wash your mouth out!

Forums: Health, Germs, Anti-Bacterial, Soap, Hygiene
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Global Handwashing Day, held earlier this week, was established to promote a simple message: Wash your hands with soap and water to prevent disease. It's also the perfect time to visit the topic of what kind of soap you're lathering up with. This is an important decision that many of us don't think twice about.

The main ingredient in most liquid soaps lining store shelves is triclosan, a pesticide that kills bacteria. Turns out you just need to banish germs from your hands, not kill them. Studies show that antibacterial soaps aren't more effective at preventing illness or removing germs than good old-fashioned soap and water.

In fact, antibacterial soaps may do more harm than good.

There are concerns that triclosan may contribute to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. It's also present in human bodies and breast milk, as well as in streams. The Environmental Working Group says triclosan has been linked to developmental defects, liver toxicity, and cancer in lab studies. It also may affect thyroid and other hormones that are crucial to normal development.

The best thing you can do is avoid soaps that claim to be "antibacterial" while we wait for more research to be done. A quick read of the label will tell you if triclosan or triclocarban (a similar compound that's found more commonly in bar soaps) are active ingredients. If so, move onto another product.

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Type: Discussion • Score: 5 • Views: 2,754 • Replies: 13

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@dyslexia,

I always thought those anti-bacterial gels gave people a false sense of security.

I've never trusted them.

For my money, it's lathering up with any type of liquid soap, getting around the nails and under rings, rinsing the germs away, and if necessary, repeating.

1 Reply

@chai2,

it's definetely an aquired taste !

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3184/2744618796_338de5f3fe.jpg

my preferred "mouthwash" - with or without a slice of lemon !

http://wwwchem.uwimona.edu.jm/gifs/applrum.jpg

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For everyone's benefit I'll add to the author's suggestions.

Since it's nearly impossible to get rid of the dirty, filthy germs that literally coat everything around us, it is important to wash your hands every five minutes. If your hands are not chapped, red and, by the end of the day, cracked and bleeding, chances are you're contaminated.

The truly vigilant among us will also wear, at all times, latex gloves, a shower cap, and a surgical mask.

At night, before bed, stand in front of a mirror, open wide, and inspect your teeth for tiny radios.

1 Reply

@Gargamel,

GARGLE wrote :

Quote:

Since it's nearly impossible to get rid of the dirty, filthy germs that literally coat everything around us, it is important to wash your hands every five minutes.

and in between washing keep your hands in a container of alcohol !

1 Reply

@hamburger,

hamburger wrote:

GARGLE wrote :

Quote:
Since it's nearly impossible to get rid of the dirty, filthy germs that literally coat everything around us, it is important to wash your hands every five minutes.

and in between washing keep your hands in a container of alcohol !

Indeed! And, thanks to the article Dys posted I now know not to soak them in breast milk.

1 Reply

@Gargamel,

DERMATOLOGIST says : DO NOT OVERWASH !!!

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19991201&slug=2998623

Quote:

Kenet's book is full of legend-exploding factoids. And talking to him only reveals more. Ivory Soap touts itself as being 99.4 percent pure. Kenet says it's 99.4 percent bad for your skin. Most soaps that people use are much too harsh, and he says that Americans in general overwash. "Hot water and too much suds leads to dry skin that looks flaky and itchy," he explains. "People come to me when it gets cold, and we lower the humidity in our homes. They have itchy skin and wonder what disease they have caught."

In his book, Kenet tells of a woman who appeared in his practice with those symptoms but refused to believe it was simply a matter of overwashing. "It's cold in the morning, we turn on the hot water. We get out, we don't moisturize. We have rinsed all our oil down the drain and not replenished it," he says. "All the water from your shower is evaporated and dried off in an hour. Then you itch again, maybe to the point that you shower again at night. That lather-rinse-repeat mentality is a vicious cycle."

Kenet goes so far as to recommend that we take a weekly shower break, giving up our love of cleanliness for a day. Just washing your face, feet, groin and armpits is enough, he says. And when you do shower, there is rarely a reason to soap up your stomach, arms and legs.

always remember : a little dirt won't hurt !

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@hamburger,

Nods to Hamburger.

Back when I was a bacteriology major, in our first class - bacti 1A, we did tests on ourselves, using soap and water, water, alcohol wipes, iodine, and I can't remember if we used phenol or just were told about it. At least for the thirty or so of us, water came out similarly to soap and water, both leaving plenty of bacteria though not as many as the pre-test bacteria - and alcohol only somewhat less than either of those. Iodine, as I remember, really did the job. And phenol too, although I think it was used in those days primarily as a tool for operating rooms and such.

What soap is good for is taking off oil..

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@ossobuco,

I have always read the label. If it has the word antibacterial anywhere on it, I buy something else.

1 Reply

@hamburger,

excuse me, I have to go wash my groin.

1 Reply

@chai2,

Quote:

excuse me, I have to go wash my groin.

i believe in the good , old days , frizzing and powdering ones hair was more important

http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/img_hr/catt011.jpg

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@dyslexia,

dyslexia wrote:

Studies show that antibacterial soaps aren't more effective at preventing illness or removing germs than good old-fashioned soap and water.

In other words, good old "common sense" stuff. Just as I figured.

0 Replies

@edgarblythe,

Me too, Edgar. And it can get hard to find products without the antibacterial stuff, bacteriostats, if I remember the term.

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

this soap is shown as a "hidden treasure" - worth its weight in gold !

http://market.treasureshidden.com/images/25085.jpg

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wash your mouth out!

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