I was 18 years old when I took my first chemistry class.
I was a college freshman. My head was shaved. I weighed 145 pounds and I was on scholarship to wrestle at 126 lbs.
Chemistry was the last thing on my mind.
But then we learned about saponification - the chemistry of making soap. The act of taking messy fats and turning them into medicine struck a cord that has kept me tuned in for decades!
In fact, if you don't already know, I've been soaping ever since with my family...Just a few days ago my oldest son released our SHEA BUTTER AND OLIVE OIL BAR ON ETSY! It's a bestseller. Get it by clicking here.
People typically think of soap as a smooth, foamy luxury. But from the perspective of “biological nasties,” soap is an instant death sentence. It kills every pathogen it comes into contact with.
A single soap bubble can cause any bacteria or virus to implode. So ready for war, even The New York Times stated that soap can kill everything, “including a coronavirus.” (which was discovered in 1932)
Fact!
Soaps lethality stems from its’ “hybrid personality.”
On one end, a soap molecule loves water. On the other side of its’ greasy structure it loves fat.
That makes it double deadly.
Here's how it works.
Once suspended into water, soap molecules attract each other like the Fighting Irish at a UFC fight. They congregate around the enemy like kids sitting in a circle.
Together, they penetrate a bacterial cell wall (fatty later) or a strand of a DNA (virus) and leave one layer in the water. This causes undue pressure courtesy of water. Like a falling tower of Jenga pieces, the pathogens implode and break into tiny pieces.
The New York Times stressed this prowess, saying that soap can take down all “Pathogens wrapped in lipid membranes including hepatitis B and C, herpes, Ebola, Zika, dengue, and numerous bacteria that attack the intestines and respiratory tract.”
The US Military further showed that, "Handwashing with soap is an affordable "do-it-yourself" vaccine that effectively prevents disease. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that proper handwashing could eliminate half of all cases of food-borne diseases. Scientific research shows that handwashing with soap prevents disease in a more straightforward and cost-effective way than any single vaccine or medical treatment.
Unfortunately, soap sold in stores won’t do anything but bubble-up and mimic the real thing…or worse, give you skin cancer.
Today’s soaps are loaded with preservatives, curing agents, perfumes and dyes. That means most soaps sold on stores will harm you long before they ever help you.
Avoid soaps with perfumes, dyes, preservatives, pthalates and triclosan!
Dare to Live Young!
The People's Chemist | 
