Is Your Hand Sanitizer Making You Fat?

[moriah]

Is Your Hand Sanitizer Making You Fat?
By Q by Equinox

Movies like Contagion and antibiotic-resistant germs like MRSA don't help assuage fears of rampant germ proliferation; but if you tend to reach for the hand sanitizer every time you touch an elevator button, doorknob, or dumbbell, curb your enthusiasm. There's good reason to take it easy with these chemical-laden germ killers. They frequently contain triclosan, a chemical that many consider to be an obesogen—i.e., one that can potentially cause weight gain by disrupting the body's endocrine system.

"Animal studies indicate that triclosan can affect thyroid function," says Tom Zoeller, an endocrinologist and professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts--Amherst. "It's plausible that triclosan can interfere with thyroid hormones in people, though it's not been well studied." The chemical structure of triclosan is similar to that of the thyroid hormone itself—one reason it could interfere with the body's natural thyroid levels. Thyroid hormones control metabolism, so if you reduce thyroid function, you can gain weight—not a situation you want to unwittingly create as you try to stay healthy, fit, and germ-free.

To cut down on exposure, wash your hands with good old soap (not the anti-bacterial variety, which often contains triclosan, too) and water whenever possible, and choose a triclosan-free sanitizer when on the go. These options, below, kill germs with natural, botanical agents:

...

More at link: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2012/09/13/is-your-hand-sanitizer-making-you-fat

I thought this was going to be something about absorbing calories from it, but no. So are these obesogens proof that it doesn't always equal calories in - calories out? I know some work by stimulating appetite, but others seem to work on the body's metabolism itself.

And how many people have cutting boards with that triclosan? If rubbing it in your skin is bad, surely eating it is worse?

[frazzled]

1. More likely, it's the cronuts

[moriah]

2. Is that a combo donut/danish?

I really ought to eat lunch today. I've got one of the opposite problems going on right now, recovering from an eating disorder and trying to not be upset that I'm at a 22 BMI instead of the 18.5 I was at last year at this time (97 lbs isn't healthy even when you're 5'1).

I could have used some of those cronuts last year.

[frazzled]

10. It's a combination croissant/donut

I'm so sorry to hear about the eating disorder. It's hard. But let me give you some hope. I suffered from anorexia in my late adolescence ( that was a long time ago, before they barely had a name for it). I just stopped eating for several years, weighed 67 pounds at age 18, and got thrown in the hospital. With some help from a therapist, I began to break out of it eventually, and, yes, it is a bit alarming to start eating again. Not knowing if you'll ever stop because you've starved yourself for so long.

But it all evens out eventually, and it is possible to regain a realistic self-image (although the concentration-camp look seems terrific when you are in the midst of the illness, you realize it looks scary as hell once you are seeing things straight again). And it's especially possible to rekindle a positive attitude toward food (and life) ... all without putting on weight. I managed to stay approximately the same (fairly slim, but not skinny!) weight for forty years: from my mid twenties, through two births, and up until around age sixty, and without ever watching what I ate. It's only been the past few years that I'm feeling a few pounds heavier than I'd like ... and it's hard, because I never want to start fixating on food again! So I've been exercising and toning, and cutting back just a tad, and I'm pretty happy. And besides, at nearly 64, it's okay.

So try a cronut (I've never had one, but they were the big food fad in NYC last year) ... and enjoy it. Tomorrow's another day entirely!

[MNBrewer]

22. For me it's clearly the beer

[polichick]

3. Very interesting - thanks!

[mathematic]

4. This is manipulative marketing, not science

It's easy to tell because most of the article is devoted to advertising a lot of niche products.

The author digs up one scientist that says some ambiguous scenario is plausible. By itself, this borders on meaninglessness. "Plausible" might mean "soaking in a bathtub of pure triclosan for three weeks interferes with thyroid hormones", for all anybody knows.

The author raises a suggestive question he has no intention of answering, throws in some science-y, and then gets right down to promoting product.

