Washing and Use of Testosterone: The Action Essay

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Washing and Use of Testosterone:

The Action of Hand Soap Bacteria:

Hand washing is an important practice for body hygiene because of its seeming effectiveness in preventing the transmission of bacteria. Actually, it is believed that hand washing helps to lessen the risk of bacterial infection through removing and destroying bacterial cells. Generally, the use of hand soap while complying with the good washing practices help an individual to destroy bacteria in the hands, which in turn decreases the spread of diseases or illnesses. The need to wash hands using hand soap is attributed to the accumulation of bacteria on the surface of a person's hands because of numerous opportunities brought by day-to-day activities. For instance, a person encounters bacteria every time he/she touches another individual, touches raw meat, and handles money. The bacteria can get into the individual's hands and under his/her fingernails and spread if he/she touches any other part of the body before washing his/her hands.

One of the major ways that has traditionally been used to destroy such bacteria is washing hands with water only. This is primarily because running warm water over a person's hands loosens the bacteria, removes them, and sends them down the drain to die. However, this method is seemingly ineffective because water alone cannot penetrate oils, fats, and proteins that are usually on the surface of hands. Therefore, it's important to wash hands using hand soap because it's an effective way of penetrating oils, proteins, and fats and destroying bacteria.
Hand soaps help in killing bacteria by containing Triclosan, which is a powerful synthetic chemical (Angkadjaja, 2012). This synthetic chemical is designed to prevent wastes from being transported out of the bacteria cell, which in turn causes the accumulation of toxins and poisons the cell. This common ingredient in hand soaps immobilizes the cell membrane of bacteria through preventing the procedure that elongate hydrocarbon chains, which promote the growth and function of cell membrane. Triclosan prevents the process of fatty acids elongation through inhibiting a bacterial enzyme, which in turn kills the bacteria systematically.

In the past few years, there have been numerous debates on whether antibacterial soaps kills or destroys bacteria since Triclosan seems to promote the resistance of bacteria. As an anti-fungal agent, Triclosan, which is the common ingredient in hand washing soaps, does not necessary kill bacteria. It essentially binds to the bacteria through a chemical reaction and limits the ability of the bacteria to reproduce and develop cell membranes. Triclosan contributes to the eventual death of bacteria by poisoning an enzyme that is essential for the survival and growth of the bacteria. The other way with which hand wash soaps contribute to the death of bacteria is through opening holes in….....

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