YETI coffee mug with magnet slider top and pop-off lid. There is a gasket within the lid.  Blogfinger photograph

By Paul Goldfinger,MD   Editor @Blogfinger.net

The Internet is full of this sort of “come-on” subject matter.  Almost always, I regret if I click on any of those since they usually are a form of scam designed to attract one’s lascivious side and lure one into some sort of commercial web. The headline above is not mine–Eileen discovered it while patrolling the Internet.

But this time Eileen clicked on that headline and found herself watching a You Tube by a chiropractor who claimed that a contaminated coffee mug nearly killed his patient.

As an “evidence based” doctor, I tend to ignore medical anecdotes, but this particular story peaked my interest since I always drink my coffee from a stainless steel mug that keeps it hot for hours.  My favorite is the Tiger but we also have a few Yeti coffee mugs which have become very popular.

Today I walked into my favorite coffee shop in Ft. Myers and noticed that the 8 am rush was inhabited mostly  by older grey heads  (“Q tips” and me) and almost everyone was carrying such a mug.

In my case, I always rinse the mug after each use and I sometimes give it a serious cleaning which means taking it apart, removing the gaskets and washing those.

But I was alarmed by this case report.  A patient had been suffering from serious infections that could not be cured. The doctor noticed his coffee mug, a YETI, and took it apart.  The man had never done a serious cleaning, and the doc found a horrid collection of bacteria/mold under the gaskets.  Cleaning the mug cured the life threatening medical problem.

Regardless of the validity of the clinical report, which I must admit worried me, who wants to be drinking from a cup that harbors a garden variety of disgusting bacterial infestations?  So this YouTube should impress anyone who uses such a mug.  Rinsing is not enough, because the bacteria live beneath the rubber gaskets and in the crevices.

The more complex the working of the mug, the more difficult it is to clean, but you must do the cleaning, and a dishwasher is not good enough.  The YETI has only one gasket, so that’s good, but the magnetic slider on top must be removed—–It’s easy.  That had the worst infestation as reported by the You Tube chiropractor.

I did an autopsy on my mug and found out how much cleaning was required. Blogfinger photo of a Tiger mug–my favorite.

You can scrub with mild dish soap and hot water, but then rinse well before re-assembling or your coffee might taste like Palmolive.  Use a bottle brush for the mug interior  (Oxo makes a terrific one) and you might need a stiffer dish brush for behind those gaskets  (also Oxo).  Inspect the parts carefully after cleaning to look for residual deposits.

And while am on the subject of oral hygiene, there is good reason to believe that poor oral hygiene can promote cardiovascular disease.  This is from the Harvard medical magazine for lay people:

“it’s been one of the more surprising observations in recent years: study after study has shown that people who have poor oral health (such as gum disease or tooth loss) have higher rates of cardiovascular problems such as heart attack or stroke than people with good oral health.”

Paying attention to oral health includes brushing, regular cleaning, gingivitis treatment, flossing and mouthwash.  In fact, some years ago the use of a Listerine sort of mouthwash was promoted as a heart attack preventive.

However, there has been some recent concern that mouthwash might actually increase the risk of heart disease.  In our book we recommended the use of Listerine along with other oral measures, but, as noted now, that is problematic.

There is a fairly extensive literature about the significance of bacteria in the mouth.  This mention here on Blogfinger is not meant to be a comprehensive discussion.    Ask your doctor, or, if he is not available, ask the physician assistant.

SOUL REBELS BRASS BAND AND JOHN MOONEY     From the HBO series Treme  Season 1.