7 TIPS TO LIVE DIRTY FOR BETTER HEALTH November 9, 2017 – Posted in: Lifestyle
Did you know that your microbes*1 actually play a bigger role than our genes when it comes to your look? Without a healthy microbiome*2, it is impossible to have a glowing skin or a head full of hair. Your microbes help to break down the food you eat, and decide what gets absorbed and what gets secreted. They tell your immune system to fight a battle when there is a real infection. When it is just colonisation of harmless bacteria, they tell your immune system not to react.
Although urbanisation and modern medicine have improved our lives and kept us alive for the longest period of time, did you realise that we are actually in poor health most of the time? We suffer from modern diseases, such as asthma, allergies, eczema, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, obesity, cancer and heart diseases. Why? It is because our microbiome has been ravaged by the overuse of antibiotics, chlorination of water supply, processed food full of chemicals and hormones, microbe-depleting pesticides, increasing rates of Caesarean sections, and our super-sanitised lifestyle.
Most of us are now spending 90 per cent of our time indoors, either inside a building or inside our car with closed windows and doors. Contact with nature is limited. Studies show that as the amount of concrete and glass in a neighbourhood increases, the diversity of microbial species on people’s skin decreases while their risk for allergies and asthma increases. *3
We are also too obsessed with cleanliness. We use harsh cleansers and antibacterial products which super-sanitise our bodies and our almost sterile environment, threatening the existence of what few microbes remain.
If we want to invigorate our lacklustre microbiome, and improve our health, we need to embrace a little dirt and grow some microbes at the same time. Remember those days when you were a child? You were not being bothered by dirt and you hated bath time. Let’s go back to live dirty for better health! Below are some tips to live dirty:
1. Use Only Water, No Soap
Don’t bathe more frequently than every other day unless you’re really filthy, as recommended by Dr Robynne Chutkan, who is one of today’s preeminent gastroenterologists. If it seems impossible, you can start off by bathing no more than once a day.
Use only water to bathe. Do not use soap. If you are really filthy or not ready to give up soap, use only those gentle cleanser made from organic and natural ingredients. Use sparingly and just in moist areas such as armpits and groin. Don’t use antibacterial soap. Avoid shampoo containing sodium lauryl sulfate or soldium laureth sulfate, which can make your skin and scalp more sensitive and permeable to toxins.
Don’t use hand sanitiser and no mouthwash. These can destroy the microbial system on your hand and mouth respectively.
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2. Use Scents Made from Essential Oils
Don’t use scents containing alcohol that can harm your skin microbes. Use only scents made from essential oils.
3. Do Not Use Chemical Household Cleaner
You can make your own natural household cleaner by mixing ½ cup vinegar with 4 cups water, 12 drops of tea tree oil and 12 drops of lavender essential oil. Combine the ingredients in a spray bottle and shake well before using. *3
If you are not a DIY person, you must use WAC Solar Mist – Safe Cleaner, which contains more than 50,000 friendly and intelligent microbes to keep things clean and odour free. For mopping floor, dispense 4 mists of WAC Solar Mist – Safe Cleaner into a bucket of lukewarm water.
4. Go Get Sweaty
Do get sweaty. Studies have shown that people who exercise regularly have greater diversity of gut bacteria.
Don’t use antiperspirant. According to a Belgian study, the more antiperspirant you use, the more you need. Aluminium salts in antiperspirant alter the microbiome of your armpit but not for the better. They deplete the numbers of Staphylcocci, which leads to an increase in the population of smelly Corynebacterium. *3
If quitting antiperspirant seems a bit too drastic for you, try WAC Solar Mist – Hands & Body, which harnesses the power of citrus oils and lactobacillus to help maintain a healthy and stable microbiome and keep you odour-free.
5. Go Get Dirty
Allow your children to get dirty, play on the ground, be barefooted, and let them be around with other kids.
Do get your hands dirty by starting a garden. Exposing your immune system to the trillions of microbes in soil is a great way to grow a good gut “garden”.
You can also fill your house with plants for additional microbial exposure.
6. Open Your Windows
Do cut down on the use of air-conditioning. Open your windows to let nature in. Not only are you saving on electricity bill, but you are also improving the health and diversity of the microbes in your home.
7. Keep A Pet
When your children pester you to let them keep a pet, do say “Yes”. Get a dog, cat, rabbit or any other pet as studies have shown that children with pets have fewer infections and requires fewer antibiotics.
Let’s start to adopt a live dirty lifestyle from today onwards!
*1 Microbe : a microorganism
*2 Microbiome : the microorganisms that live in a particular environment, specifically, in the human body, which contains ten times more microbial cells then human cells. These organisms influence human physiology in positive and negative ways, and have significant impact on health and disease.
*3 The Microbiome Solution by Dr Robynne Chutkan