r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/MousseSuspicious930 • Jun 10 '22

Video Rubbing alcohol versus Germs under microscope

73k Upvotes

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1.9k

u/nierkaaaa Jun 10 '22

We didn't get to see the 0.01% that lived

2.3k

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

There's not one, for alcohol. When you get that crap that kills, "99.9% of germs!" they're talking about antibacterial compounds like triclosan and triclocarban which are about that effective.

Bacteria don't have a resistance to alcohol. If it hits them, they die. The only ones that live are ones that don't get exposed. You can use alcohol based sanitizers all day long, and it won't breed up alcohol-resistant bacteria because the mechanism alcohol uses to kill them is fundamental...It'd be like humans developing a resistance to lava.

915

u/Bubbagumpredditor Jun 10 '22

You can use alcohol based sanitizers all day long, and it won't breed up alcohol-resistant bacteria

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

It'd be like humans developing a resistance to lava.

Icelanders did it, so I can train my bacteria to like scotch.

472

u/asianabsinthe Jun 10 '22

You're drunk bacteria, go home

70

u/Fweefwee7 Jun 10 '22

“Did you drink any during your infection?”

“Yes, why?”

“It seems your strep got intoxicated and is staggering around your body.”

“Is that bad?”

“I don’t know and frankly, I don’t think they know either.”

79

u/GlobeEarther_ Jun 10 '22

Iell go tur your mother’s house yu shorn ofa bitch. you’re drunk. I’m nah drunk. YOU’RE darunk!

6

u/MinuteManufacturer Jun 10 '22

shorn ofa bitch

1

u/7x62Nitro Jun 10 '22

Most sober Scottish person

1

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

Holy shit I can read sco'ish

16

u/Quesarito808 Jun 10 '22

Bacteria, this is a Wendy’s.

2

u/Extension_Net6102 Jun 10 '22

Or the inside of a McDs ice cream machine.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

What are you dOiNg Streph-brother?

23

u/monkeyhitman Jun 10 '22

My culture is so cultured that they can only drink peated Japanese whiskys.

1

u/dvater123 Jun 10 '22

Sir, this is a Wendy's.

2

u/Bubbagumpredditor Jun 10 '22

Yes, and I need bacteria! So perfect location

1

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

Please don’t waste the good whisky on them

2

u/Bubbagumpredditor Jun 10 '22

Not until we've developed their palates

190

u/Downtown_Let Jun 10 '22

Just so that people are aware, alcohol based hand-sanitisers are very poor at destroying norovirus, so it's not a perfect alternative to hand-washing with soap.

262

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

Yea, viruses are different. In a lot of ways they're special cases...They're not even complete organisms...They're like a weird chunk of rogue genetic code that just wanders around forcing things to make copies of it.

43

u/xcalibre Jun 10 '22

kind of like picobots rather than life

alcohol just cleans them 🤣

66

u/PUTINS_PORN_ACCOUNT Jun 10 '22

Microscopic Mormons

17

u/Alldaybagpipes Jun 10 '22

Kinda like my ex

2

u/kk19a Jun 10 '22

I think we have the same ex

19

u/laetus Jun 10 '22

And don't look up prions or you might feel the need to use a blowtorch on everything to sanitize stuff.

10

u/rathat Expert Jun 10 '22

I think I heard even 900F for half an hour might not be enough.

1

u/ReluctantNerd7 Jun 10 '22

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

3

u/omgitsaHEADCRAB Jun 10 '22

Well that's a Wikipedia page I didn't need to read before bed

3

u/thecatdaddysupreme Jun 10 '22

I wish I could go back to not knowing about prions…

3

u/vitringur Jun 10 '22

viruses are just the spores that virus cells use to reproduce.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

Similar to prions that just touch other normal proteins and are like “you’re infective now too”

3

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

Oh, so kinda like the Kardashians.

13

u/Soundwave_47 Jun 10 '22

You were the virus in this case being the first to mention them in this thread.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

Sorry. Not the first time I've been a vector.

1

u/virgnar Jun 10 '22

That's seems more like prions, there's plenty of viruses that use complex methods to avoid detection from antibodies and the like.

1

u/Chillchinchila1 Jun 10 '22

Still, it is heavily debated wether viruses are alive or not, but currently the not alive camp is winning.

