Studies show that more women than men wash their hands after using the bathroom: public or private. Do you wash your hands after sneezing or blowing your nose? After you have been in public places all day or touched and animal, do you ever wash your hands?
Simply put, washing your hands thoroughly and often can keep you from getting viruses, bacteria and fungus which lead to temperatures, diarrhea, intestinal or urinary tract infections, colds, flu, and many more serious diseases. It’s not the water temperature that matters: it’s the frequency and the duration of washing. Wash your hands often in any temperature of water for at least 15 seconds and use enough soap to lather well. At every washing, get soap under each fingernail and get lodged bacteria out…and down the drain. You wouldn’t believe how many germs hide under your fingernails!
Did you just shake hands with someone who has a cold, or did you unknowingly put your hands on cold or flu germs on a doorknob or shopping cart handle? Before you touch your eyes, nose, mouth, or even ears (all entry points into the body for germs), be sure and wash your hands well, or at the very least, use a hand sanitizer. Avoid the alcohol variety of hand sanitizer found on the grocery store shelves as they have been found to enter the body and kill the single-cell bacteria that are in our digestive systems, the ones that keep our immune system strong enough to ward off disease.
Did you hear about the recent dangerous e coli outbreak on spinach? If you leave a bathroom or change a diaper without washing, you have e coli on your hands! Do you ever touch the bathroom door in a public restroom without first putting a paper towel on it for protection? Even if you just washed your hands…think of all the germs that are on the handle from the people who DIDN’T wash their hands!
It is such a simple way to prevent the spread of infection, and yet most people don’t do it. Wash your hands after every bathroom visit, after every bout of sneezing, after changing a diaper, touching a pet, after blowing your nose, before eating or preparing food, after being out in public and after shaking hands with anyone, sick or not. It’s simple, preventative…and its been proven to keep you healthy!
