Hygiene is important, but it shouldn’t be excessive neither on your body nor in the places you live in. Professor Antonio Costanzo, Dermatology Supervisor at Humanitas, spoke about skin cleansing in an interview.
“Excessive hygiene can damage our skin, because it is a tissue that, by its very nature, has learned to defend against many types of infections. Recently some antimicrobial proteins have been discovered, called antimicrobial peptides, that help regulate the proliferation of bacteria on the skin. So, a great bacterial flora, formed by many microorganisms and balanced by these peptides, lives on our skin”, Prof. Costanzo explains.
There are two types of bacterial flora: resident bacterial flora is generally harmless and enhances the protective properties of the skin, because when it is perfectly balanced it can avoid the growth of pathogenic microbes. Instead, transient bacteria are potentially dangerous and settle on our body through contacts with objects or people.
The risks of excessive cleaning
However, when trying to get rid of transient bacteria one could also eliminate the resident bacteria and the peptides that safeguard this delicate balance. This happens if you wash your hands with soap too often, especially if not necessary, or if you constantly use portable hand sanitizers (that are dangerous for children too).
In fact, the more you wash, the more you change the structure of the skin and kill the good microorganisms, risking infections, rashes and allergies. The same applies to your home: if you try to live in an almost sterile environment, your immune system doesn’t understand how to react and it often attacks false enemies to survive, thus contributing to allergies and autoimmune diseases.
Washing your skin
Feel free to have a shower every day, but stay under the water only for five minutes maximum to avoid drying your skin. The water should not be too hot, otherwise it will extract too many fats from the epidermis and it will deplete its hydrolipidic film (another important barrier against microbes).
“You can wash oily skin a bit more often, because its glands produce much fat that replaces the one lost in the washing process”.
Dry skin, that has little protective sebum, should be treated more gently. “You should use detergents that do not need to be rinsed, avoid alcoholic toning lotions, and protect your skin with softeners and moisturizers. Oils, for example, are much better than normal soaps”, the professor comments.
Clean your skin without going crazy
“As a rule, we should favour these skin balances without damaging the antimicrobial flora. This theme is related to the constant stimulus to the immune system, that should be able to prevent allergies. Many studies show that the less washed children are the most resistant to allergies in general. According to this theory, the antimicrobial flora has trained the natural body defenses to react to external stimuli in the right way”.
So, to keep your flora healthy you should clean your home, but without going crazy over it, using antibiotics carefully (especially with children), and encourage your kids to play outside, with dirt and animals.
“Also in this case, we should rely on common sense. Having your child approach a fox in the woods is one thing, seeing him play with the dog of the neighbours (that is probably healthy and vaccinated) is another one. A normal, cared for pet, is a totally harmless playmate, and it is also important. Parents should allow their children to play with animals in order to make their immune system stronger, without fear. Then, before having meals, everyone washes their hand as always”, Prof. Costanzo concludes.
