Bathroom Germs

Bathroom Germs

Do You Know What Is Lurking in Your Bathroom? No matter how clean you think you are, the quantity and variety of germs that you would find on your hands at any given time would shock you. Germs are spread every time we touch an object or a person. Not all of them are dangerous, and some bacteria are even helpful.

However, your risk of getting sick is increased every time you use a public restroom, as evidenced by a 1996 study conducted by the American Society for Microbiology. They discovered that while 95% of the people surveyed said they washed their hands every time they used a public facility, only about 67% actually did. A recent nationwide poll showed that 39% of respondents are worried about the germs lurking in public restrooms. Is there a reason for concern? According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, infectious disease is the number three killer of Americans. They report that 40 million Americans get sick from hand-carried bacteria every year, and 80,000 people die from those germs.

Germs thrive in moist areas, and live off organic waste, which can be found in nearly every public restroom. What can you “catch” in a public restroom? Many illnesses that are transmitted in public restrooms include the common cold and flu bugs, intestinal illnesses, and skin infections. There is also a potential danger of picking up the bacteria that can be fatal, from streptococcus, staphylococcus, salmonella, E. coli and even hepatitis A.

People also worry about picking up STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) from toilet seats. Out of all the concerns about germs in public restrooms, STD's are actually the least likely to be a problem. This fear may be due more to urban legend than to anything else. Most of the bacteria and viruses that cause sexually transmitted diseases cannot live long enough outside the body for transfer to occur.

There is a far greater risk of coming into contact with the salmonella and shigella bacteria, which can be transferred by contact with feces. The infected person can transfer the bacteria onto any surface he touches – such as toilet handles, sink faucets and door handles. What should you look out for? Over-crowded restrooms, wet floors or puddles, lack of available supplies (toilet paper, soap and paper towels) and foul-smelling odors are all signs of improper maintenance and should be a cause for concern. Often the odor in public restrooms comes from dried urine in tile grout. Once dry, regular cleaners cannot remove the uric acid salts, and bacteria feed off them. (The odor comes from the bacteria’s digestive process.)

Germs – particularly fecal bacteria, can be shot into the air every time a toilet flushes. This bacterium settles on surfaces throughout the bathroom and is often enough to spread disease. How can you protect yourself?

First of all, your mother was right. Wash your hands frequently throughout the day, using proven methods of hand washing (see below). Do not touch your eyes, nose, face or mouth until you’ve washed your hands. Carry waterless antibiotic hand washing gel with you. If you’re going to be out and using public facilities, carry your own toilet paper with you. Try not to use toilet paper that is sitting on the top of the holder, on the back of a toilet or on a shelf.

Never use toilet paper that is wet or damp, or looks as if it might have been wet at one time. Because the inside surfaces of sinks harbor a large concentration of germs, don’t touch them. Do not use your hands when you flush the toilet, turn on or off a tap or open the restroom door when leaving.

Avoid Tick Bites

Tick Bites
Do you love being outside in the summertime, running through theyard with bare feet or planting in your garden? The whole family can benefit from quality time spent outdoors but certain precautions should be made to avoid tick bites.

Ticks are miniscule bugs that thrive in tall grass, brush, orwoodland areas and some are carriers of Lyme Disease, which, ifleft untreated, can be quite harmful. They do not fly but tickscan latch onto your skin if you rub against them. Most people donot notice when they have been bitten and the longer they areattached, the greater risk you run of contracting a tick-bornedisease.

If you expect to go camping or hiking in the woods, take theseprecautions to avoid tick bites and stay healthy this summer:

1. Tuck your lightweight long pant legs into your socks and tuckyour long-sleeved shirt into your pants. This will keep ticks onthe outside of your clothes. Clothing should also be tightlywoven so ticks do not find their way through the clothing to yourskin. 2. Wear light-colored clothing so ticks can easily be seen. 3. Wear repellants with DEET and apply to clothing BUT do notspray your child's hands or face. A concentration of 24% DEET hasbeen shown effective for five hours of protection but do notspray more than once each day.

