On the Today show this morning, I saw yet another news segment regarding germs lurking in every corner of the home. Can you guess the germiest room in the house? If you said, "the bathroom", you are wrong (as long as you lower the toilet seat when you flush and keep your toothbrushes off of the counter top). It's the kitchen! Not a real surprise, since food is prepared there. They profiled the stereotypical dirty dish sponge, then implicated remote controls, bed pillows--well, let's face it, everything people touch have germs on them! Who would have guessed?
I realize that this is the beginning of cold and flu season, so these types of warnings are a kind of rite of passage these days as we move into late fall and winter. It does seem to me, though, that those who produce things to protect us from or cure us of these nasty germs (chemical and drug companies, perhaps?) are banding together to make us all germaphobes. OK, I promise not to lick the rims of the tea cups before I bring the service out to the parlor anymore (joke), but really, making people think that they can avoid or kill all germs in their environment is just plain inaccurate. And, biologically speaking, not the best idea, anyway.
As with most everything in life, immunity is a use-it-or-lose-it proposition. Coming into contact with pathogens is like jazzercise class for your immune system. How else will it recognize an invader when it encounters one? Just as you need a little sadness to appreciate the good times, every immune system needs to do battle once in a while to stay on top of things. Purity is not always best. Remember what happened to indigenous Indian populations when they came into contact with germy European invaders? Obviously, being a human bacteria-storage unit has its advantages.
That is not to say that this news program did not offer useful advice, the best of which bears repeating: Wash your hands thoroughly after using the toilet and several times throughout the day. Do not touch your hands to your nose, mouth or eyes unless you have just washed them. And remember this the next time you are shopping at a store with a public restroom: Research shows that only about 40% of people wash their hands after using the toilet. Now there's something to get squeamish about.
I realize that this is the beginning of cold and flu season, so these types of warnings are a kind of rite of passage these days as we move into late fall and winter. It does seem to me, though, that those who produce things to protect us from or cure us of these nasty germs (chemical and drug companies, perhaps?) are banding together to make us all germaphobes. OK, I promise not to lick the rims of the tea cups before I bring the service out to the parlor anymore (joke), but really, making people think that they can avoid or kill all germs in their environment is just plain inaccurate. And, biologically speaking, not the best idea, anyway.
As with most everything in life, immunity is a use-it-or-lose-it proposition. Coming into contact with pathogens is like jazzercise class for your immune system. How else will it recognize an invader when it encounters one? Just as you need a little sadness to appreciate the good times, every immune system needs to do battle once in a while to stay on top of things. Purity is not always best. Remember what happened to indigenous Indian populations when they came into contact with germy European invaders? Obviously, being a human bacteria-storage unit has its advantages.
That is not to say that this news program did not offer useful advice, the best of which bears repeating: Wash your hands thoroughly after using the toilet and several times throughout the day. Do not touch your hands to your nose, mouth or eyes unless you have just washed them. And remember this the next time you are shopping at a store with a public restroom: Research shows that only about 40% of people wash their hands after using the toilet. Now there's something to get squeamish about.
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