Your Questions Answered!

Thank you to the wonderful followers who participated in my first "Ask The Scientific Housewife" post! I got some great questions, some tough ones too, but I'm excited for you to get to know me better!

Kristin from Bon Bon Rose Girls asks:

"I would love to know when we're going to get together. HA! And did you go to Greece on your honeymoon?" 

• Haha, I know, we've both been so busy! I would say let me know how your next couple of weekends look and we'll go from there! As far as the honeymoon is concerned, we went on an Eastern Caribbean cruise onboard the Princess Cruise Lines (highly recommend for a romantic cruise) that went to St. Thomas, St. Maarten and their private island in the Bahamas. That was taken on the French side of St. Maarten and it was breathtaking!

Lindsey from Conner Chronicles asks:


"Where is your favorite place to shop for your home as well as for yourself? Scientifically, what do you think has been the biggest contribution to society in the last twenty years?"

• Wow, great questions! My favorite home decor store is Pottery Barn but I can hardly afford it so I usually end up shopping at Ikea and Ross/Marshalls. For myself, I love Ann Taylor Loft and Target. I had to think hard about that next question but since I work at a cancer hospital, I would have to say that I think the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, has been a huge contribution. HPV now affects more than half of the people in the US and leads to many cancers in women and men. Now, with the vaccine, we should see a sharp decline in those numbers and hopefully HPV will not be a threat to the younger generations. I'm really glad they just started offering it for young men as well, since they are carriers but aren't as easy to diagnose. 

Kaley from Something To Cheer About asks:


Do you happen to be an expert at bacterial genetics? Haha I have a test Friday and I'm freaking out!! But to my real question, what are your thoughts on probiotics? The concept of taking "good bacteria" makes sense, but is it actually doing anything to improve health?

• Wow, Bacterial Genetics is a difficult class I bet. I only took basic Genetics but I do remember that memorization and repetition was key, also utilizing other classmates who may have different study styles. That helped me through. Good luck on your test! To your question, I've eaten products with probiotics and they do a good job of regulating your digestion, which is their main purpose. The science behind it is that strains such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium are "friendly bacteria" that attack bad bacteria in your digestive tract, which regulates. Some people use it for chronic diseases and it helps their symptoms. The studies behind probiotics are still too young to know for sure how well they work but many people say they help, so it doesn't hurt to try them out. 

The Zhush from The Zhush asks:


What are your thoughts on all these anti bacterial products, like Purell? Good or bad or indifferent?

• I live with anti-bacterial in my purse at all times! At the hospital, we are not only encouraged to wash our hands but also to utilize the many anti-bacterial stations set up. Though the 99.9% effective claims are reaching it (they do the tests on inanimate objects, not hands), the science does agree that alcohol-based products do a great job of killing bacteria on hands. That being said, hand sanitizer should never replace good old soap and water. But, if you aren't near soap and water, hand sanitizers definitely help.

Anonymous asks:


Do you think the anti-bacterial products are making us more prone to resistant bacteria?

• I do believe that the longer we use the same formulas in our hand sanitizers, the sooner they will become resistant. It is the nature of bacteria. Hopefully, we discover this resistance early on and can modify the chemical formulas of hand sanitizers to combat this resistance and keep us one step ahead of bacteria. It's a very difficult thing to do but there are scientists constantly working to monitor these bacteria.

Jill VT from Pining For Nordstrom asks:

Are you at all concerned between the tentative link between cell phones and brain tumors?

• It's hard not to pay attention to the studies and reports that scientists are releasing about cell phones contributing to brain cancer. Everything is still relatively young in research; cell phones have only been around 30 so years, less than that until the majority of people owned them. While I think it's something to be cautious of, our dependency on technology is probably a big environmental contributor to cancer and something we won't be able to fix until we have long term results.