Hand Sanitizers: Good or Bad?

Read this article Hand Sanitizers: Good or Bad?




What is up with hand sanitizers? Do people seriously think it is a good idea to kill the germs before your body gets a chance to take a shot at them?



Here is what I think... We are going to just get sicker and sicker as long as we keep using this stuff. If you kill every germ that comes in contact with you, then you won't be able to fight them off anymore. It is like becoming addicted to nose spray or lip balm. If you continually use a product that replaces what your body will naturally do if you let it, then your body will stop trying. If you use lip balm every time your lips seem a little dry, then your lips will stop producing the moisture needed to keep that from happening. Why should it waste energy creating moisture when you are handling it with the lip balm? Hand lotion is the same story. Your hands are dry because you are addicted to lotion and your body isn't producing the necessary oils to do the job right.



My kids are incredibly healthy. They rarely have sick days. They also rarely use hand sanitizer. If we go to a petting zoo then they for sure use it, but soap and water keeps their hands clean. If they get a germ from dropping their sucker on a swept floor and putting it back in their mouth, then so beit. Their body has an immune system for a reason and the germ will be dealt with. Think about how you were raised. Did your parent's boil your pacifier everytime you dropped it? Did you sanitize your hands like you were about to perform brain surgery every time you shook hands with someone?



My message to the world is to STOP FREAKING OUT!!! They are just germs. Unless you have a disease that has seriously compromised your immune system, then you shouldn't have much to worry about. Your body will take care of it UNLESS you have taught your body that it doesn't need to attack germs. If you teach your body that germs will be handled by hand sanitizer and not your immune system, then you can just expect to get sick and be sicker for longer. The sickest people every year are the ones who use hand sanitizer like it is going out of style. Sooner or later you get hit with a germ that you don't catch with your precious sanitizer and because your body has no memory on how to defend itself, you are going to fall and fall hard.



Purell gives 99 places that germs are likely to hide. They then go on to advertise that their product kills 99.99% of the MOST COMMON GERMS. Well, what do you think happens when you get one of the uncommon germs that Purell can't kill? Do you think that just maybe the defenses that you develop for naturally fighting off 99.99% of the common ones just MIGHT help in fighting off the uncommon ones? What is going to happen when you don't have any of those defenses. I'll tell you what. That germ is going to kick the living shit out of you. It is like eliminating all of the little guns in your army and deciding that all you need are the big guns. But then you find out that the little guns are what clear the path for you to get the big guns into range. Without the ability to fight off the 99.99% of the most common germs, the uncommon germs are just going to dominate you.




My advice is this: Wash your stupid hands with soap and water and leave the hand sanitizer in the hospital and at the petting zoo. You need the germ fighting skills to ward off serious illness. You know how the flu shot is actually just a shot of the flu virus? They do that so your body will learn how to fight the virus so it doesn't make you sick when you get a full strength dose of it later on. If you haven't taught your body how to fight 99.99% of the most common germs out there, then what makes you think that it is going to learn how to fight a bug like the flu? Put the hand sanitizer down and back away. For cying out loud...