Step away from the bar, people. Not the chocolate bar—the bar of soap.
Your health (and your skin) will be better off if you reduce the number of times you suds up, Robynne Chutkan, M.D., the founder of the Digestive Center for Women in Maryland and author of The Microbiome Solution says.
It's true! Chutkan tells health.com that our squeaky-clean lifestyle can be detrimental to our health.
The fact of the matter is that our bodies are crawling with germs and bugs. "Even me?" Yes, even you, Felicia.
And not all of these bugs are bad for you. Research tells us that many of them play a crucial part in our skin and digestive health and some help with immunity.
"By scouring ourselves in the shower every day, we are actually stripping our skin of bacteria that keep us acne and eczema-free," Chutkan says. "Unless you’ve just finished a Mud Run, the only places that need daily soaping are your armpits and groin. The rest of your body does fine with a rinse—even after a sweaty workout."
Chutkan suggests that we instead use mild soaps made of organic ingredients not the chemical rich anti-bacterial stuff.
To that end, Chutkan says we should stay far away from hand sanitizer.
"Unless you’ve been hanging out on an Ebola ward, the vast majority of microbes on your skin and hands are not virulent germs that cause serious infection; they’re harmless bacteria that won’t hurt you."
This article previously published at W Dish.
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