Washing our body regularly is a good habit indeed. We all need to take bath to keep ourselves clean and healthy. But too much cleaning of our body or taking excessive bathing is not a good idea at all. Even health experts never recommend excessive showering. Too much washing your body does more harm than good.
Should you wash your body daily with soap?
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we all are concerned about washing our hands. To protect from the virus, it is very important to wash our hands frequently and thoroughly. But this practice may lead to assume that regular scrabbing of our whole body is mandatory. A recent survey found that many of us are taking showers too often and scrubbing too thoroughly which is not necessary at all. In this situation, we all should be aware of the right way of washing our bodies. Physicians recommend washing three parts of our body daily with soap: armpits, groin, and feet. We can just simply rinse with water the rest of the parts of our body.
The assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Toronto Sandy Skotnicki said that scrubbing our body head to toe with soap and water can increase the risk of facing problems like eczema. It may also cause other skin conditions. She suggested focusing on certain parts of our body which “would be your underarms, groin, and feet.”
Excessive scrubbing may destroy the useful bacteria
By scrubbing the whole body with soap, we may destroy the useful bacteria of our body. These useful bacteria are playing an important role to improve our microbiome system. The founder of the Digestive Center for Women in Chevy Chase, Robynne Chutkan said, “Your body needs certain bacteria and when you remove it from your skin by washing with soap, it lowers your immunity to certain viruses, putting you are an increased risk of getting sick.”
Chutkan added, “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.”
Researchers also found a particular strain of bacteria that lived on the skin. It can play a significant role to reduce the risk of skin cancer. by constantly scrubbing yourself with soap, you may destroy this type of helpful microbes.
The most sensitive skin on your body remains on your underarms, groin, and feet. These are also more prone to fungus growth which may lead to infections. So, it is wise to use soap on these parts of our body to protest the development of bad bacteria and create protection against potentially harmful infections.