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Mouthwash research

YSI
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmv.26514

excerpt from above article:

[Listerine Antiseptic is an alcohol‐based eucalyptol, menthol, methyl salicylate, and thymol formulation that historically has claimed numerous antimicrobial properties. It currently lists only a claim to kill germs that cause bad breath. Our tests show that it is highly effective at inactivating HCoV in solution (Table 3). Even at the lowest contact time of 30 s it inactivated greater than 99.99% of HCoV. Interestingly, other related products (Listerine Ultra, Equate Antiseptic, and CVS Antiseptic Mouth Wash), while showing substantial reductions, were not as efficient as Listerine Antiseptic (Table 3). These three products were unable to show a reduction of greater than 99.99% with 30‐s contact time. Equate required 2‐min contact time to show a greater 99.99% reduction.]

I believe quite often medical research is the end result of general public questions, experiences, pressure, etc.  I would like to believe the medical sciences lead the pack, but have often seen otherwise. Example: the esteemed professional who said on national TV in the early days that we the public should not wear masks.

It is unwise to censor valuable public comment. We should merely be asked to disclaim any personal scientific certification. I am not certified (nor certifiable lol.)

I have strong common sense beliefs that airborn viruses take root primarily in the nasal passages first, and will then travel to your throat mouth lungs etc.

I believe in the efficacy of wiping your nostrils out after public exposure during viral outbreak seasons with tissues dabbed with regular Listerine.  I have been doing this during flu season for many years and have not had influenza for a decade.

I found a study (above.) The study has limitations. That study needs to be expanded to real research on covid-infected people. Have they done so yet?
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Avatar universal
Is this Spam?  Can't tell.  Are you selling Listerine?  Can't tell.  While Listerine advertises it kills germs, it doesn't ever say what germs, and it has gone round and round with the FDA about this.  For awhile, they had to take this off the label and their advertising.  Then it was back.  There are a lot of germs in the world, and alcohol alone kills a lot of them.  That's what hand sanitizer is, if it's the right kind of alcohol and at the right percentage.  It's not Vodka, which doesn't work.  So the fact anything kills some germs doesn't mean it kills anything that causes disease.  It might in fact kill more beneficial germs than harmful ones.  If you're relying on Listerine, good luck to you.  I use natural mouthwash myself, which also will show if you look through a microscope that it kills bacteria.  But it certainly won't kill anything as serious as the flu or covid.  Of course it gets in the nasal passage, that's why the test swabs the nasal passage.  That's a given.  But once you've been exposed, if it gets deep in the nasal passage, you've got the disease.  If it's only shallowly there, you probably won't get it or you won't get a bad case, though you still can pass it on to others.  So the Listerine isn't getting to where it belongs unless you're using it against instructions and unsafely.  It also has ingredients in it that are toxic, which is why I use a natural product.  You haven't gotten the flu because your immune system has worked well or you haven't been exposed to it.  I don't use Listerine and I haven't had the flu, either.  What does that prove?  A ton of things in this world are anti-bacterial to some extent or other.  Few are anti-viral.  You would do better to just use saltwater at the appropriate concentration for any purpose cleaning the nose gives you.  It has no additives.  As for the mask thing, nobody ever said masks wouldn't help.  They said masks were in short supply and were more needed by physicians than by the rest of us.  As the disease progressed and spread uncontrollably, the advice changed quickly, and we were all told to wear a mask, but to make our own so docs would still have all the masks that actually work really well.  For the rest of us, our masks work some and social distancing is the rest of the picture.  Masks alone without distancing has never been the advice.  At this point, most people could obtain some kind of the best masks out there, but most of us are still using cloth masks so the docs won't run out.  They can't social distance.  Peace.
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3191940 tn?1447268717
Having said that, it won't hurt you if you choose to use mouthwash, so if you want to do so, there's no reason not to.
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1 Comments
YSI
Thanks. I would like to see Listerine marketed as antiseptic nasal wipes. I have no idea if the Journal of Medical Virology is reputable but it provided recent support for my long-held belief. I know what I would do for my own covid-sick relative. Although it is called mouthwash, it's value at this time is as a nasal wash imo.  Maybe all of those idiots running around without masks could be paid in research studies to wipe out their nostrils :-)

3191940 tn?1447268717
Unlikely, for a couple of reasons -
in vitro studies, as you mentioned, are pretty limited as a lot of substances neutralize various disease in a petri dish.  Unless there's a practical application that can be foreseen as having significant benefit, they usually don't go very far.

Second, in order to prove merit in vivo, it would be necessary to have controls - usually in the form of a double-blind study.  This would mean that half of the participants would be using mouthwash, and half would be using something that tasted like mouthwash, with no active ingredients, and then both sets of subjects would have to be deliberately exposed to COVID.  I'm sure you can see the ethical dilemma and subject recruitment problems that would create.
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