Anti-Bacterial Shower Gel

thesraid

Hi Guys,
as everyone who does MMA knows, the risk of infection from a team mate is always present regardless of the precautions you may have. While my gym is clean (Mat's disinfected before and after each class, no shoes in the training area etc.) a team mate recently got a Staph infection which ended him up in hospital.

To combat this I've gotten Dettol's anti-bacterial soap. However this isn't the nicest thing to shower with after training. I've looked around for Anti-Bacterial Shower Gel but couldn't find anything. There are some sites in the US that have nice products but shipping is very expensive. Especially since this will be a repeat order over time.

I was wondering what do you use and where did you get it?

John

Killme00

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055941786

Liam_B

There are a few products out there like defense soap. Had a few samples of these a few years back. Not sure how effective it is though.

You can purchase bars of it from Garra Fightwear in the UK.
http://www.garrafightwear.com/product_info.php?cPath=93&products_id=652

Tea Tree oil shower gel seems to be doing to job for the last 10 years for me. Murphys Law I'll pick something up now.

Hope the above link might help.

thesraid

Thanks!

For anyone else who might stumble across this the shop front for the Irish reseller is

http://www.defendu.ie/shop

and the product is

http://www.superbodycare.com/products.html

Liam_B

Ah! never knew DefendU did these soap products...
Best Go Irish

thesraid

I think I will, thanks Liam

Sid_Justice

as the previous poster linked, we've had a similar discussion about this topic before. I think I'm going to almost contradict myself and say I don't it's hugely important if you're using a "anti-bac/anti-fungal" gel/cream/soap as long as you're actually washing yourself properly and not just getting wet.

MaeveD

Liam_B wrote: »

Ah! never knew DefendU did these soap products...
Best Go Irish

Yep, we do the full range of Super Body Care products.. wipes, soap, shower gel and walnut scrub You can come and pick them up at our school (www.defendu.ie) or buy them via PayPal and I'll ship them out to you....

* Shipping single items by An Post is expensive but you won't pay more than 12.50 for p&p anywhere in Ireland, so get your club to buy some

MarkJD

After starting training recently you have me all paranoid now

Should i invest in some of these scrubs or should a proper shower afterwards do?

How serious is a staph infection?

cowzerp

MarkJD wrote: »

How serious is a staph infection?

Staph infection is very serious, can kill at worst..

But once you keep cuts covered and your training area is clean you should be ok, also tell your training partners if they have long nails or open uncovered wounds etc..

Shower proper and that end should be fine but the main thing is dont let dirt get into open wounds, nails carry serious bacteria so need to be trimmed..

Barry.Oglesby

Serious.

Just shower. If you read my response in the link posted above you'll see some of the medical advice I got after my one.

It's sort of an occupational hazard, as much as breaking a limb is in football. The thing is that it doesn't happen a lot at all and as long as you're cleaning your mats regularly and are dressing your cuts and grazes before training you can probably take the 1% chance down to almost 0.

I actually find that people who don't really train that much are the people who go on about it the most to be honest! Another excuse not to be on the mats!

Barry.Oglesby

Oh and don't train with mingers who don't wash their gis, rashguards and shorts between sessions, and who don't trim their finger and toenails.

Personal hygiene is far more important than the training area cleanliness. Mats, for all their faults, tendto dry between sessions wheras poxy rashguards left in gear bags don't.

MarkJD

Thanks guys,

I might pick up some of the tea tree oil shower gel more for ease of mind. If you did have an infection what would be some early tell tale signs?

cowzerp

MarkJD wrote: »

Thanks guys,

I might pick up some of the tea tree oil shower gel more for ease of mind. If you did have an infection what would be some early tell tale signs?

if bacteria gets into a cut then its too late showering anyway, staph could be on your skin now as you speak and no problem, its a problem when ingested or when it gets into a cut, a doctor told me that staph is everywhere anyway so you just have to take obvious precautions, showering after way down the list.

MarkJD

I have this stress habit where i pick the skin around my nails from work... They arent gaping wounds or anything but should i be concerned about those? Odd question i know but im really paranoid about this sorta stuff

Anakin.S

http://www.ehow.com/how_2110766_prevent-staph-infection.html

http://www.defensesoap.com/staph-infections.html

basic tips

Tim_Murphy

To answer the original question, I'm using Dettol shower gel as the moment. I'm in Thailand though (:cool:) but if you can get it here presumably you can get it back home.

Sid_Justice

and drying yourself is equally important, groin, behind knee, between toes etc. :pac:

MaeveD

I think these guys know what they're talking about, they're doing a new study on MRSA this year.

'The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology in the US concluded that poor hygiene habits remain the principal barrier to significant reductions in the spread of MRSA'

Barry I know lots of people both here, in the UK and in the US who have had staph infections.... thankfully not serious ones.... where did you get that 1% chance.... thats just not true?

Barry.Oglesby

MaeveD wrote: »

I think these guys know what they're talking about, they're doing a new study on MRSA this year.

'The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology in the US concluded that poor hygiene habits remain the principal barrier to significant reductions in the spread of MRSA'

Barry I know lots of people both here, in the UK and in the US who have had staph infections.... thankfully not serious ones.... where did you get that 1% chance.... thats just not true?

well it's a made up statistic, as would be any statistic on the matter really. I actually think 1% would be quite high. Think of every grappler, judo player, wrestler and MMA fighter in Ireland and see how many of them have had staph? Not too many I'd say. I can think of maybe 6 guys that I know of from the last 6 years I've been involved in MMA.

The problem is that it's so serious so when you do get it, it's godawful and keeps you out of work, off the mat etc. for a long time. My point is it's not so prevalent to be concerned enough not to train, but serious enough so that you should really be careful when you do train.

By the by MRSA is the hospital variant, regular staph (the two variants we're most exposed to) is not so serious as it responds better to antibiotics etc.

Shazbot

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

By the by MRSA is the hospital variant, regular staph (the two variants we're most exposed to) is not so serious as it responds better to antibiotics etc.

Just to clarify, MRSA is not the hospital variant of the bacteria. MRSA exists everywhere, it is simply a methiciliin resistent strain of staph. It just gets reported almost exclusively in hospitals due to potential outcomes of infection.

MRSA can also be caught in prisons, gyms and by people working with livestock.

Barry.Oglesby

Sorry I phrased that badly. I meant that MRSA is not so common as staph-a and staph-e. I'm not going to even attempt to spell them and these are the ones that are the most common cause of infection in combat sports. MRSA is less common but more serious and what I meant by "hospital variant" is "the one you hear about most from hospitals". Not that it's solely in hospitals.

I've had cellulitis brough on by staph, and I've had staph. I got cellulitis on my shin and staph on my neck... yeah I know. With the neck I had a beard and got sleeve choked. It was an hour to get to work before I could shower and in that time the infection obviously got enough of a foothold. That was minging but thankfully minor. The shin one was worse and required a surgical procedure.

The reason I'm explaining this is because I read back and my first post seems a bit blasé. I'm not trying to play it down. What I'm trying to say is that yes, it's serious, but don't let it put you off as it's very avoidable.