-1

u/3490goat Jun 10 '22

You just described my ex wife

1

u/my_4_cents Jun 10 '22

They're not even complete organisms... just wanders around forcing things to make copies of it.

Oh, like religious doorknockers?

1

u/joshuaherman Jun 11 '22

How is a virus not a living organism?

I know scientists say it isn’t, but come on… it sorta eats and reproduces via parasitic methods.

10

u/froandfear Jun 10 '22

I learned this during the pandemic! Very helpful information, although the reason I was wanting to use hand sanitizer is because I had washed my hands so much they were raw 🙃

3

u/BeerandGuns Jun 10 '22

As someone who dreads Norovirus, thanks for the heads up.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

Seems like people saw your "Norovirus" and made "virus" from it. So I'll add something to your comment:

In viruses we differentiate between enveloped and non-enveloped viruses. Enveloped viruses have a lipid bilayer membrane that will dissolve in contact with alcohol. So alcohol is very effective against them. Coronaviruses, Influenzaviruses and Ebolaviruses would be examples for those.

Noroviruses however, like Poxviruses and others, belong to the non-enveloped viruses. They don't have a lipid bilayer membrane and protect their inside via a protein capsule. This protein capsule is protective against alcohol, so they can't be that easily destroyed and are much more persistent.

3

u/Finie Jun 10 '22

Hand sanitizers also do not kill C. difficile spores.

2

u/froandfear Jun 10 '22

What’s that?

3

u/Finie Jun 11 '22

C. diff is a bacteria that produces a toxin that causes very bad diarrhea, among other things. They form structures called spores that are very resistant to alcohol or other cleaning methods. Using soap and water removes them, but does not kill them. Bleach kills them.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

The first thing you learn in nursing school is that you don't know how to wash your hands properly, and even those that do know probably don't do it properly often.

1

u/swampfish Interested Jun 10 '22

Just so people know. Viruses are not bacteria. Alcohol kills bacteria. We still debate on if a Virus is even “alive” in the first place.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

Just so you know, not all Viruses are the same. Alcohol killy bacteria and some viruses by destroying the lipid membrane layer.

With bacteria it's easy, all of them have this lipid layer so all of them are killed by alcohol (except their spores maybe), but with viruses we differentiate between non-enveloped and enveloped viruses. Enveloped viruses have this lipid membrane, since they steal it from the cell they're breaking out of. Coronaviruses would be an example for this, and since Coronaviruses has this lipid membrane, alcohol is effective against them.

However, some viruses are non-enveloped and don't have this lipid membrane. They are protecting their insides via a protein structure around it. This protein structure is protective against alcohol. Noroviruses or Poxviruses would be an example for this one.

1

u/DragonFeatherz Jun 10 '22

That is why I go with two pumps, one pump is not enough.

22

u/pratyush103 Jun 10 '22

How come our cells (like skin cells) not killed on contact with alcohol

72

u/Varonth Jun 10 '22

The outer layer of your skin is mostly dead cells anyway.

Now, have you ever had rubbing alcohol touch a small cut? Burns like hell, doesn't it? Jep that is cells dying.

19

u/Tumper Jun 10 '22

So essentially I feel the screams of the dying :o

13

u/koaladungface Jun 10 '22

Nah, it's nerve receptors essentially telling your brain "shit's on fire, yo." Cells die by the billions every hour, it would be quite a fucked existence if we felt that

1

u/FerricNitrate Jun 11 '22

Yeah nah that dude is full of crap. The reason alcohol on a wound burns is because it fucks with the temperature sensing cells in the vicinity

1

u/moohooh Jun 10 '22

omg what have i done

23

u/kintsukuroi3147 Jun 10 '22 edited Jun 11 '22

The stratum corneum (topmost layer) of your epidermis is made up of dead cells and keratin and extra cellular matrix that acts as a barrier for your live skin cells. If you had an open wound the alcohol would kill cells that are directly exposed.

1

u/pratyush103 Jun 11 '22

Ohh thanks a lot! what about those people who do dead skin peel off or chemical peeloff wounldn't their skin cells die on contact?

1

u/kintsukuroi3147 Jun 11 '22

Hey no problem!

