Nov 29 - Dr. Joseph Falkinham Webinar

I remember a while ago that he talked about an electric kettle boil compared to the boil reached in a pot of water on a wood stove. I have not ever heard him compare boiling in an electric kettle to boiling in a tea kettle on a gas or electric stove or how long the water in an electric kettle must boil to kill the ntm's.

He sometimes doesn't get the question we really want answered. For example, in his talk and then again in the q and a, he talked about how the bacteria get into openings in children's mouths when the dentist pulls their teeth. While interesting, the questions asked had to do with how safe is the dentist's water during a visit by those of us adults with an ntm infection. I know there are patients who bring their own water to the dentist or skip their check ups because of fear of the water there so this is important to them.

He is so great at participating in these talks and even answering questions directly from us patients living with these bacteria in our lungs. But I remind myself that he is not a medical doctor accustomed to dealing with patients who live with these bacteria in our lungs. Instead he is a research scientist and a professor who teaches future scientists. Jmo.

I'm sorry he didn't answer your question about the electric kettle. Did he answer any of the other questions you asked? I hope you will share what you learned from the webinair.

@ljfoo :

Dr. Falkinham said that vinegar is an acid (acetic acid) and because NTM tolerates acids, vinegar does not kill NTM.

He added, however, that vinegar - being an acid - can help dissolve mineral deposits that occur with hard water, thus possibly helping to expose to disinfectants the NTM that might have been in the mineral deposits. This might be an indirect way through which vinegar could assist in disinfection, but it does not mean that the vinegar directly kills the NTM.