Are we going to ruin our health with our modern obsession of germs?!
Question:
Are we going to ruin our health with our modern obsession of germs?
Sanitizer, antibacterial soaps, air dryers that blow germ-free air on our hands--have we gone crazy and will we end up ruining our health by trying to preserve it?
Answers:
Hi,
This is one of the best questions I have seen yet on this site. Yes you are correct that the obsession with not having germs can actually kill us in the long run. Take for example the staph bacteria that lives on our skin. It is completely harmless as long as it stays on the outside of our body. If it enters the body it may cause sepsis if left untreated. It can also cause the flesh destroying disease when common staph is mutated into something our skin has no defense for.
The one large concern about using sanitizer, anti-bacterial soaps and the like is not that it will makes us more susceptible, rather it will make the germs less susceptible to anti-biotics. Without these drugs we have no way of protecting ourselves from these bacteria.
One more thing that should make you afraid is the use of anti-biotics in the cattle and milk industry. While the AMA has come out against the use of anti-biotics in humans for non- bacterial infections, the cattle and milk industries still use them which creates even more anti-biotic resistant forms of bacteria.
What all this comes down to is even if you personally do not use anti-bacterial soaps, the person next to you is and they may be the ones who will create the next anti-biotic resistant super bug.