4. Carefully inspect your entire body when you return inside.Deer ticks are especially small so ask someone to help you. Take extra care to check the scalp since hair can easily hide a tick.Repeat this procedure with your pets that go outside. Long fur also provides the perfect hiding place for ticks.

5. Since deer are carriers for ticks, make your landscaping asdeer-resistant as possible to keep the ticks out of your yard. Plant shrubs the deer will not eat, keep your grass cut short,and remove any leaves and debris that often act as a tickbreeding ground.

If you are bitten by a tick, carefully remove the tick with tweezers as close to the skin as possible and as quickly as possible. Be sure the entire tick is removed; if you are unsure,seek medical attention. You may also want to keep the tick in a container for identification.

The most common symptom of Lyme Disease is a reddish, roundbulls-eye mark at the site of the bite. Other symptoms are fever,joint and muscle pain, sore throat, fatigue, swollen glands, anddizziness. If you think you have any of these symptoms, contactyour medical provider as soon as possible. The sooner antibiotictreatment begins, the better the chance for full recovery.

Stress vs. Blood Pressure

Does STRESS on job cause Chronic High Blood Pressure ? This report says NO.

Dr. Samuel Mann (Cornell Medical) says job stress does not cause chronic high blood pressure. Studies of over 100,000 people now prove it. A job flare up will certainly raise our blood pressure short term but that in itself is not a reason to change jobs for medical reasons. This seems to disprove what others have tried to prove over 40 years of research.

No doubt job stress can cause other problems but chronic high blood pressure is not one of them.

Job Stress Blood Pressure report.

Heart Doctor stops surgery to donate Blood

Heart Doctor stops surgery 20 minutes to donate pint of blood. The 12 hour surgery was going well except for the fact the young boy was losing blood. And the hospital was about out of his rare type. Which the good doctor just happened to have. Doing this saved the boy from bleeding to death.

Dr Weinstein, a New York Heart surgeon, is a member of Heart Care International. Doctors, nurses, and other health care people donate their time to fly way off to some foreign country to assist local doctors and their patients. They are an impressive group. Many of them actually use their vacation time to perform such a wonderful service for others.

I love stories like this and hope you do to.

Click Here for more.

Aspartame Artificial Sweetener

Interesting news update today on Artificial Sweetener Aspartame. Many of us have heard conflicting news on using artificial sweeteners. Some say OK....some say it causes cancer. Who is right? I always put more trust in human research over animal research. And thats what we have here. Other research involved huge doses and animals. None of us take huge doses and none of us are animals.

The artificial sweetener aspartame does not increase the risk of cancer, says a U.S. National Cancer Institute study that included more than 500,000 American adults.

This new study included 340,045 men and 226,945 women, ages 50 to 69. Over five years of followup using aspartame. This report was shared with the American Association for Cancer Research yesterday.

Anti-aging TEA

Drinking Tea is healthy. In case you have missed the many reports out past year about the health benefits of tea......click here for just one that speaks of how good it can be. These Douglas Hospital researchers found that the regular consumption of either black or green tea may reduce age related problems like Alzheimer disease. This is a terrible disease and there hasen't been much one could do to combat it. So this report is significant.

This is the first study to show how helpful both black and green tea can be. Researchers were very impressed to observe tea extracts blocking death of brain neurons. And that is one of the terrible things about Alzheimers disease.....good brain cells dying.

Tea: the New Anti-Aging Beverage? Click here.

Cell Phone Radiation Hazard

Cell Phone Radiation (Reuters)
Cell Phone Radiation researchers in Finland will now conduct a more advance testing of possible radiation damage to human skin. Previous testing found evidence of mobile phone radiation causing cell-level changes.

Cell Phone use has become so common now and some researchers suspect this has caused an increase in brain cancer. But this has never been proven. Lots of speculation. More research needed.

Click here for Cell Phone news.