Skin infections

I was reading the Yahoo! news again - clearly I'm addicted, and caught an article on 20 things not to buy used. It brought to mind a few horror stories but one that seems pertinent to the topic - skin infections.  On the list are things you'd expect like laptops, plasma / LCD TVs, mattresses but also undergarments and footwear.  And that's when my memory clued in.  (Well it clued in with the laptops one because I have a used laptop and I can honestly say I'll never do that again - ever, ever, ever!)

My grandmother worked in a garment factory in Winnipeg forever.  I remember going to the strangest shops when I lived there because she knew all the places to buy direct.  Naturally when I was little I found this terribly embarrassing.  Now, not unexpectedly, I miss it.  And her - but that's a different blog.  Point being, these are not the cleanest of places.  There are all manner of rodents and bugs.  Even if you could get past this - think of where the fabrics were made.  You've got all those rodents,  reptiles and bugs to think of and those that were on the transport vehicles to get them to the factories and stores and ultimately to you. Yikes!

I remember when I was younger and got new clothes that I wanted to wear them right away.  You try them on in the store, why not wear them a bit longer.  Well I think a few illustrative stories will never let you forget the why.  Story 1.  I was working in a lab with some summer students and didn't know this one girl very well.  I had noticed something on her upper back/ shoulder but since clothes covered it up most of the time didn't say anything.  (A rarity for me I assure you.)  That was until she wore this really  nice sarong as a dress and the area was very noticable.  So the first thing I did was ask if she was aware of an unusual patch of skin on her back.  Oh yeah, she replied I've had it for a while.  Next question: Do you wash your clothes before you wear them the first time?  No.  Ah, please start doing that.  And I went into the explanation of bugs etc. that started  off this blog.  I also told her Story 2.  Having been a starving student for many years, I shop for bargains and I was shopping in Winners one day trying on tanks.  Well, I remember the incident specifically because it was a really tight-fitting tank (for sport) and I had removed my bra to try it on.  This led to a year-long battle with what I finally learned was ringworm.  You'll know ringworm when you see it because it literally is a pinkish, circular ring around your normal skin tone and it's about 4-8 mm in diameter.  Ringworm is a parasitic fungal infection caused by several different species of fungus that feed on keratin in the outer layer of skin, hair, and nails. And here was the key for my 'catching' it - the fungus thrives on warm, moist skin - like the skin under the breasts.  Apparently it survives directly on cloth for a time because I sure got it.

The follow-up to this ringworm tale of woe is that none of the topical steroidal creams normally used to treat it worked.  Neither did tea tree oil (which is supposed to kill fungus) or really any 'treatment' cream.  So I did what I do and tried to reason out how to get rid of this.  It could be like other fungal infections and run its course and since it didn't really bother me particularly this was an option.  But I did remember from that medical micro course that I had to take that fungi have the same metabolic pathways as human cells which means that most anything used to kill it will kill our cells.  Kind of a problem.

I was in the shower one day and was looking at the bottle of dandruff shampoo that my boyfriend had - Nizoral.  I figured, I've lived with this for so long why not try the antifungal shampoo - and wouldn't you know it - within a couple of tries, the ringworm was gone.  Totally gone - after over a year of it.  Needless to say, this is what I recommended to the summer student and ever since I always have a bottle of Nizoral in the medicine cabinet - ok, whole closet of remedies, potions, etc.
The take home lesson - yup there are lots of things to not buy used.  Apparently there's also a reason to carry wash wipes with you into change rooms.  Oh yes and wash clothes before you wear them.  (I never could be brief and to the point - guess that career as Twitter-master is right out the window.)  Trust me it's easier and far kinder to your skin.