No More Showers!

If you saw a book called Clean, you probably wouldn’t think the author decided not to take any more showers. But you would be wrong, because that’s exactly what Dr. James Hamblin announced he would do about five years ago in a magazine article. Over time and a whole lot of research, the article became the basis for his book. In an interview I read with the author, he’s constantly irritated because the most frequent question he gets when people find out he hasn’t taken a shower in five years is “Do you stink?” My thought is if that you’re close enough to ask the question, you probably should know the answer, even with social distancing.

His primary concern over taking showers is our addiction to cleanliness, which is something I’ve thought about as well. (Never fear, I’m not going to quit taking showers.) His concern is with the microbiome of the skin. We all hear research on the microbiome within the digestive system just about every day, but the microbiome of our skin is actually the first line of defense in our immune system. Whatever we do to our skin affects the microbiome of our skin. With all the various soaps, detergents, and shampoos, as well as the chlorine that’s in most water treatment systems, that has to have some impact. Is the impact good or bad?

That’s what we’re going to take a look at in this week’s memos. Could how we treat our skin microbiome impact our immune system? We’ll look at the state of research to date.

What are you prepared to do today?