This Is Why You Should Stop Using Anti-bacterial Soaps!

It appears regular soap is all we've ever needed after all and not all the expensive anti-bacterial soap we insist on using. If you remember, even during the Ebola scourge, the emphasis was on regular hand washing with soap and running water, nobody mentioned using antiseptic/anti-bacterial soap. I used both liquid antiseptic and medicated soap to bathe for years until a doctor told me those soaps were not called 'medicated' for no reason. Those kinds of soap are to be prescribed by a doctor in cases of skin problems. A recent study has shed more light on this claim. Read more below.

Regular soap is just as effective as anti-bacterial soap at getting rid of germs through hand washing, a new study finds. 

This is hardly the first study to find no difference between the two types of soap, but it is the first to test regular and anti-bacterial soaps against 20 strains of bacteria in a lab, the researchers said. The investigators also tested the soaps on people’s dirty hands. 

In both the lab and the real-life trials, regular soap performed just as well as anti-bacterial soap, which contained the controversial chemical triclosan, according to the study from researchers in South Korea, published online on Sept. 15 in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

Today, manufacturers add triclosan to an array of products, including toothpaste, shampoo, clothing, kitchenware, furniture and toys, with the goal of reducing or preventing bacterial contamination and growth, the researchers said. 

However, triclosan has been linked to several negative effects on health. Research has tied it to antibiotic resistance among germs, and allergies and hormone disruption in people. In response to some of these downsides, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a proposal in 2013 that asked companies to prove that anti-microbial products were safe for people to use, and that these products were more effective than plain soap and water in preventing the spread of germs. 

“There’s a real issue of increasing antibiotic resistance that we’re seeing across the country and across the world,” said Dr. Pritish Tosh, an infectious diseases physician. “And a lot of this is related to unnecessary anti-microbial use.”

If soap with triclosan has harmful long-term effects, and if it performs no better than regular soap, “it makes us question why these products even exist,” he said.

Source: Livescience.com 

So, stick to regular toilet soap henceforth, you really don't need so much anti-bacterial soaps!


Cover image via Wedeliversz.com