MAYBE BEING SUPER CLEAN ALL OVER IS NOT ALL THAT ESSENTIAL IN OUR LIVES

We call it "personal hygiene" and the word comes from the Greek goddess of health and cleanliness, “Hyieia.” Our bodies are home to more than 1,000 kinds of bacteria and you would spend a lot of time in  counting all of them. There are more germs than people in this country on you. Antibacterial soap is not very effective at preventing infections and the active ingredient in these soaps (tricosan) can mess your sex hormones. In a study of 11,000 children, too much washing caused frequent eczema and asthma.

The word soap gets its name from the mythological Mount Sapo on the Tiber River. As for ancient civilizations and keeping clean, you can’t beat the Egyptians and Aztecs as they rubbed their bodies with urine. It worked too, as urea is known to kill fungi and bacteria. There is so much bacteria around us, and a 7th grader in Florida proved this in a science project when he showed there was more bacteria in ice machines at fast food restaurants than in toilet bowl water. Tooth brushing in this country did not become routine until it was enforced on soldiers during World War II. Before that we were all pretty "foul mouthed". 

We hear of the high incidence of unhealthy problems in hospitals today but in the time from the 17th to 19th centuries one quarter of  women giving birth died of puerperal fever, an infection spread by unhygienic nurses and doctors. And speaking of germs in hospitals, the University of Arizona determined that televison remote controls are the worst carriers of bacteria in hospital rooms. In fact they spread the most virulent staphylococcus around. Also, documented cases showed 90,000 annual deaths from this cause. Finally. It is believed that President Garfield died, not from the bullet fired at him, but of infection from manure-stained hands of the doctors who attended him. So, yes you should wash your hands often but not so often that you may create other problems. As for shaking hands…hmmmmm.