Hygiene, Hygiene, Hygiene. Everyone likes to talk about it, but not everyone does it right.
Starting with your head, What part of your body is infested with bacteria 24/7?
Your mouth. Your mouth is the door to the interior of your body you eat, drink, and breath through it. That welcomes an incredible amount of bacteria.
-About 100-200 species of bacteria may live in your mouth at any given time. Those who practice oral hygiene may have from 1,000 to 100,000 bacteria living on each individual tooth. For those who don’t keep up with oral hygiene can accumulate up to 1 billion bacteria per tooth within 1 day.
Your tongue is like the sponge of your mouth. If you don’t take care of your teeth your tongue is going to suffer too. Your tongue is in contact with your teeth at all times, so the millions of bacteria on each tooth will love the moisture of your tongue.
The whiteness of your tongue is the food, dirt, bacteria, fungi and dead cells that will cause swelling and even infection. Don’t worry though, we understand that this may gross you out. You’re probably brushing your tweet right now! But that doesn’t put you in the clear just yet, there’s this handy tool that allows you to take care of your tongue, it’s a tongue scrapper. It is what it sounds like, it’s a tool that allows you to reach and clean the back of your tongue with accuracy.
Let’s be honest, how many time have you thought “Am I actually doing this right?” as as you shower. Don’t worry it’s ok to admit it, we aren’t perfect. Even if you think you don’t miss a spot, here is the right way to go through your shower.
The Tips and Tricks to a Perfect Shower.
-Before going into your shower, keep this in mind. Study’s show that keeping the temperature of the shower below 110 degrees, avoids any risk of damaging your skin.
Once you’re in the shower, the first thing you want to do is lather your hair with shampoo, massage your shampoo until you feel like it has reached your scalp. Let it simmer.
While that’s going, start with your soap and lather your ears. Yes, specially the back of them. The back of your ears have a strong gland that, when oily and combined with bacteria, will produce a Swiss cheese smell. If you don’t wash your ears, try this right now. Rub the back of your ear and take a sniff… Gross, isn’t it?
Next step, is very simply. Moving to the torso, but most importantly the armpits. The glands that are found right behind your ear are also found in your armpits! Which means one thing… Yup that funky smell can be produced in the armpit as well. Make sure you have a scrub or some kind of sponge with soap to remove the dry deodorant from the armpits.
Those glands have to breath to avoid any lingering smells or any other upsetting smells when you sweat again. (There are other ways to avoid a bad smell to form in your armpits, but that’s for another day…)
The Belly Button, or better known as the Smelly Button. People fail to understand that the belly button is a perfect home for bacteria.
-In December of 2012 the Belly Button Biodiversity (BBB) project identified 2,368 different species of bacteria.
To take care of your belly button, use soap while showering and the same as your armpits wash them with a soft scrub or sponge. If you really want to be detailed about it, you can use a Q-tip to get in there and take care of that small village of bacteria.
We aren’t going to be specific about private areas, but hopefully we all know what private areas I am talking about. Use a lot of soap and water to avoid any bacteria or infections in those areas.
Lastly, your feet! You can ask almost every person you know if they specifically go down and wash their feet. Usually the answer you receive is “What do you mean? I let the water run through them”…
There are different studies that have tried putting a number to the amount of species of bacteria that call your feet home. To avoid the odor and bacterial infections make sure you wash between your toes and the bottom of your feet. Now, the most important part is your toenails. Everyday dead skin, sweat and bacteria stay under your toenails. While showering, use your finger and dig the residue that stays under your toes. If you’re not comfortable using your finger, you can use a toenail kit, they have different tools you can use to take care of that as well.
After your shower make sure to dry well, and now you will feel much better about yourself and your showering routine. Remember, Keeping It Clean is a lifestyle, not a chore.