We need to take in germs in order to get resistance to them. So aren’t we don’t a disservice by washing our hands all the time? Obviously, we need to from time to time but not on the regular

  •  mindrover   ( @mindrover@lemm.ee ) English
    6•1 year ago

    I remember a Colbert Report guest advocating for this several years ago. I think his take was also that frequent hand washing destroys the natural good bacteria that live on your hands and keep your skin healthy. I think he was saying he only washes his hands when he knows they are contaminated. No precautionary pre-meal hand washing or anything like that.

    •  JohnnyEnzyme   ( @JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee ) English
      6•1 year ago

      So if I understand correctly, washing hands does several things–

      1. physical exfoliation, which removes some portion of the outer skin layer, along with any bacteria or micro-organisms riding along, 2) by using soap, a base is introduced which temporarily changes the pH of the skin’s natural acidic layer (which is defensive against germs), 3) soap being antibacterial in nature, additional bacteria that remain are killed.

      So yeah, good question about how much of an impact frequent hand-washing makes in terms of healthy bacterial biome. I would speculate that in terms of the overall skin layer health, not much. But in terms of ingested germs, especially if one is eating with their hands, such as a sandwich, pizza, etc, I would guess there would be the bigger impact.

      source: just a layperson!

  •  ExploringLiterature   ( @ExploringLiterature@lemm.ee ) English
    2•1 year ago

    As a self-claimed medical expert, I always take this advice to heart as I proceed to cough on younger children and give them the gift of better immune systems:

    “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want”

    • Mao Zedong

    TLDR: Yes you get a better immune system by letting your hands experience the real world.