BY DR ROGER DOWN, MBBS, FRCS, FRACS, MD (LOND)
In my article on why we have skin (published before Christmas), we learnt that our skin “is covered with friendly symbiotic bacteria to protect us from nasty pathogens” and “there is no need for antiseptics that would kill the good bugs and leave us vulnerable”.
In the last 15 to 20 years, our TV screens have been splattered with advertisements claiming certain products “kill 99.9 per cent of germs”. This may be true, BUT…is it good for our health? The answer is NO. So, why not? Let’s explore this.
Do not be fooled by anyone – we do NOT LIVE IN A ‘STERILE’ WORLD. Yet the pharmaceutical and chemical industries – for financial gain – have been advertising to convince us that the world is sterile.
This has resulted in a generation of people believing something that is NOT true. Bacteria, fungi, parasites, viruses, etc., frequently referred to as ‘germs’, exist everywhere. This is normal flora, and occurs in the soil, on surfaces, in the air…EVERYWHERE, including inside and outside of our bodies.
Ninety-nine per cent of these ‘germs’ work in a symbiotic way for the benefit of all life, including that of humans. Further, they can never be eradicated; they are essential to nature’s cycle.
Whenever antiseptics/sanitisers/chemicals are splashed around or misused, the 99.9 per cent of good, protective, friendly organisms (germs) that inhabit our skin and gut (and even the soil), are killed. Like any army, if you weaken the number of protective soldiers, you open the door for the enemy. Nasty pathogens that invade the body via the skin or gut can cause infections and/or death, whatever age you are. DO NOT use antiseptics on yourself or around your home.
There is a limited place and use for specific antiseptics in special, appropriate circumstances by the medical profession – whenever the normal protection lining of the skin or gut is artificially broken either by injury or, for example, in the operating theatre.
So, what’s the answer? Only use soap and water to wash the skin, NOT antiseptics. And why soap? Because the skin produces oils of one kind or another to maintain the hairs that grow everywhere on our skin and cause odour.
Next month, I’ll be discussing antibiotic dangers. God bless, and have fun.
