’s noses without infecting them. It grows and multiplies there, in a process called colonization. Colonized people can spread MRSA to others or become infected through a break of the skin. It is considered a risk for contracting the infection, said Eric Matheson, the study author and a doctor in the department of family medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
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