Are Antimicrobial Soaps Breeding Tougher Bugs?
yogamom posted 34 weeks 4 days ago — As a kid, all I ever used was a simple bar of unscented, all-natural Ivory soap. I stayed clean and germ-free. Sounds like we're doing some overkill, possibly with negative consequences.
(Washington Post) "The problem about our obsession with killing germs, some scientists and public health advocates warn, is that it may ultimately do us more harm than good.
Chief among those skeptics is microbiologist Stuart Levy of Tufts University School of Medicine, president of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA). Levy's research has led him to question why "antibacterial ingredients, once successfully used to prevent transmission of disease-causing microorganisms among patients, particularly in hospitals . . . are now being added to products used in healthy households . . . even though an added health benefit has not been demonstrated."
That's happening, Levy says, despite several "potential negative consequences" of these products, including weakening the immune system, which could lead to a greater chance of allergies in children, and their possible link to the emergence of antibiotic resistance -- the very problem that is making some diseases, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, so difficult to treat."