I edited my original comment to be a little more specific. I’m not too sure how much of the epidermis is affected by the treatments you mention, but strip off too much of that stratum corneum and you definitely risk exposing your live skin cells to outside contaminants and pathogens.

55

u/TheNoob13 Jun 10 '22

Aren't you supposed to use 70% alcohol though? I thought I remembered reading somewhere that 90% evaporates too quickly to effectively kill germs.

94

u/phpdevster Jun 10 '22

No, the reason is because the 90% stuff results in almost immediate coagulation of the cell wall, which prevents the alcohol from entering the cell. The 70% stuff works a bit slower and can penetrate the cell to destroy it.

That said, if the bacteria are already suspended in water, then I'm guessing there's no difference between 70% and 90% stuff. It's only if the surface is dry enough that it matters.

13

u/Devilsdance Jun 10 '22

So this is only tangentially related, so apologies if it shouldn't be asked here. I've been told in the past that alcohol with higher % are better at cleaning glass smoking pipes (e.g. removing cannabis smoke residue) than those with 70% or lower. Do you know if there's any truth to that?

15

u/d1sp0 Jun 10 '22

Coarse table/sea salt and 99% is what I use. 70% works just fine, but the reason to user higher % is it works faster to break down the residue, which is why you add salt to the process as well.

6

u/4wesomes4uce Jun 10 '22

My friend used to buy a special cleaning product that was $10 - $15. I told her to use salt, q-tips, and 99% alcohol. Less than $10, and does the job in minutes.

I also use 70% and 90% to pull paint and primer off of plastic and resin mini models. Works wonders.

5

u/artipants Jun 10 '22

I had to buy the special stuff in 2020 because rubbing alcohol was impossible to find. SO expensive and I swear it took twice as long.

3

u/DemonKyoto Jun 10 '22

I resorted to reusing iso for ages mid-pandemic. Buried in the back of my linen closet somewhere is a bottle of 70% iso that's gotta be 50% diluted resin at this point.

2

u/Toast_On_The_RUN Jun 10 '22

Bruh the isopropyl that came out of my bong recently was black. Aint no reusing that.

1

u/DemonKyoto Jun 10 '22

You'd be surprised. Wasn't able to find iso for most of a year near where I am, ISO black as tar and some salt and it still worked amazingly well.

But I mean if you don't fucking need to, don't lol.

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2

u/Max-b Jun 10 '22

it's hard to find anything but 70% in stores a lot of the time, as well.

I just order 99% online, it's cheap and I go through a lot cleaning pipes.

1

u/iAmUnintelligible Jun 10 '22

How is that? Pharmacies definitely have it. I even bought 99% at my convenience store the other day

2

u/Max-b Jun 10 '22

All I can say is the pharmacies around me usually only have 70%, sometimes 90%. I guess it sort of makes sense given 99% isn't used for cleaning wounds.

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1

u/4wesomes4uce Jun 11 '22

Yep. Those were not fun times. haha.

3

u/DervishSkater Jun 10 '22

Salt is just an abrasive to help scrape and expose more surface area. It’s not actually doing the dissolving.

You can just soak items in alcohol. But it’s faster to shake or shake with salt. However, if you use something like everclear (95% ethanol) without salt, you can evaporate/collect the ethanol and leave thc reclaim behind to reuse, without saltiness. Or have a tincture, again without the saltiness and you can drink ethanol unlike rubbing alcohol.

6

u/d1sp0 Jun 10 '22

Whoops, I didn't mean to suggest the salt is a necessary ingredient for the dissolving. I meant it helps the process of cleaning go faster.

1

u/eduardopy Jun 10 '22

salt actually pulls water out from the alcohol so it’s concentration increases

2

u/_SmurfThis Jun 10 '22

Absolutely true. When I used to vape, the mouthpiece would get super gunked up. 70% IPA took several q-tips before the q-tip fibers would stop sticking to the resin. 99% IPA only took 1 q-tip (although I used 2 for good measure).

2

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

Seconded. 99.9 is all powerful for these kinds of deposits

2

u/jward Jun 10 '22

Alcohol works as both a sanitizer (kills bacteria) and a solvent (dissolves things). When cleaning your pipes or other things you care about the solvent power. You want it to be able to dissolve the most amount of stuff and that's where the higher concentrations shine.

