Bathing and the microbiome

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Approximately how often do you shower/take a bath?

More than once a day
0
No votes
Once a day
5
71%
Once every two days
2
29%
Once every three days
0
No votes
Less than every three days
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 7
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Rakuen Growlithe
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Bathing and the microbiome

#1

Post by Rakuen Growlithe »

Everyone knows it's important to wash your body regularly. Conventions have thee621 rule (6 hours of sleep, two meals and one shower per day) and now there's a viral pandemic! But... what if we have it wrong?

There's an interesting read in The Guardian about how we might be washing too much and one doctor saying how (Except for his hands! You should still wash your hands with soap.) he hasn't washed with soap for the last five years. (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... ring-wrong) He's also written his own piece for The Atlantic recently. (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... ed/612235/) If you're not into going so extreme, one of the featured dermatologists recommends only using soap on your "underarms, groin, feet."



The thinking behind all this is that the chemicals in soaps, shampoos and other products are harsh on your body and remove the natural protective properties, leading to a cycle of dependence because not using them causing problems that wouldn't have existed if you didn't use them in the first place. In addition, there is the worry that too much soap kills the good bacteria on your skin - your microbiome. That's something that people mostly think of as being important in their gut but which matters all over the body. (See attachment for a bit on how childhood exposure to bacteria to develop a good microbiome can help later in life) We are made up of about as many bacterial as human cells (which should challenge our idea of what an individual is).

It's a tough change to sell though but I guess it will get more popular if they can bring strong evidence for it. And it will probably be boosted even more once people stop seeing humans as something outside of nature but just one part of a network of living beings. But... if you're interested in seeing what will happen for you (some basic searching suggests it can take a couple weeks for your body to adjust), the lockdown is probably the best time for such a change.
Attachments
Scudellari - 2017 - News Feature Cleaning up the hygiene hypothesis.pdf
(882.94 KiB) Downloaded 87 times
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Trace
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Re: Bathing and the microbiome

#2

Post by Trace »

It's an interesting thought, but I don't know that moving away from bathing is necessarily going to be possible for everyone. For many it may just not be practical, or even safe.
I think there needs to be a lot more research on the subject before anyone could confidently say that it's something anyone should consider moving towards.
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Rakuen Growlithe
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Re: Bathing and the microbiome

#3

Post by Rakuen Growlithe »

Well the links here were not so much about moving away from bathing as moving away from using soaps everywhere. But that said, if you search for how many times people should shower, there are several common threads that emerge. The daily shower or bath is a cultural habit and partly due to marketing efforts by soap manufacturers. People think they need a daily shower but that's more because that's what they were told rather than that they actively researched the topic. Most the pages I found when doing some background reading say that a daily shower is probably more harm than good and, in health terms, one or two showers a week was enough. More might be needed for smell reasons (though that goes back the microbiome discussion) but that can be accomplished with a shower every 2 or 3 days in most cases. It will also vary from person to person depending on any other health conditions, the weather and how active and dirty their lifestyle is.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”
~John Milton~
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