Do you have the habit of showering every day? Be careful, your bathing ritual could be bad for your skin and your health. New research suggests that showering regularly – especially in hot water – might be doing your skin more harm than good.
Researchers have found out that rules to take bath daily was rather born out of cultural norms than any real health benefits. Over-bathing can dry out and irritate skin, washing away the good bacteria and even heightening risk of infection by causing small cracks in the skin.
Doctors have urged parents to stop bathing babies and toddlers daily, saying that early exposure to dirt and bacteria may help make skin less sensitive, even preventing conditions like eczema in the long run.
As long as people wash their hands often enough and pay attention to the area of the body below the belt, showering or bathing every other day would do no harm. Even twice a week would not be a problem if people used a bidet daily as most infectious bugs hang around our lower halves.
We should wash to stop cross-infection, not for grooming reasons.