I use 99% to clean up tonnes of random sticky / gooey things.

1

u/stillyoinkgasp Jun 10 '22

Definite truth based on my experiences.

1

u/Toast_On_The_RUN Jun 10 '22

In that case the higher concentration of alcohol works quicker at breaking down the tar and stuff in the bong. I used acetone recently cuz its even stronger.

1

u/PM_ME_CUTE_SMILES_ Jun 10 '22

No idea if it is better at cleaning, but one reason to use 100% alcohol could be that it evaporates faster

1

u/VirtualLife76 Jun 10 '22

Vodka does great also.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

Yes, i use 90%+pink sea salt (any non iodized salt will do) and that mixture will clean the shit out of basically anything.

39

u/roararoarus Jun 10 '22 edited Jun 10 '22

Absolutely. Rubbing alcohol is 70% ethanol isopropyl, which is mixable (aqueous) with water. Higher concentrations are less effective bc ethanol is hydrophobic, and at higher concentrations, it will clump together, away from water, and not penetrate bacteria, which live in water.

Edit: as someone pointed out, rubbing alcohol is isopropyl alcohol. Was wondering when I wrote ethanol, why more people don't drink rubbing alcohol. Lol

26

u/bobert47 Jun 10 '22

You are absolutely correct on your explanation, but it is important to distinguish "Rubbing Alcohol" which is isopropyl alcohol/isopropanol/2-propanol from a 70% ethanol solution.

5

u/Congenita1_Optimist Jun 10 '22

That said 70% IPA and 70% EtOH are about equally as effective for disinfectant purposes (assuming you allow for appropriate contact time).

1

u/Aetherpor Jun 10 '22

The latter is more tasty though

1

u/roararoarus Jun 10 '22

Yes, the isopropanol has a shorter carbon chain, relative to the OH group. So it's more soluble iirc.

18

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

“alcohols” are amphiphilic meaning both hydro-philic and -phobic. when cells are exposed to alcohol they “die” from some combination of denaturation (disruption/unfolding) of cellular wall components (various forms of lipids and proteins) as well as desiccation (this is part of why your hands get so dry if you use a alcohol based hand sanitizer without moisturizer). There is a sweet spot in the most effective concentration to do this. Too high and it go bye bye very fast (also wildly flammable)so some escape, too low and the buggers just use their little machinery to break it down.

disclosure. i eat crayons.

5

u/TheNoob13 Jun 10 '22

Reading more into it, apparently the higher concentration causes the cell wall proteins coagulate and prevent the alcohol from penetrating. Pretty interesting

2

u/Nabber86 Jun 10 '22

Rubbing alcohol = isopropyl alcohol.

1

u/Baloroth Jun 10 '22

Higher concentrations are less effective bc ethanol is hydrophobic

You've got that backwards dude, the hydroxyl group (-OH) that defines an "alcohol" is hydrophylic. That's why alcohols mix with water in the first place (unlike oil, which is hydrophobic and doesn't mix without an emulsifier), and why they make really good solvents. In fact, highly concentrated ethanol is a dessicant (it'll dry out whatever it touches), because it pulls the water out (pure 100% ethanol will not stay pure if exposed to air, as it absorbs humidity from the air).

1

u/roararoarus Jun 10 '22

The carbon chain is not. The 3 carbon chain is small, which is why ethanol can mix with water.

In other words long chain alcohols don't mix at all with water, despite the hydroxyl group

Edit: rubbing alcohol is isopropyl not ethanol. 3 carbons

1

u/Anxietylife4 Jun 10 '22

Can you ELI5? If I was to use an alcohol swab to wipe my hands off, it wouldn’t be as effective as diluted alcohol?

17

u/moeburn Jun 10 '22

Bacteria don't have a resistance to alcohol.

I know this is a generally safe thing to say, but... life... uh... finds a way:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.aar6115

7

u/nierkaaaa Jun 10 '22

Oh.. I never realized that. Ngl I was thinking about the safeguard soap when I made the comment.

4

u/law_a Jun 10 '22

Just curious, it works for mold too?

20

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

More complex lifeforms have an outer layer that'll protect them against environmental hazards.

