32
Dec
2018
F
Lm
Feature matters
Lifestyle
It’s not all
froth and bubbles
Stop throwing the baby
out with the bathwater and
we might all be healthier
T
HE hygiene hypothesis suggests that we
may have overdone our obsession with
cleanliness in modern society. This is
based on the fine balance needed to affect the
benefits of adaptive immunity.
At one end of a typical U-shaped curve,
extreme dirtiness exemplifies the dangers of
exposure to nasty little critters that are not
conducive to good health. This was a more
likely scenario before hot and cold running
water. But the other peak of the U, extreme
cleanliness, is not necessarily its antithesis.
Health, as we now know, requires a balance
of good and bad micro-organisms. Wiping out
the bad has been a goal of modern medicine.
But has our fixation with doing this, through
our obsession with cleanliness, also helped wipe
out the good?
To discuss the ‘too clean’ hypothesis in its
entirety — ie. in relation to asthma, allergies,
autoimmunity and other modern ailments — is
too large a topic for a humble column such as
this. But refining the discussion to one area —
skin, with but a couple of examples — should
help illustrate the point.
Soap: Australians often label our English
compatriots ‘soap dodgers’. They use just four
bars per person per year, compared with our 12!
But who’s the sucker here? Soap works by
washing sebum off the skin. Unfortunately, no
soap can differentiate between the skin’s natural
oils and exogenous dirt. Hence, scrubbing with
soap tends to remove the uppermost layer of
oil from the skin, as well as changing it from
predominantly acid to alkaline, which is a recipe
for bacterial insult.
In support of this, our First Nation
custodians had no access to soap but, according
to early reports, did have ‘a shiny, healthy skin’.
Shampoos: French dermatologist
Dr Robert Aron-Brunetiere once likened
shampoo to industrial-strength detergent that
scrapes the natural grease out of hair causing
“a reactive greasiness” and itchy scalp, which
can take time to get over.
Conditioner is a milder form of cleanser
with surfactants that avoid the ‘too clean’
problems. Using conditioner alone can
provide optimal hair health, for even the
most luxurious mane.
Deodorants and antiperspirants: Is it not
paradoxical that cosmetics manufacturers use
high-profile athletes, who make a living out of
sweating, to advertise antiperspirants? Probably
not, because sweat is thought of as smelly and
unnatural. But natural hygiene and care of
the skin can reduce offensive smells. Are we
suffering not from lack of hygiene but from
‘cleanliness problems’ in too many people?
Doonas: Unlike blankets, these don’t breathe
and can, during a winter’s night increase
body temperature that can be relieved only by
sweating through parts of the body exposed
to the air — usually the head and face — thus
causing itchy and dry hair.
The obvious solution to this seems to be
shampooing, which can strip and scrape the hair
and cause … (return to the above).
There are ample other examples of modern
life and commerce bolstering the ‘too clean’
hypothesis, and not just in relation to skin.
While it remains a hypothesis, it appears
that in relation to lifestyle, cleanliness and
godliness don’t always cohabit.
Professor Garry Egger
Professor of health sciences
Southern Cross University
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