cleaning skin w/ alc before inj is no long recommended?

[Charlie6]

I was chatting with my friend who is a nursing major and she said that these days most dr. offices won't swab you with iso prior to injection because most claim that it just "pushes bacteria around" on the skin. I was like "Bullshit!" but she said that this year for the flu shots, student health services won't be swabbing your arm!


opinions?

[MuscleScience]

Remind me not to get any shots from nurses that come out of his school.

[Vitruvian-Man]

Remind me not to get any shots from nurses that come out of his school.

x2 I would rather spend the extra 2 seconds, and 0.02 to ensure the area was 100% (or as close to) sterile as possible..

[c-Z]

They are handing out flu shots at work in a week or two... Ill be sure to let you know if the swab it or not before the shot.

Ill stick to swabbing... the last god knows how many years people have been doing it.... Injecting deep into the muscle.. im not chancing it

[marcus300]

I was chatting with my friend who is a nursing major and she said that these days most dr. offices won't swab you with iso prior to injection because most claim that it just "pushes bacteria around" on the skin. I was like "Bullshit!" but she said that this year for the flu shots, student health services won't be swabbing your arm!


opinions?

My needle exchange have said the same thing, well they said they no longer advice swiping with alcohol swabs and they have stopped giving them out, they didnt say why stop swabing but thay have stopped doing this for close to 12 months now.

I am not to sure about the "pushing bacteria around the skin" though, surely alcohol kills it!! sounds daft to me.

[jasperhup]

+1, makes no sense.

i mean you mix peptides with what, bacterio static water, right? has some alcohol in there. is that to push around bacteria inside the compound? pffft

[TITANIUM]

WTF?

Are you serious?

How would swabbing alcohol around a Pre- injection site be pushing bacteria around?

It kills everything it comes in contact with.

This is the kind of stuff that gets me riled up.

Bro's please spend the extra $2.50 for the 100 alcohol swabs.

Best

T

[c-Z]

I wouldn't say it kills everything it comes in contact T. Definitely a good majority of it though.......

WOOT THATS 2000 for me!

[CHAP]

OP asked for an opinion so .

I have cycled for quiet a while now and had shots at dr and hospitals since I was a chaild. Never 1 time have I had an infection.

I think Ill stick with the alchol pad.

its has noy messed me up yet

[TITANIUM]

I wouldn't say it kills everything it comes in contact T. Definitely a good majority of it though.......

WOOT THATS 2000 for me!

I think it is around 98%.

I'll definitely go with the majority.

Congrats on the 2000 bro!

Best

T

[ghettoboyd]

i do it if anything for peace of mind.....

[Doc M]

ALWAYS swab with alcohol. Not sure what school she is attending or why they would be advising not to swab, but the goal is to maintain a sterile field and injection site, hence the use of alcohol. Until it comes out from peer reviewed data and is handed down by the AMA as gospel, there is no way in hell I wouldn't swab or allow any of our nurses to not swab prior to an injection.

Doc M

[CHAP]

ALWAYS swab with alcohol. Not sure what school she is attending or why they would be advising not to swab, but the goal is to maintain a sterile field and injection site, hence the use of alcohol. Until it comes out from peer reviewed data and is handed down by the AMA as gospel, there is no way in hell I wouldn't swab or allow any of our nurses to not swab prior to an injection.

Doc M

Thanks doc

[DSM4Life]

Ill just going to start using alcohol free alcohol swaps from now on.

[Nooomoto]

I'll stick with alcohol. That whole theory about pushing bacteria around sounds retarded as fk.

EDIT: I did some searching on Google and found that it is not recommended for DIABETICS to wipe their own skin with alcohol before injecting insulin as overuse of alcohol can dry the skin out and cause further problems for DIABETICS. I don't think this applies to us. I could be wrong but I didn't find anything referencing this method of pre-injection protocol pertaining to anyone other than DIABETICS.

[Immortal Soldier]

U don't need to swab your skin, I have done injections without swabbing.

The chance of infection is like .01% so if you do get infected its not cause there was bacteria on the skin, but rather bacteria on the needle that was pushed past the derma layer of skin made to keep it out.

[Juturna]

hmmm

[sizerp]

There are other anti-bacterial agents besides alcohol, please tell me they recommend one of these since they aren't advocating the use of BA.

Tea-tree oil... etc? Hm.

[Swifto]

I use both swabs and an anti-bacterial foam from the local supermarket (Tesco).

Not to mention I do shots after showering.

[lovbyts]

Ill stick to swabbing. I do mine after a good shower so I will stick with swabbing and btw my doc still swabs.

[c-Z]

I think it is around 98%.

I'll definitely go with the majority.

Congrats on the 2000 bro!

Best

T

HAHAH thanks bro...

yeah somewhere up there.... 98% seems in the ball park.

[ottomaddox]

I just learned that nursing students coming out of school are not told to aspirate anymore.

[gixxerboy1]

I'll stick with alcohol. That whole theory about pushing bacteria around sounds retarded as fk.

EDIT: I did some searching on Google and found that it is not recommended for DIABETICS to wipe their own skin with alcohol before injecting insulin as overuse of alcohol can dry the skin out and cause further problems for DIABETICS. I don't think this applies to us. I could be wrong but I didn't find anything referencing this method of pre-injection protocol pertaining to anyone other than DIABETICS.

