Question...What is the difference between soap and antibacterial soap? If it's that antibacterial soap kills bacteria then why have we been buying plain old soap all along? hasn't it been instilled in us to wash our hands, after going to the bathroom before touching anything we are going to eat, again after turning off the faucet, because there are germs everywhere!!!
Soap is a surfactant just like detergent, shampoo and draino meaning it has both properties of water and grease. a surfactant coats a ball of grease in "water-loving" particles that makes makes the greasy things wash away in water with a little elbow grease.
Is it that soap dissolves bacteria as well or punches holes of their evil walls and eats up their insides? Or is it that bacteria cling to the grease particles and get washed away by association?
If soap is supposed to keep us germ free, then why don't more people feel snubbed by the invention of antibacterial soap?
I once heard that the friction associated with hand washing is more valuable than the soap itself in terms of ridding your paws of bacterial buggers....the internet and the whole world seem to disagree with this claim but it could be valid.
And, "Hello, what about us," the body's grunts grunt from the back corner with arms raised and hands flapping at the wrists, like the smart kid's who is never called on to give other students a chance. "We are the bodies 1st line of defense. We are the few the proud and dedicated to fighting foreign bodies across bodies of skin!!"
Sebum is the oily subtance that is secreted from the sebacious glands/pores of the skin. this oily secretion not only lubricates the skin (slowing water loss) preventing it from drying out, but it also has bactericidal (A.K.A. bacterium-killing) action!
So now for innate defenses 101:
Your body is covered in skin, skin is a physical barrier that blocks most microorganisms that cling to it from getting into our bodies. Skin is also keritinized which makes it resistant to bacterial enzymes and toxins. A good sources of keratin is carrots...so eat up!
The skins secretions
* prevent bacterial growth (with their low pH)
* kill bacteria
* and trap bacteria
So for the skeptics, yes I have covered all of my bases. What happens when the skin is broken? This is when the body's innate internal defenses take over. Our body makes cells that eat bacteria. The purpose of the inflamatory response it to quarantine a bacterial invasion and fight it off. Viruses such as the common cold are fought with internal defenses as well. Once a virus enters a cell that cell sends a message out to all other cells to protect their borders and then the infected cell self destructs to prevent the spread of the virus...is this not impressing you?
So antimicrobial soap, it turns out is "any cleaning product to which active antimicrobial ingredients have been added. These antimicrobial ingredients kill bacteria but are no more effective at deactivating viruses than other soaps and they also kill nonpathogenic bacteria or the body's natural flora.
According to goaskalice.com, "soap doesn't kill bacteria, it lifts it off surfaces so that it can be rinsed away. Antibacterial soap kills germs but some scientists believe that this will cause more resistant strains of the bacteria."
And germ free isn't free. Not only do the foreign bacteria get washed down the drain but they carry the good bacteria in a headlock down the drain in their evil clutches.
Our bodies are amazing but we are always steeling away their show with the use of pharmaceuticals and "soapaceuticals"
Just take the next 30 seconds to think about the process of wound healing...you get a scratch, eventually you stop bleeding, a scab forms, hardens, breaks off to reveal perfect skin. Yea your body does that naturally. How about them apples? So I think it's time that we start appreciating our bodies and their natural defenses, and start allowing our first line of defense to do it;s job, shall we? Soaps are for TV.
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