As I was sitting in class one day, the palm of my hand resting on my cheek, I began to look around at the people surrounding me. A lot of people were doing exactly what I was. I began to wonder what kind of bacteria was on my hands and if it was dangerous to my skin. What does touching my face actually do to my health?
We are all guilty of touching our faces. We itch, pick, and touch our faces constantly. The average person can touch their face up to 3000 times a day. But between touching our faces, we are also touching everything else, including doorknobs, desks, cellphones, and each other, which carries bacteria. The bacteria, dirt, and oils get onto our hands and eventually makes it way to our faces. The pores trap the objects and can make acne, blackheads, and whiteheads worse. However, if you stop touching your face, you may see a reduction on how much acne you get. You can also exfoliate to reduce the size of your pores, getting the disgusting bacteria out.
Touching your face can lead to something more serious than acne: illness. Touching your nose or mouth can spread any kind of bacterial infection, like a cold or the flu. And sometimes can’t be stopped with just washing your hands because any object that a sick person touched can be coated with the sick bacteria and if you touch it then touch your face, its more likely that you will get sick. If you scratch your face, you are allowing the bacteria to get under your skin to cause infection. But you can also be the cause of an infection; if you are sick, you can transmit the disease the same way you can pick it up.
There are ways to prevent getting more acne or getting sick and that is to stop touching your face. This is extremely difficult to do because it’s become somewhat of a habit. Ways to decrease it easily are to be aware of your hands and where they are, and to wash your hands frequently. The CDC says that the best way to wash your hands is to lather your hands with soap for 20 seconds paying attention to under your nails, and between your fingers. Touching our faces constantly isn’t something that we should continue doing, and if we do, it can lead to some unpleasant consequences.
I think a lot of people know that touching face is bad for the skin but we still keep doing it unconsciously as a habit. I try to avoid touching my face as much as I can, every time my hand is moving toward my face I think about how many bacteria on it and stop. I am glad you wrote about this in your post, it is something people have to pay attention to since it has to do with your body and health.
I’ve been told on multiple occasions and in multiple classes about how many bacteria are on our hands and why we should avoid touching our faces, but I still find it unimaginably difficult. Touching my face almost seems like a natural reflex–or comfort mechanism–for me. It just happens without time to even comprehend all of the bacteria transporting. I think an interesting other topic to research would be a way to prevent the spread of the bacteria, or maybe even a way to protect against it, say, hand sanitizer? Does hand sanitizer actually kill the 99.9% of germs that it claims to? Or how much time will it take to regain that bacteria previously stripped away?
I actually wrote a blog post comparing soap to hand sanitizer use, so this was a good piggyback to relate to it as well! I found it interesting, because I will notice my face breaking out, and then notice me constantly touching my face during the day. It is a bad habit to always be touching my face, but at the same time I am glad to know I am not the only one who does it! I thought this was an interesting article from the National Institutes of Health relating to your blog: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25637115
This is a very interesting topic. I always think about this. I don’t even realize how many times I touch my face each day. I tried to pay attention to how often I was touching my face for one day. I found myself itching, picking, and touching my face. Like you said, I find myself sitting in class, leaning my face on my hand. This article has really opened my eyes to how illnesses are spread and the amount of germs on your hands. I found an article that analyzes an experiment done at the University of Maryland on hand washing.
It’s so disturbing to think about all the bacteria that is on our hands and how much we spread to each other. When I was rushing for a sorority I shook so many peoples hands and to think about how much bacteria I got from those hands and then touching my face really grosses me out. That’s definitely a reason why illnesses spread so fast at this school, so many people have “Penn State Plague.” Anyway, I really enjoyed reading your post!