I'm a diabetic and i never swab. I have done probably done 100,000 shot and never had a problem.

i think some people get crazy about this stuff. But how many of you have cut yourself or got a scratch and had it turn into an infection? I've been working on my car and got a cut on dirty oily hands and don't run in the house and sanitize and bandage it up. We do have an immune system.

[Older lifter]

I think that there is a point for not swabbing as there is the other way, i have always swabbed and never had a problem so i will just stick with what has worked and not worry about it...

[MuscleScience]

I'm a diabetic and i never swab. I have done probably done 100,000 shot and never had a problem.

i think some people get crazy about this stuff. But how many of you have cut yourself or got a scratch and had it turn into an infection? I've been working on my car and got a cut on dirty oily hands and don't run in the house and sanitize and bandage it up. We do have an immune system.

There is a fairly big difference in treating and infection that is superficial in nature vs treating an abscess deep in a muscle belly.

[BG]

Some times I wipe with witch hazel, grab the wrong bottle. What about sub-q injects...Ive never used a swab for that??

[gixxerboy1]

There is a fairly big difference in treating and infection that is superficial in nature vs treating an abscess deep in a muscle belly.

i understand that. But arent the deep infections more likely from something in the injection then from bacteria that was on the surface?

[MuscleScience]

i understand that. But arent the deep infections more likely from something in the injection then from bacteria that was on the surface?

I dont know, probably. I think that is how most staph infections occur anyway....

[gixxerboy1]

I dont know, probably. I think that is how most staph infections occur anyway....

come on your the science guy. You are supposed to have the answers

[MuscleScience]

come on your the science guy. You are supposed to have the answers

Because I am a science guy when I dont know, I say I dont know...

[zaggahamma]

i didnt swab for ONE time in 3 years of weekly jabbing on trt and man i was sorry!!!!!! the medical field is a freakin joke

[zimmy]

they do at my work when they give flu shot...

[Friend]

I like the way they smell

[beachboygemini]

Witch Hazel has alcohol in it.

[Tock]

Witch hazel (Dickenson's) has about 14% alcohol in it, and it's there only as a preservative.

The FDA regulates alcohol as an OTC drug the same way they regulate aspirin, for use as an antiseptic on skin to kill bacteria.
The EPA regulates alcohol as a disinfectant to use on non-porous surfaces like tabletops, kitchen counters, etc.

If you want to ensure your skin is well-prepared for an injection, do it after a shower, and then apply a bit of alcohol on a clean pad or cotton ball on the spot where you intend to inject.
The alcohol should be either:
90% isopropyl alcohol in water or
70% to 90% ethyl (grain) alcohol in water
and apply it to your skin for 20 to 30 seconds.

If you just splash a bit of alcohol on your skin and let it dry immediately, then you'll kill a lot of bacteria, but not nearly as much as if you keep the skin wet with alcohol for 30 seconds.

So, if you use an alcohol pad, put it on where you are going to inject, and press it against your skin for 30 seconds, and that'll do about as much as it can do. Washing with soap and water beforehand would be even better.

------------

Back when I was in the military, they used to give vaccinations to the troops with automatic gizmos that would use air pressure to push the vaccine into people's arms.

They don't use those things anymore (they shouldn't be, anyway) because they tend to be unsanitary, and can (and have) spread blood borne diseases between troops.

I doubt we'll ever see groups of people lined up for automated injections of AS, so no need to worry about that; I just threw this in for a bit of trivia . . .

- - - - - - - - -

Some more trivia . . .
If you use a lot of isopropyl alcohol, breathe in the fumes on a frequent basis, keep in mind that whatever amount gets into your bloodstream eventually gets into your liver, which breaks it down into various substances including acetone, which is very very bad for your liver. Ethyl alcohol won't do that, but it does tend to dry out the skin a bit more than IPA.
So, if you ever go for a massage and they use "rubbing alcohol," it would probably be best to use a variety of rubbing alcohol that has ethyl alcohol in it instead of isopropyl. It probably won't make a whole lot of difference, but then again, every little bit helps (or hurts).

[thegodfather]

I dont know, probably. I think that is how most staph infections occur anyway....

There should be enough BA/BB in the solution that it negates any contamination in the solution, as well as the heating that is involved in making gear. I would say its more likely that staph from the surface of the skin gets pushed deep into the muscle. It only makes sense that the risk of a systemic infection is greatly enhanced when the bacteria is deep within the muscle tissue, and far beyond the protecting layers of the skin.

[operationgetbig]

ive been juicing on and off for about 5 years and only used alcohol swabs for my first cycle. ever since then i didnt and have never had a problem once. maybe im the living experiment that it doesnt matter. i feel that as long as a sterile syringe and needle is used every time and that a clean seperate needle is used for drawing the compound then youre good to go.

as long as im relatively clean and not super sweaty or rolling around in the mud then i go ahead and do my injection.

[JiGGaMaN]

this is all pretty funny because i stopped swabbing as well about a year ago. **** it.

[Bojangles69]

It has been found that alcohol doesn't kill bacteria like we originally thought.

It only temporarly disrupts the peptide membrane dissolving the nucleous which regenerates new "super bacteria".

This new super bacteria can stand up to 8 feet tall and digest an entire human being in seconds... did I say seconds? I mean miliseconds.

[therecanonlybe1]

i think i read an article reporting that it actually took a full 20 minutes for an area to be clean from bacteria with the swab