Comments on: Going Overboard on Germophobia?

By: bowser

bowser — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:21:27 +0000

Reading or watching interviews with former prisoners of war I’ve been struck by their sanitary conditions and diet and general health. Granted, they are in poor health because of poor diet and physical abuse, that is true.

And, they don’t seem to die of all the things Mother said would get you if you didn’t wash your hands. They also eat whatever moves including insects, raw, and seem to tolerate that.

I watched a special on TV regarding colds. A part of it was an interview with a British physician on a hospital ward filled with folks with severe colds. The interviewer asked him how he avoided getting colds – he hadn’t had one in the 2.5 years he’d been working there.

He replied that he washed his hands constantly. The interviewer noted he hadn’t washed his hands while they had been making the rounds, he answered that she hadn’t turned her back yet, and the second she did he was headed for the sink.

By: Eri

Eri — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 02:56:59 +0000

I keep on doing just as I’ve always done. Wash after potty, wash after messing with raw meats, after sneezing if I get it on my hands. But I do not go around using hand sanitizer. When I get sick, it’s usually a mild version of whatever’s going around while other people get sicker ‘n’ dogs and continue to hand sanitize. Yeesh.

By: TB

TB — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 01:09:50 +0000

I’ve seen other reports that indicate that too much “clean” is not doing our immune systems any good.

It may be destruction of good bacteria, or just keeping our immune systems from developing robust defenses. I don’t know.

I do know that there are allergies running around I never heard of when I was a kid. Maybe that’s connected, maybe not.