Antibacterial soap was sold to us in the 1980s as a solution to fears brought on by the onset of the AIDS epidemic and the apparent reminder of Germ Theory for an entire populace. Suddenly everyone was a self-proclaimed germophobe, although most people still don’t wash their hands after using the bathroom, and antibacterial soap came along just in time to save us. 

But Germ Theory is only the beginning. Biodiversity is more complex than the fact that there are little things that live on big things, and the little things sometimes make the big things sick. 

Here’s the scuttlebutt:

Bacteria live on your skin. All the time. They live there and they reproduce like wildfire. In the average adult, it takes about three days for the bacteria to reproduce from very few, (say you just bathed and killed off/sloughed off most of them) to the point where there are so many it could start to cause health issues and their excrement and teensie little dead bodies start to combine with your sloughed off skin cells and sweat and you start to smell a bit ripe, and to be honest, it’s time to bathe because that is where the sickness starts. 

The bacteria eat their dead, your skin cells, and the colony gets bigger, it’s not pretty. The smell is a good thing. It’s your signal that it’s about time. Does that mean you can wait until you smell before you have to take a shower? Don’t tell your mama I said so, but kind of, yeah. With the exception of your perennial area and your mouth, the rest can take a rest. 

So what’s the problem with killing 99.99% of the bacteria? Well, you see, all those guys are competing for resources. Their numbers are limited because there’s only so much food to go around. You have 100 guys on your skin, some bad, some neutral, right? Some of the neutral are killing the bad guys, or out-eating them, starving them out. YAY TEAM NEUTRAL! 

If you kill 99 of them, only that one strongest guy lives. Now you have NOTHING that can kill this guy. Now he has all the food, and he’s gonna keep making more guys you can’t kill. That’s the superbacterium you keep hearing about. You do NOT want this guy. 

This is a very dangerous spot to put people in. Sounds a little apocalyptic? That’s because it is. 

I do not use antibacterial soap. Ever. If you want to keep your home clean and safe from the germs you pick up every day out in the world, even (especially) if you have immunocompromised people in your home, I urge you to use plain soap and water at all times. 

I will post videos on proper handwashing technique, as well as cleaning techniques for your home using products of varying levels of manufacturing. (In other words you can be a germaphobe, a hippie, or somewhere in between, I got you.)