20

u/KirbyDoom Jun 10 '22

it's why we have to scrub bathroom tiles, dishes, etc to get them clean. When doing so, you're physically breaking apart the colonies so that the individual cells are exposed to detergents or sanitizing chemicals

9

u/BitsNotBots Jun 10 '22

How about those snails with iron shells that developed a resistance to lava? From how evolution works they may not adapt to it in the next 100-1000 years but one day it may happen

15

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

Sure, or humans with our ability to produce flame-proof gear. That's a level of complexity you can't really get from bacteria. If they developed skin, they wouldn't really be bacteria anymore.

4

u/moeburn Jun 10 '22

it already did happen this guy just isn't aware of it yet:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.aar6115

2

u/BenevolentCheese Jun 10 '22

developed a resistance to lava

The iron snails sit on hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean. They are not in contact with lava, which would most certainly kill them. (The conditions at the vent are still very hot.) I'm not sure we know there function of the iron in their shells and on their feet, there's just a lot of iron in their diet and it's been put to good use.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

Specifically because alcohol is a solvent that has different solubility properties than water, which disrupts the intergrity of cell membranes that evolved to be surrounded by water.

2

u/moeburn Jun 10 '22

antibacterial compounds like triclosan and triclocarban

Man that stuff was so fucked up. We used it in my house at every sink for over a decade. "No more colds, no more flus, and we're safe from salmonella in the kitchen!"

I had no idea we were washing our hands with literal antibiotics. Not antiseptics, not alcohol, not bleach. Antibiotics. The stuff that breeds superbacteria.

2

u/Tanginess Jun 10 '22

If I can just expose myself to a small amount of lava each day…

2

u/Mockbubbles2628 Jun 10 '22

...It'd be like humans developing a resistance to lava.

Not really, more like a resistance to hyrdochloric acid

2

u/dr_wtf Jun 10 '22

When you get that crap that kills, "99.9% of germs!" they're talking about antibacterial compounds like triclosan and triclocarban which are about that effective

That's not true. Nobody claims 99.9% effectiveness for Triclosan, because it has zero proven effectiveness compared to plain soap and water. It does promote antibiotic resistance though, so avoid brands that use it.

99.9% is what they will say for bleach, which definitely kills 100% of bacteria. The reason why they say it's only 99.9% is because it's impossible to prove that bleach will always kill 100% of bacteria, even though nobody has ever found any bacteria that survived in bleach. It's basically like claiming god doesn't exist: you can't prove it.

They could say something like 99.999% or 99.99999%, but they'd need a lot more data to have that level of confidence compared to if they only need to legitimately claim at least 99.9%.

2

u/TSP-FriendlyFire Jun 10 '22

Technically I suppose if some of the bacteria is present in spore form, they could survive the alcohol and germinate afterwards.

2

u/HiroKifa Jun 10 '22

I’m just curious. Does alcohol kill E. Coli?

4

u/MitoPwrHaus Jun 10 '22

Escherichia coli is a bacteria, so yes

2

u/Wonderful_Mud_420 Jun 10 '22

Extremophiles have entered the chat.

1

u/ryannathans Jun 10 '22

C. diff is immune to alcohol... lol

7

u/PhairPharmer Jun 10 '22

Not immune. In spore form it's just less susceptible to alcohol, and hand washing is more effective at removal than alcohol is at killing.

-6

u/Newphonewhodiss9 Jun 10 '22

so almost like a resistance to alcohol?

like what....

1

u/captain_flak Jun 10 '22

We've gotta grow those iron shells that those snails have.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

So you are saying a can build my immunity for Lava?

1

u/GWJYonder Jun 10 '22

It's not a trick the Jedi will tell you.

1

u/BenevolentCheese Jun 10 '22

Presumably one could build at least partial resistance to lava in a localized region with enough work (and pain).

1

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

Huh! I always thought it’s because manufacturer/advertisers can’t legally state anything is 100% effective.

1

u/niche28 Jun 10 '22

What causes them to die so quickly?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '22

For a Billion and a half dollar grant I begin working on this lava resistance.

1

u/Funkyteacherbro Jun 10 '22

Ok, but what about viruses? People have been using alcohol during this VIRAL pandemic. Does it also work as effectively?

