Is more is better? How frequent water procedures affect the body

Everyone has a different attitude to water procedures. Some people can spend an hour in the bathtub several times a day. Others prefer a quick rinse and call it a day. But which approach is healthier? Is frequent bathing good or not so good? Dr. Alexander Kalinchenko, endocrinologist, nutraceutical specialist, nutritionist, ambassador of GEON brand and speaker of the International Festival of Health and Sports SN PRO EXPO FORUM, helped us to find answers to these questions.

To begin with, it is worth clarifying what “often” means for a particular person. In summer, someone takes a shower 2-3 times a day, and even half a century ago in some towns and villages people went to the bath 1-2 times a week, because plumbing was more of a luxury item.

Another very important point is the quality of washing. In recent years, advertising literally imposes the need to use hygiene products. While our ancestors thousands of years ago used neither skin scrubs nor scented soap. Over many generations, the epidermis has not undergone significant evolutionary changes – except for a reduction in the degree of hairiness.

Of course, humans are social creatures, and few people want to smell bad in public places. But there must be a measure for everything. If a loader or an athlete sweats more than an office worker, they should take a shower every day. But even here there is an important clarification from dermatology professor Steven Shumak: it should be washing with water. And shower gels and other similar products should be used in the area of the armpits, groin, buttocks and behind the ear folds. That is where the most “odorous” (apocrine) sweat glands are concentrated.

Why shouldn’t you overuse shower products?

Frequent water procedures, or rather excessive use of detergents, violate the natural protective barrier of the skin. In general, this is an amazing organ that shields a person from many environmental hazards: whether it is temperature fluctuations or pathogens. But some of the bacteria are not hostile and comfortably coexist with us. Remember that in the human body, on average, a quarter of the cells are somatic, and the rest of the place is occupied by bacteria.

The trends of maintaining a healthy gut microflora are relevant now. So why do we strive to improve the condition of microorganisms in the gastrointestinal tract, but completely forget about it when it comes to the skin?

Especially avoid the use of antibacterial soaps, the components of which eliminate both pathogenic and beneficial microflora. Columbia University infectious disease specialist Elaine Larson points this out.

Another important barrier of our superficial skin layer is the Marchionini mantle. This defense consists of a mixture of sebum, sweat, and organic acids: lactic, citric, and others. It is a kind of water-lipid acid film, which is very much harmed by hygiene products with high pH (hydrogen). The optimal pH for the skin is 5 (between 4.7-5.5). This is written in detail by Dr. Yael Adler, MD, in the book “What the skin hides”, which I recommend to read at your leisure.

I also met the opinion of Dr. Zuhra Pavlova, a fellow endocrinologist from the Lomonosov Moscow State University Center: frequent water procedures with soap and drying of the skin impairs its ability to produce cholecalciferol – vitamin D3. This substance we scarce get from food, and its main volume is formed under the influence of a certain spectrum of ultraviolet light, which in Russian latitudes appears only in the summer months and early fall. And if you also disturb the normal function of the skin, the problem will only worsen. Therefore, the doctor points to excessive frequent washing and chemicals as another reason for such a frequent deficiency of vitamin D3.

However, dermatologists and scientists are not saying that washing should be as infrequent as Cro-Magnons once did. What is required is to minimize the use of high pH soaps, which, like alkali, dry the skin, depriving it of protection and disrupting the environment to support our microflora. In this regard, water is great for rinsing off sweat without any harm, as it has a neutral pH.

Why does sweat smell bad?

In general, human sweat does not have an unpleasant odor, and a special “flavor” it gives the products of metabolism of bacteria that interact with it. In men, it is mainly corynebacteria, and in women micrococci. For this reason, the odor of sweat in the former is more pungent, but there are exceptions, because everything is determined by the activity of a particular microflora.

It is worth warning against extremes. If you wash less often, for example, on lazy weekends or days when you don’t sweat, you should still change your clothes! Skin flakes accumulate in fabrics and it is these flakes that give a stale odor. Moreover, synthetic fabrics that cannot be washed at high temperatures retain unpleasant odors longer than natural ones (a note to those who train in compression fabrics).

To live comfortably in society, you need to follow certain hygiene rules. But to violate the natural protection of the skin because of the competent work of marketers is not worth it. Especially be careful with those areas that need to be washed not only with water. For example, the genitals have mucous membranes, so no soap, even for intimate hygiene! After all, no one washes their mouth with soap, and there are mucous membranes there too. Instead, use hygiene products with an optimal pH value.