Some people are so obsessed with their irrational fear of germs that they are overusing antibacterial hand sanitizer. Is this paranoia helping to create antibiotic immune bacteria? Will this cause the emergence of more powerful and deadly bacteria in the future?
Answer:
my theory is that germophobia is so widespread that, parents; thinking of whats best for their children, keep them overly immaculate so that their body has no chance to build up it's own immunities to germs/viruses/diseases, etc. I also believe this is the leading cause of the increased manifestation of allergies to food products. and all this is despite how unclean the world has become...
Absolutely, and it is happening now. The problem is with the numbers. If a surface (say your kitchen table) has 10,000,000 germs on it--which is likely--and you kill 99.99% of them you left 1,000 which weren't affected by the anti-bacterial agent. 1,000 germs are therefore "resistant" to whatever the agent was (let's say it is chlorine). If those 1,000 germs multiply, they are likely to create a "new germ" that is resistant to chlorine (that is, all those germs parents didn't die when exposed to chlorine, so they must have something in their genetic structure that allows them to defend against that agent.) Now, a day later, there are a new set of 1,000,000 germs (they multiply pretty fast) that have SOME resistance to chlorine. You kill off another group of those--which kills those germs least likely to survive another chlroine onslaught. This is pure evolution working at its finest--the weak die, and the strong survive. In a laboratory, it doesn't take long to develop strains that are resistant. (In the real world, we can't control all these things as well, and it happens less regularly.) But--it happens!
So, is the solution to not wash? No. The solution is to use germicides only when it is necessary to kill an invader. Don't assume all germs are bad (most are either harmless or good.) You have millions of germs in your mouth. 99.99% of those help in digesting your food. Do you really want to kill them off? No. You really want to make sure that the .01% that don't help you are destroyed. And YOUR body is pretty doggone good at fighting them off (with your own antibodies.) Maybe you'll get sick--when those bad germs overwhelm your system--but most often you'll get well in a few days.
The good news is that few people on this planet are even worried about germs. Those that are, are the most likely to be defeated by them!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.