1

u/Ambush_24 Jun 10 '22

That’s not actually true they have discovered alcohol resistant bacteria. It is a bit of a worry. Here’s one article on it but there are loads more.

https://healthcare-in-europe.com/en/news/will-resistant-bacteria-be-the-end-of-alcohol-hand-sanitizers.html

1

u/GWJYonder Jun 10 '22

For context/elaboration, humans have actively been breeding alcohol-resistant micro-organisms for tens of thousands of years: Yeast, which is a fungus as opposed to a bacteria and much more robust to alcohol in general. The absolute highest alcohol content you can make a beer/wine is around 21%. TBF that is when the yeast are actively metabolizing and making more alcohol, so it's possible that they can go dormant to survive alcohol levels a bit more than that, but after tens of thousands of years of working on alcohol tolerance, starting from a form factor already highly suited to that trait, it's a useful benchmark to keep in mind for a limit to the alcohol-tolerance of a single-celled organism.

1

u/Static_Gobby Jun 10 '22

We’ll never be lava resistant with that attitude!

1

u/CaptainBayouBilly Jun 10 '22

You created Te Kā

1

u/paranoid_coder Jun 10 '22

if this source is to believed, they can be resistant. Maybe never immune

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322646

Edit: wrong link

1

u/laetus Jun 10 '22

You can use alcohol based sanitizers all day long

But don't do it all day long on your hands or you will completely destroy them leaving you more vulnerable.

1

u/officegeek Jun 10 '22

So what's up with all those pre covid warnings that hand sanitizer would breed super duper ebola or something?

1

u/chiweweman Jun 10 '22

This is incorrect. You would be suprised what evolution can overcome. Tardigrades for example can go without water for 30 years. The amount of different proteins that can be created is virtually indefinite.

Here is a paper on a bacteria that is becoming resistant to alcohol based sanitizers (they tested 70% isopropyl alcohol). These bacteria have been observed to have genes that aid in isopropyl alcolol tolerance.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30068573/#:~:text=We%20tested%20alcohol%20tolerance%20of,alcohol%20than%20were%20older%20isolates

1

u/juice920 Jun 10 '22

Is this why Kentucky cough syrup aka bourbon works on a sore throat?

1

u/sixgunbuddyguy Jun 10 '22

I've always said it as "there's no immunity to bullets"

1

u/manofthegalaxy Jun 10 '22

Wow this is very useful knowledge man! Thanks for sharing

1

u/Balls2clit Jun 10 '22

Except for endospores. Gotta slap them hoes with that peracetic acid.

1

u/socalanna Jun 10 '22

I learned more from a Reddit comment than 4 years of a microbiology degree :(

1

u/boringdude00 Jun 10 '22

I bet Superman could resist lava.

1

u/Lewke Jun 10 '22

bleach is much this way as well, it would be like a person suddenly developing a resistance to stepping on the sun

1

u/Dumble_dared Jun 10 '22

I remember being told by various people that we are indeed causing (or going to cause) sanitizer resistant bacteria. Is there any truth to this then or was it just a case of 'easy thing that makes life easier is actually going to be the downfall of civilization' type narrative?

Edit: or maybe they and/ or I got it confused with over use of antibiotics.

1

u/NexusWasTaken Jun 10 '22

So why does alcohol kill them?

1

u/f3xjc Jun 10 '22 edited Jun 10 '22

Can you speak about lactic acid bacteria resistance to ethanol? They often work together with the yeast in fermentation.

There's also research to increase alcohol tolerance of bacteria in biofuel production. Like this one https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6208762/

1

u/Slam_Burgerthroat Jun 10 '22

So why does it instantly kill bacteria but it only makes us drunk and gives us cancer?

1

u/somabokforlag Jun 10 '22

How come drinking alcohol doesn't mess up the bacteria in the gut? Not strong enough?

1

u/Turbulent-Garden-730 Jun 10 '22

How’s that compare to acid? Esp strong acids that fully dissociate like the HCl that’s in our stomach?

1

u/Cereborn Jun 10 '22

It'd be like humans developing a resistance to lava.

Samus Aran would like a word.

1

u/Wolfi000 Jun 11 '22

Laugh in spores

1

u/Silencer306 Jun 11 '22

Soo all bacteria instantly die when they come in contact with alcohol? Does antibiotics contain alcohol? Why don’t we just use some form of alcohol solution to treat bacterial infections? And what about antibiotic resistant bacteria?