For the Love of Listerine!

The reasons that I love Listerine brand mouthwash are numerous. I'm talking about the brown stuff...original flavor.

Here are the Two Main Reasons

This is actually a great story. Back in 7th grade my class performed an awesome experiment that changed the course of my life. We grew bacteria cultures in petri dishes and then used different commercial anti-bacterial products to attempt to kill the most specimens. The group of suspects included Lysol Disinfectant Spray, Listerine, and a few others. I don't recall everything that we used.

The experiment happened in three stages: 

1. Our class grew the cultures from swabs taken from our mouths, classroom desks, and floors; hypothesizing about the efficacy of the products we would use
2. We observed the various bacteria colonies growing in the various dishes
3. Then we applied a measured amount of each commercial chemical to the dishes, observing the results

The life-changing bit happened when we applied the microbicidal agents to the cultures that we grew over the course of a few days. Listerine killed practically all of the bacteria colonies, followed at a close second by Lysol.

To this day--nearly 20 years after that science class--I swear by those two products for household cleaning and disinfecting.

And Another Thing...

Those of you who know me personally might remember that I'm allergic to deodorant. Using even the most gentle product on my pits means a painful bout of hives with the potential for a serious infection. Gross, I know. Years of trial-and-error have given me options for keeping my pits smelling fresh and warding off a reaction. I generally use an alcohol rub and a few drops of fragrance oil (from the oil/incense man) in the morning and evening. This has worked consistently for over a decade---but my pits do turn into a pumpkin after 4pm ...so, it could be better.

A few weeks ago my buddy, Josh, mentioned in passing that Listerine is the perfect substitute for deodorant--the original brown, not any of the new colors. The next day I swabbed with it and biked to work. Then I re-swabbed my pits after changing from biking gear to business casual. When I rode home, later that afternoon, my underarms were fresh as daisies.

I've used Listerine on my pits everyday for 3 weeks, exactly. It's still awesome! So, there you have it. This product is excellent for killing bacteria, and pretty darn great for keeping armpits smelling sweet.

Was that TMI?