Scientists have found that the ‘Grandmother Method’ is the best way to clean yourself when you’re in the shower, a new study suggests.
It might sound strange, but – and you’ll have to trust us – it’s a real thing.
Basically, the scientists were doing some pretty important microbiology work to establish the most effective and healthy way of cleaning yourself, and concluded that lots of people miss spots, therefore ending up with a less healthy microbiome.
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We’ll have to get a bit deeper into this – like you need to do when you clean under your armpits – but first let’s have a look at where this ‘Grandmother’ business comes from.
The boffins from George Washington University’s Computational Biology Institute worked on something called the ‘Grandmother Hypothesis’ when beginning their investigation of the skin biome.
Skin biome, in case you’re not also a boffin, is the millions and billions of tiny microorganisms that live on your skin.
Yep, you might not want to think about them, but they are there, and they play a role in keeping you healthy, so long as they are looked after.
The researchers wanted to look into variations across different areas of skin, taking in those places most commonly reached with the loofah and those more easily forgotten, such as in the belly button or behind the ears.
In a statement about the project, Keith Crandall – Director of the aforementioned Computational Biology Institute – said that his dear old grandma always told him to ‘scrub behind the ears, between the toes and in the belly button’.
Good advice, Mrs Crandall.
He reckoned that those areas that you have to be reminded to clean rather than doing on autopilot would be home to different kinds of bacteria than other parts of the body, because of this neglect in the shower.
So, for their study they gathered 129 students and collected samples from commonly washed areas such as forearms and calves, before then collecting samples from their navel, between the toes, and behind their ears.
Then, they taught the students – both graduate and undergraduate – to sequence the DNA in those samples and compare the findings between those oft cleaned places and the harder to reach bits.
Of course, Grandma Crandall was vindicated, and the areas that were cleaned properly had a much more diverse biome and a potentially healthier set of microbes living there than in the neglected spots.
The team wrote: "Dry skin regions (forearms and calves) were more even, richer, and functionally distinct than sebaceous (behind ears) and moist (belly button and between toes) regions.”
The study noted that there was not a significant difference noted between genders, ethnicities, or ages.
They added: "Within skin regions, bacterial alpha- and beta-diversity also varied significantly for some of the years compared, suggesting that skin bacterial stability may be region and subject dependent."
The study was published in Frontiers in Microbiology.
Basically, the microorganisms on your skin can be both helpful and harmful to you, depending on the balance.
Too many bad ones and you can end up with bad skin, acne, eczema, and the like, whereas a good microbiome can mean healthy skin.
However, the scientists are keen to point out that the area needs a lot more investigation.
Just remember to clean everywhere in the shower, should be what you take home from this, though.
Tom Wood