Winter is here and so are the coughs and runny noses. It's time to make sure you're washing your hands to keep from getting sick.
When you're shopping for soap do you pick antibacterial soap because you think it will fend off the common cold? Physician Elleda Ziemer says that may not be true.
"The concern with the overuse of antibacterial soaps is could the bacteria also become resistant to those soaps when we need them," says Ziemer.
"If you're using them for your household chores, hand washing at home, there's nothing wrong with using your typical run-of-the mills soap."
It's not the type of soap that's important, it's the amount of time you spend washing your hands. Ziemer says just running your hands through cold water isn't going to do anything
She says, "Making sure to spend ten to 20 seconds actually scrubbing your hands, getting in-between your fingers and using warm to hot water."
Doctors say thorough hand washing is the best way to decrease the spread of infection.
