The Holistic Health Warrior

The discussion of using too many disinfectants has been going for years. Below you will read an excerpt from Dr. Mercola from 2009.

It just seems like we haven’t listened, cared or headed the warning and now, perhaps more than ever we have created Super Bugs that are not only more virulent but also more clever in their mutagenic process. 

Using disinfectants could cause bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics as well as the disinfectant itself. This finding could have important implications for how the spread of infection is managed in hospital settings.

Researchers found that by adding increasing amounts of disinfectant to laboratory cultures of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the bacteria could adapt to survive not only the disinfectant but also ciprofloxacin — a commonly-prescribed antibiotic — even without being exposed to it.

The researchers showed that the bacteria had adapted to more efficiently pump out antimicrobial agents (disinfectant and antibiotic) from the bacterial cell. The adapted bacteria also had a mutation in their DNA that allowed them to resist ciprofloxacin-type antibiotics specifically.

P. aeruginosa is an opportunistic bacterium that can cause a wide range of infections in people with weak immune systems.

~Dr. Joseph Mercola~

Now obviously, this does not mean we do not need to keep the germs under control. But what it does mean, is that our obsession with disinfecting and using an antibiotic for everything does have it’s consequences and they may be more than we bargained for.

Typically normal cleaning jobs would only require things like a Vinegar and Water solution. Germs still die, but it is not overkilling so that they mutate and turn into Super Bugs.

To Your Great Health!