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Although the vast majority of experts in Health agrees that cleanliness is an important part of personal hygiene and that we should shower regularly to prevent infections or other illnesses, an expert made news to refute this claim and announce that it has been five years without taking a single bath. Is he right or just his theory has no grip? You draw your own conclusions.
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In 2015, James Hamblin, Who works as a professor in the School of Public Health at the prestigious Yale University, and a specialist in preventive medicine, stopped showering with a single purpose: to prove that there is no “medical need” to do so.
He himself explained the reasons behind his decision: “We spent two full years of our lives bathing. How much of that time (and money and water) is a waste?”. But why did he do it? “I know of a lot of people who bathe very little. I knew it was possible, but I wanted to try it for myself to see what the effect would be.”
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Now, five years later, he says he’s more than happy with the decision he made: “Over time, your body gets used to it more and more so it doesn’t smell so bad if you don’t use deodorant and soap. And your skin it doesn’t become so greasy when you stop using strong soaps.Many people use shampoo to remove hair oils and then apply a conditioner to apply synthetic oils.If you manage to break this circle, your hair will end up looking- I know the way it was when you started using these products. “
In a conversation with the BBC, Hamblin explained that “the main thing is to understand that it takes time to see the effects, it doesn’t happen overnight, it’s not immediate. There were times when I wanted to shower because I missed it, it smelled bad and I felt like I was fat. But that was starting to happen to me less and less. “
He further detailed that “over-bathing” alters a kind of balance between skin oils and living bacteria. When you shower aggressively, you destroy ecosystems. They repopulate quickly, but species become unbalanced and tend to favor the types of microbes that produce odor. Your ecosystem reaches a stable state and you stop smelling bad. You don’t smell like rose water … You just smell like a person. “
“I have a scent of my own and my wife likes it. For other people it’s not bad. At present we hope that people don’t smell anything or that they smell perfume, cologne, bath gel or otherwise want to say they stink. If there is any detectable human odor, it is negative, “he adds.
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“He washed me when I needed it or when I wanted it, only with water, fast, especially when I have my hair as if I had just woken up or if I visibly have something dirty. But you can exfoliate, you can remove the oils just by rubbing with hands and combing your hair occasionally. And that’s all, ”she explains.
Additionally, he explained the reasons why he believes showering is a “very modern” concept: “Before we didn’t usually have running water. Most people didn’t have access to running water until the last hundred years. It was something that maybe royalty could do it, kings and queens, but that people could only do it occasionally. Maybe they would get into a river or a lake, but it wasn’t something we needed to do every day. “
“It’s a very new event in human history: that we have to spend so much time, money and resources bathing and if that combines with the knowledge we have about the skin microbiome. I’m curious to think that maybe we are doing too much and it could be beneficial to cut back, ”he adds.