Change Your Brain Every Day - COVID-19: How to Effectively Clean and Sanitize Your Home, with Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks

Episode Date: March 31, 2020

During this time of pandemic, it’s more important than ever to keep your living area clean and safe. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation going around about how to accomplish this. In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen are again joined by Earth Friendly Products CEO Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks for a discussion on how to clean and disinfect your home properly.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain spec imaging to personalize treatment to your brain. For more information, visit

amenclinics.com. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to BrainMD.com. Welcome back. We are still with our friend Kelly Vlahakis, and we're talking about her product, Earth Friendly Products, which I love. I use them in our home. For your company. For company, yes.

I love your products, by the way, because we are all about non-toxic products in our home and we are her company her company yes um and we i use them i love your products by the way because we are all about non-toxic products in our house and but we touched on it a little bit in the last episode kelly and i'd love to talk about it more um during this scare i think a lot of people are sort of tossing that idea of non-toxic because it's right they're afraid okay because the virus and so we're like look we want to be non-toxic because it's, they're afraid. Okay. Because the virus. And so we're like, look, we want to be non-toxic as much as we can. But the ICU nurse in me is like, nope, this is war. I'm pulling out the big guns, right? I'm pulling out bleach and I'm pulling out whatever. I don't care about the toxicity in the moment, as long as I can kill the virus.

So talk to me about, do natural products work as well? Or do we, as you touched on, decrease the viral load by cleaning skip step one, which is the cleaning part. Because when you do the cleaning part, you reduce the viral load. There was actually a wonderful article on March 13th that came out in the New York Times that I just loved. And it was called Why Soap Works. And I think it's so important for people to understand why does soap work. And so when I talk about our Ecos hand soap and I talk about, hey, everybody, wash your hands for 20 seconds, the CDC clearly says it's more important to wash your hands for 20 seconds than to use the hand sanitizer. Now let's talk about the reasons why. So when we think about cleaning, when you think of a soap molecule, a soap molecule has two ends.

One is hydrophilic, and one is hydrophobic. Another great Greek word, hydrophilic loves water, hydrophobic doesn't like water. The hydrophobic end actually penetrates the envelope around the virus. So when you're looking at the coronavirus that we're talking about right now, COVID-19, it has a membrane around it. The hydrophilic part of the soap molecule penetrates that membrane. When it penetrates that membrane, it disrupts the virus and you wash the virus away. It's a great article to read and I think really helpful for people to get a visual. So when you're washing your hands for 20 seconds, right, the soap breaks the surface tension of the water, and then it also breaks the virus or bacteria or germs, and you wash it and you rinse it away. And that's the most important

thing to do. When you think about using a hand sanitizer, you put that on your hand, right? And what its job is, is to kill any bacteria or viruses. But the reason the CDC recommends it second is because you should only do that if you don't have access to water and soap, because you put that all over your hands. What if it doesn't kill some of the virus or bacteria? You've now left all these kind of dead bugs on your hands, right? So it's the second choice and certainly important if you don't have access to soap and water, but you're doing that. And you're doing two things as well, right? You're also utilizing a lot of ingredients that long-term will be hard for your health. Same thing when you

think about all-purpose cleaners. All-purpose cleaners, if you use, you know, a natural all-purpose cleaner, you don't have all the dangerous volatile organic compounds and other things that are so harmful to our lungs and our immune systems. You clean everything, and cleaning is defined as removing dirt, germs, bacteria, viruses, and all of those different pathogens. When you remove them and you wash them away, that's the best thing. Second, you can use a disinfectant. And I think a lot of people don't realize, if you actually read the label on a disinfectant, they have dwell times. So you spray a disinfectant and you leave it for 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes, whatever the dwell time is,

and then you wipe it away. I see a lot of people out there cleaning with disinfectants and that doesn't work. If you're spraying a disinfectant and then wiping things down, you're not doing anything. You're actually doing more harm. Clean first with a healthy product, and then go to the frequently touched surfaces like doorknobs or light switches and other things. You can use your disinfectant, but read the label, use the dwell time, and make sure you're using gloves, face masks. Have you ever heard of a dwell time before? No, I haven't. I mean, you're speaking my language when you talk about soap and sanitizers because I'm a nurse, right? So I already knew that you have to wash your hands. You have to scrub them for long periods of time. And, you

know, I mean, my hands were always cracked because we had to wash our hands so much. And that's, that's another, I'm so glad you brought that up. Your hands were cracked. So the other important thing about using, you know, a product like our Ecos hand soap, they're pH neutral, they're hypoallergenic. And one of the things that we don't want is we don't want, we have a natural barrier on our skin and we want to keep that intact. That natural barrier protects us from infection. Exactly. And if we're using hand soaps that are really caustic and breaking that natural barrier

and creating, you know, new entrance for all sorts of bacteria and other infections. So if you use a natural hand soap, that's hypoallergenic and pH, like our Ecos products, you're also protecting your skin. I totally, yeah, I totally agree. But when I started to tell, I was telling my family and the kids, it's like, they have this idea that they can just use the sanitizers. I'm like, you cannot do that. You need to, it's like, oh, I sanitize my hands. I'm like, when you walk in this house, you wash your hands first. You have to wash your hands. So I know that's an actual,

I'm really glad you brought that up. So the sanitizers do not take the place of soap. Well, and one of the things nobody talks about with all of the antimicrobials is, and we've talked about it a lot on the Brain Warriors Way podcast, which is you have a 100 trillion bugs in your gut, and they serve you, they help you. And now people are taking antibiotics that they don't need, damaging the gut bugs, and they're getting these products.

