DailyDirt: How Clean Is Your Soap?
Soap has saved countless lives by preventing the spread of disease and reducing the number of disease-causing microbes in our world. But we've become a bit too focused on killing germs with soap, and we might want to cut back a bit on the over-use of antimicrobial agents. The human microbiome is changing according to our habits and environment, and it might only take a few soapy showers to kill off a healthy microflora balance.
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- No matter how obsessive you are about cleaning your hands, you can't get rid of ALL the germs. Soap itself contains live bacteria. It's rare to get infected by soaps and other hygiene products because manufacturers follow FDA guidelines for maximum bacteria content, but even soap can go bad with time. [url]
- Maybe there's an extreme of using too much soap and killing off the "good bacteria" on your skin. But would you consider using a probiotic lotion/treatment on your skin and skip showering? The inventor of a "skin tonic" hasn't showered in 12 years. The skin microbiome isn't well understood, but maybe "microbiomics" will help treat eczema or other skin problems -- and decrease the use of soap products. [url]
- Antibacterial soaps with triclosan are being phased out as manufacturers find out about how widespread triclosan is becoming in the environment -- and in people's bodies. Soap without antimicrobial agents works, but the ubiquity of triclosan and other antimicrobials can make it inconvenient to stop using it. [url]
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