[moriah]

17. This FDA letter on triclosan help clarify the actual status?

http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm205999.htm

Animal studies have shown that triclosan alters hormone regulation. However, data showing effects in animals don’t always predict effects in humans. Other studies in bacteria have raised the possibility that triclosan contributes to making bacteria resistant to antibiotics.

In light of these studies, FDA is engaged in an ongoing scientific and regulatory review of this ingredient. FDA does not have sufficient safety evidence to recommend changing consumer use of products that contain triclosan at this time.

Plausible that it could happen = data showing effects in animals don't always predict effects in humans, pretty much. One is a bit more alarmist, one a bit more "We got this", but both seem to express the same facts.

[awoke_in_2003]

5. We have gotten way to germaphobic...

kids immune systems these days are crap.

[angstlessk]

9. I actually ate dirt as a kid..and I did not die....

[polly7]

12. I've been told when I was just crawling, out in the yard, I used to eat bugs ..

apparently only the healthy ones.

Actually, when I think of the things we did as kids growing up on the farm in the muck and the dirt, I'm a bit amazed we survived.

[laundry_queen]

19. So did my mom and she got worms

So did her siblings (they lived on a farm and played outside nearly 100% of the time)

no thanks, I'll pass on the worms.


That said, I don't dust my house obsessively like my mother did, I don't sterilize the bathrooms daily and I might leave the vacuuming for a bit, er, lot longer than is recommended. We also have dogs. My kids have very few allergies (cats mostly, nothing else) and no asthma. I'm plagued with asthma and wicked allergies...I don't know if it's because of my obsessively clean mother, but breathing in windex everyday probably didn't help the asthma. I also spent every winter with either tonsillitis or strep throat. My kids haven't had either. oh, wait, I think my oldest had strep a few years ago and my 3rd daughter had scarlet fever, which is strep related so I lied... but no constant throat issues at any rate. I think my messy, dusty house has been better for my kids than my mom's spotless house was for me. My mom also loved to use really strong chemicals to clean so that probably wasn't the healthiest either.

Even with all that lack of cleaning on my part, I'm still a germaphobe (sp?) 3 bouts of norovirus in one winter, with 4 kids all sick with the norovirus at the same time, will do that to a person. We wash our hands like crazy around here. Less so if playing in the dirt versus being in a public place.

[Warren DeMontague]

6. Jesus, I think it's in some toothpastes- how's that?

Yuk.

[moriah]

18. It's been clinically shown to treat gingivitis very well.

Then again, so has Listerine, which is what I think I'll stick with.

[randome]

7. Hand sanitizer is unnecessary. That's reason enough to shun it.

Unneeded chemicals doing unknown things to our bodies? Sure, it's possible. We have enough artificial substances crawling around our insides and outsides. Why add more to the mix?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[angstlessk]

14. Why would I sanitize my hands when the rest of my body

is swimming in bacteria? I got a gut full of bacteria...and a vagina full...not to mention my nether parts...er uh butt hole...and my feet...let's not talk about my feet...

BACTERIA is a fact of life...some good, some bad...but it ain't going away cause we use some 'Hand Sanitizer'

[sl8]

15. I believe the theory is that hands transmit germs more prolificly than genitals and nether regions

I think most people directly contact more people with their hands than they do with their genitals or nether regions.

The same would probably hold true for secondhand contact, e.g. doorknobs, light switches, keyboards, etc..

[angstlessk]

16. Which is why the fist bump is preferable to the hand shake

Obama style

[elfin]

8. Obviously - I used it on a trip two years ago

Got fat.

[NuclearDem]

11. Nah, my dinners beat it to it.

[Spirochete]

13. Not since I stopped eating it n/t

[laundry_queen]

20. According to some studies, yes.

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/panther-lounge/2012/01/is-pollution-making-us-fat/

Not just triclosan, but a bunch of other chemicals too.

[moriah]

21. Yep, that's why I linked the obesogen Wiki page.

I read the term and thought it had to be a joke, but it's really not.

Not at all.