So I’ve seen quite a lot on the internet recently (past one or two years), videos of people abandoning different forms of soap for different situations, but usually for the purpose of “restoring the body’s natural microbiome.” In many of their anecdotal claims, they’ll say things like “it cured my dandruff” or, “I don’t have psoriasis anymore”, and so on, and how their bodies come about a homeostasis of some sort. I tried it out, and while my skin cleared up, my dandruff slowly became worse over time.
I’ve also read (just now) a lot of posts here describing both the prevalence of lice in the B.C.-1700s until regular shampooing became a thing, and how soaps generally remove bacteria through mechanical means rather than outright kill them.
So I’m hoping for more than one explanation here:
• Is anti-bacterial soap a marketing myth, and “organic” soaps are just fine despite not being “anti-bacterial” because the mechanics are the same?
• Is body soap/bar soap necessary if you’re rinsing/showering with hot water daily and washing hands with soap? If so, how can I determine an appropriate washing/soaping frequency for maintaining effective hygiene for *all* parts of the body, genitals and rectum included without harming my skin?
• Does soap affect larger particles of fecal matter the same way that it affects microscopic organisms (mechanically sticking to both lipid and water and carrying away due to surface tension of water), or does it sanitize the fecal matter and some of it remains left behind or something else entirely?
• Bar soaps harbor lots of bacteria, but so does my skin and body hair, so to use or not to use?
In: Biology
Anti bacterial soap has its place but not for every day usage.
For bar soap if showering every day I’d stick to pits and groin area.
For fecal matter it wouldn’t sterilize.
I read a book a few years back called Clean by James hamblin. His argument (research back but he isn’t necessarily a research scientist) was that modern skin cleaning regimes mess with the natural bacteria and skin biome. I use to skim staph infections a lot. His book made sense and post following his ideas I went from a staph infection once every few months to once a year. Basically I only use soap when I have to. Otherwise I rinse with just water. My wife has made zero mention or notice of showing habit change in 4 years since.
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