Anti-bacterial Pandemic?
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Hand sanitizers are either as effective or slightly more effective than hand washing, depending on who you ask. If something is bloody or has poo on it, you're supposed to wash your hands normally. So many things simply can't survive in the outside world that I think many of the crazy cleaning routines people have are unnecessary. Regular soap and water works for most things. There are the logical things to keep compulsively clean, like food preparation areas, but most just need regular soap and water.
One concern I have, as a health care worker, about hand sanitizer is that it only works on bacteria that die when exposed to high concentrations of alcohol (70-92%). When we kill all of those bacteria off, what will do? Plain old-fashion soap and water will probably continue to be effective even then.
Because viruses are so small and fragile, it's generally hard to get them from surfaces, except if they are wet/bloody. People get the cold, flu, TB, etc... because they breathed in aerosol droplets infected from another person. Unless you keep everyone at least two meters away from you at all times and wear a duck-bill mask, no amount of sanitizing will protect you.
I think the entire anti-bacterial soap, hand sanitizer, etc product marketing idea is to scare people into thinking that soap and water don't do it anymore. They can make money by tricking parents into thinking their kids can be healthier if they buy some product to kill bacteria that really don't harm the majority of us.
Not to mention all the antibiotics they're putting into their bodies everytime they have a cough.
Too much anti-bacterial soap and hand wipes are probably bad because they can encourage the development of bacteria resistant to drugs, etc.
But personal cleanliness, and frequent hand washing with soap and water is good____but don't become obsessive or compulsive.
Go for the happy medium
Personally, I believe this to be highly likely.
We have become "hot house orchids".
Those pampered plants have been living in highly controlled environments for so many generations that it is virtually impossible for them to survive in the real world. On the other hand, weeds will make a go of it in the dust between the cracks in pavement in temperatures more suited for frying eggs than growing plants.
Weeds rule.
Immunodeficiency - probably not
Resistant strains of bacteria - yes
Viruses - not really affected by the sanitizers or most antibiodics so not much is going to change here
Most illnesses are caused by viruses anyway, and since the sanitizers don't work against them it's creating a false sense of security anyway. Plus an increase in the amount of trash for the packaging, used wipes, protective seals, etc. etc. etc
Yes, it IS true. Believe it or not, but our 'best friend' is DIRT ... and the 'dirtier' we are allowed to get when we are children, the BETTER our immune systems are when we are adults. My husband and I DO NOT 'overclean and disinfect' our apartment, because we are both in 'ill health' (heart disease for both of us, not 'germs') and we need to have our immune systems functioning at a 'high level.' When my children were young, at least one day a week (usually 3-4 days, and even when it was POURING outside) I would send them 'out to play' with instructions NOT to come home until I'd need to 'hose them off on the porch' before they came into the house to take their baths. My kids are ALL EXTREMELY HEALTHY today, and they are now teaching their kids my 'LOVE DIRT' method to have good health ... and if there is a 'bird flu' or other 'disease pandemic' that comes through our city, we may get 'sick' ... but we won't become 'critically ill' because our immune systems KNOW how to fight. How do I know? I had cancer when I was 21, and was given 3 months to live ... I'm now 56, have 'survived' cancer twice, and had two heart attacks ... but I am still 'well' and can still walk 15 miles in a day (less than before ... I used to be able to walk 26 miles in two hours) ...
You are getting confused and going in the wrong direction. A decrease in the number of common colds and other illnesses that our immune system fights doesn't lead to an immunodeficiency, it leads to an increase in autoimmune diseases.
A good case in point would be Chrone's Disease. It doesn't occur in third world countries. It is limited to countries where people no longer get intestinal parasites. The bodies immune system has nothing to fight and attacks itself.
Allergies are another example of the body reacting to something that it shouldn't. Histamine is usually used to fight infection, instead it starts reacting to harmless allergens.
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