And they may be inhaling them or somehow consuming them, which then will damage them. Right. Absolutely. I think that that's so important to talk about, you know, antibiotics. When we think of disinfectants, it's basically the same thing. It's killing all the good bugs alongside of the bad bugs. And so we really want to just make sure that we're thoughtful when we're using it and not continuously exposing ourselves to it, because we do want to make sure that we do keep good bugs in our lives. Yeah, it's been an interesting time. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Oh, yeah. And just that people should know that, you know, the skin is the largest organ in our body, right?

So whatever we put on our skin is absorbed oftentimes quicker than what we put into our mouth. So it's so important. I mean, that's why I talk to people about laundry detergent, like bleach. I understand in a hospital setting, you have a blood spill. That's one thing. When I hear people talk about whitening their whites using bleach because their kid played soccer, it's just not necessary. You could use a non-pouring bleach. You could use something much safer to accomplish the same task without the detrimental effects to human health. When you think of bleach, it was utilized for chemical warfare during World War II.

I mean, that's the purpose. And then after the war, they're like, what should we do with this? Oh, dump it in the consumer market. They'll love it. Stupid, right? They'll love it. It certainly has its place and space in a hospital setting, blood spills, other things. But in an everyday environment at home, we want to just be careful about using it.

But you brought up a good point because it feels like chemical warfare right now. And so we want people to understand. Because normally, I'm one of those people who doesn't like hand sanitizers. Don't want them in my house. I always tell people, stop being a germaphobe, right? It's like, it's not good for us. It's not good for your gut to do that. But right now, all of a sudden, it's like, wait, that's true in normal times. That's not true during war, right? So there's a difference, you know, and so right now it feels like, it feels like chemical warfare. And so we

feel like we are in a war. And even when we're talking about sanitizers or disinfectants, there's still better choices, I believe, to select from, right? So there are organic hand sanitizers on the market, right? You can get a sanitizer that's using ethanol that comes from plant-derived ingredients versus utilizing IPA or utilizing quads and other dangerous things. Do you need to make one? So that's such a good question. So we introduced actually in October at the International Sanitary Supply Show in Vegas our multipurpose disinfectant and sanitizer.

We've already got all the approvals from the federal EPA, and we're just right now waiting for the state by state. So I'll show you, Tana. It looks like this, if you see it. Oh, I'm so interested. Oh, that's so great. Yep. And so that's our multipurpose and disinfectant sanitizer. So I'm hopeful that we'll have it in the marketplace in the coming weeks because we certainly want to offer a greener version. Will you have a hand sanitizer? We will have that as well. So the FDA just allowed companies like ours that have the ability to make hand sanitizers to start producing immediately. So we'll actually start running hand sanitizers on our production lines

later this week. Oh my gosh. Next week we'll have hand sanitizers and I'm hopeful we'll have the disinfectant and sanitizer and the spray as well as the wipes in the coming weeks. And how hard is it going to be for people to, I'm sorry, but I'm jumping ahead here because this is the practical stuff people want to hear because I know I want to hear it. How hard is it going to be for people to find it right now? I can't find. I'm getting garbage sanitizers because I can't find any of the good stuff. I can't find what I need to find. Right, right. Absolutely. So as soon as we start production, we have a lot of wonderful retail partners we're working with. And like you mentioned, Tana, there's been an unbelievable demand for cleaning products right now. I mean, we're producing four or five times the amount that we typically would. We're running 24-7 around the clock. I mean, huge shout out to

my team here at ECOS for really, you know, I talked to them about, thank you, you know, what patriotism is. And, you know, one of the front lines is creating cleaning products that we can keep our healthcare providers and other people safe during this time of war, as you said. So our products are available at all of the retailers. In terms of the sanitizers and the hand sanitizers, certainly it'll be available on Amazon, which is one of our great online partners. You can find our entire ECOS portfolio online. And then we'll partner with our other brick and mortar retailers to get it on shelf. Right now, in terms of finding our Ecos portfolio for all of your cleaning, you know, stores like Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Sprouts, Mother's Market, Gelson's, Bristol Farms. I mean, there's so many Ralphs that are here in the area. So they have to be diligent and watchful.

When we come back, we're going to talk about whether or not you should be washing your food. Stay with us. If you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast, please don't forget to subscribe so you'll always know when there's a new episode. And while you're at it, feel free to give us a review or five-star rating as that helps others find the podcast. If you're considering coming to Amen Clinics or trying some of the brain healthy supplements from BrainMD, you can use the code podcast10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com or a 10% discount on all supplements at brainmdhealth.com.

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