Germaphobes – Look Away Now
As we roll into cold and flu season, did you know that many of the surfaces and objects you come in contact with every day are covered in bacteria and viruses?
Here are a few of the worst culprits:
Purses and Wallets
Purses pick up the bacteria from wherever they’re placed — from the soiled ground to the bathroom floor. Wallets pick up bacteria from what goes into them.
Remote Controls
If you’re lucky, different people get to handle the remote controls.
Laundry Machines
There is about 0.1 gram of fecal material in a piece of underwear.(Yuck!)That amounts to approximately 100 million E. coli bacteria in an average undergarment load.
Cutting Boards
There are 200 times more fecal bacteria on a cutting board than a toilet seat.(Double Yuck!) The reason is that many people rinse off their cutting board rather than thoroughly washing it.
Your Phone
The telephone provides a convenient meeting place for two different sources of germs — your hands and your mouth.
Water Fountains
The moist surface area on the average water fountain is an ideal breeding ground for bacteria and viruses.
Buttons
The buttons found on ATMs, elevators, telephones and drink machines are located in areas that are not often cleaned and disinfected to kill bacteria and viruses.
Yoga Mats
Sweat and microbes can cover an exercise mat during a workout. This may not be a problem if the mat was cleaned and disinfected before and after each use. But if the mats are not cleaned, germs can linger for days.
Airplane Bathroom
Airplane bathrooms get cleaned, but the high volume of people they must cater to in a short amount of time leaves them very dirty very quickly.
Shopping Carts
One test found E. coli on almost half the shopping carts examined.These microbes are transferred from the cart to your hands, to the food you select and then to your face if your hands touch it.
Most of these micro-organisms shouldn’t instil fear, however, on the contrary, regular contact with low levels of non-disease causing organisms can help keep your immune system working normally. The hygiene hypothesis of allergies, suggests that lack of exposure to bacteria due to being too clean is what is causing a rise in allergies. Keeping your immune system healthy with good food, low stress, healthy sleep and select vitamins and minerals means that you can touch all the shopping carts you want with confidence.
By Dr. Pamela Frank, BSc (Hons), ND. For help with maintaining a healthy immune system to defect any of these bacteria as well as cold and flu viruses, talk to one of our naturopathic doctors. Call us at 416-481-0222 or book online now.