This is no joke! Please read!

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rcatr
rcatr Posts: 374 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Might seem a little alarmist but I always think better safe than sorry...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/health/03brod.html?src=me&ref=general
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  • Samantharose8akaDebbie
    Samantharose8akaDebbie Posts: 407 Member
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    Thanks for sharing..............and you are right, better safe than sorry.:smile:
  • kRpRpLgRl
    kRpRpLgRl Posts: 59 Member
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    I really can see this happening. My gym has handwash for everyone to use before, during, and after workouts. They also provide a towel for everyone to use and then it goes into a hamper after you are done with it. You never know what someone who works out before you might have. They could have something and not know it and be spreading it around everywhere.....or I could for that matter.:embarassed:

    Thanks for sharing!!!:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
  • dianka93
    dianka93 Posts: 21
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    Makes me question renewing my membership!
  • iwannawearatutu
    iwannawearatutu Posts: 150 Member
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    Yikes... my father died of complications of MRSA last Fall, that article is practically enough to keep me from joining a gym at all. :cry: I guess I am adding a host of antibacterial items to my shopping list.
  • khskr1
    khskr1 Posts: 392
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    Our neighbor ended up in the hospital with a staph infection because of his gym a few years ago. I not only wipe everything down, but I will lay my towel down as a barrier on benches too.
  • Dapo
    Dapo Posts: 15
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    Teach yourself how to become a germophobe & you will greatly reduce your chances of inheriting daily grungies.
  • sheyna1983
    sheyna1983 Posts: 137
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    Thanks for posting this! Whenever people come in with prescriptions to treat MRSA they are always so clueless as to where they possibly picked up the infection......I wonder if any of them got it from their gyms? So scary :angry:
  • Nina74
    Nina74 Posts: 470 Member
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    NAsty. I always wipe down the machines before AND after I use them. will be even more viligant now!
  • rcatr
    rcatr Posts: 374 Member
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    This article just made me want to be hyper vigilant about the whole thing.
    Be safe everyone
  • dcturcotte
    dcturcotte Posts: 59
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    I always wipe the equipment after but now I think I'll start before too!
  • MzBug
    MzBug Posts: 2,173 Member
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    These days it could be anywhere. In my area they had an out break at an elementary school (5 kids), they closed the school on a friday and cleaned and disinfected for 3 days. After that the day care centers, public library and playgrounds voluntarily did the same. When you think of all the things you touch during the day... door knobs, door handles on the cab, shopping carts, counters at the grocery store, post office, gas station, your spouse, your child.....
  • SuzanneRogers
    SuzanneRogers Posts: 250 Member
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    Glad I workout at home. Gym always got my son sick in childcare so I cancelled my membership. Yeah for home gym equipment.
  • kizzyt
    kizzyt Posts: 17 Member
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    I caught impetigo in January and I am convinced it was from my gym. It was horrible, very painful and I had to have double strength antibiotics for two weeks to clear it, it made me feel really low. I am now left with a scar in the middle on my forehead (like Harry Potter, ha!) which I have been using Bio Oil on to reduce. Absolutely gutted and I am sure it came from the gym. I use my own towel but I guess holding onto the machines then wiping my forehead etc I could have easily come into (and probably did) something nasty :(
  • oats4breakfast
    oats4breakfast Posts: 225
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    here's one for y'all. When you're wiping down the machines at the gym. Are you using that same towel to wipe youself ? Or to sit on ?
    eeeeewwwwwww!!!!!
  • jheller
    jheller Posts: 194
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    I just read this too - scary :noway: I spend more time in the gym in the winter (yea - lots of germs then!!) so I don't think I'll skimp on the cleaning fluid any more
  • TrainingWithTonya
    TrainingWithTonya Posts: 1,741 Member
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    This is why my gym has sanitizer wipe stations (looks like an upside down papertowel dispenser, but the towels are soaked with sanitizer) and requires everyone to wipe down the equipment after use. We're also required to carry a sweat towel (and use it) in order to even step foot on the exercise floor. On top of that, I carry a small bottle of hand sanitizer on my lanyard around my neck (wallet, keys, hand sanitizer) and use it regularly. I've been in the gym business for 14 years and an avid member before that and have never gotten a skin infection from there. But I'm a germaphobe who literally had to wash my hands like 20 times between making mud pies as a child, so maybe it's just my overuse of antimicrobial products. LOL
  • Panda86
    Panda86 Posts: 873
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    Wow, scary. I don't go to the gym, I do home workouts. But I went to my Mom's with her once, and it was crazy how much they make you wipe stuff down- but I was glad. I am a germaphobe, too :P
  • fkhdad
    fkhdad Posts: 4
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    Hi everyone. Yes, infections, particularly MRSA are bad news. It is said that over 50% of us carry MRSA in our nose and it never affects us unless our immune system is compromised. I am intimately familiar as MRSA killed my 87 year old father over a 3 year period. He had been on dialysis for over 10 years when he passed. This process and the failure of the kidney's are known to compromise your immune system and the circulation in your extremities, similar to diabetes.

    The bottom line: yes, this is a potentially serious exposure we all live with on a daily basis, so are bad people and drunks driving cars. You can't live your life as a hermit. The best thing you can do is use reasonable caution and clean your hands and yourself regularly. If more people were better about washing their hands several times a day, the exposure for everyone would be lessened substantially. So live your life, clean your hands and seek treatment promptly if something unusual pops up on your skin. Remember, they are "Resistant" infections, but so far they are still curable if you are in reasonable health. Hope this helps!
  • Becky_Boop
    Becky_Boop Posts: 96
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    Well this explains why I am always picking up stomach bugs, coughs and colds from the gym! (I'm just glad I've not got anything worse)

    I'm normally quite good with my hygene while i'm there, I wash my hands before, take a clean towel, wipe down machines before and after use (not just the obvious bits but the buttons, the bottle holders too). I use hand sanitiser for between machines and I wash my hands and change my socks before I leave (I walk 4 miles home, I shower then).

    I guess the problem is that no matter how good your own habbits are, you can't control other peoples. I think I get ill while using the machines, I mean, even though I have wiped it down after a while I'm just moving the same germs around the gym with my towel, and all it takes is for me to touch the machine and then my face, or wipe my brow with the towel and BOOM, i've caught something because someone else didn't wipe a machine, or wash their hands (eww).
  • Skinnytime
    Skinnytime Posts: 279
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    Ditto Suzanne. I work out at home now as well. My kids were always sick from the child care room and I was always getting something also.

    And, as an early elementary school teacher, I have pretty good resistance to getting sick.....

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