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What should I do every day? Brush your teeth two or more times per day. Floss once a day. Always wash hands after using the restroom, upon returning home, and before/after touching food. Take a shower every day, wearing shower sandals if using a shared bathroom. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth to prevent the spread of germs.
- Overview
- Why hygiene matters
- What is bad hygiene?
- Signs of bad hygiene
- What it can mean
- Ways to have good hygiene
- The bottom line
Improving your personal hygiene doesn’t have to be difficult or costly. Small changes in habits can make a big difference. If you’re concerned, see a doctor, as it may reveal an underlying health issue.
Wondering what constitutes bad hygiene, or trying to figure out if your hygiene habits are lacking?
Take a (minty fresh) breath, and rest assured that some supposed bad hygiene traits are actually NBD — like peeing in the shower, for instance.
That said, some poor hygienic traits can be harmful or even a sign of more serious issues.
Skimping on hygiene might seem like NBD, and it isn’t if we’re talking about the occasional day you don’t brush your teeth until noon. But it matters when it affects your life or that of the people around you.
In the most extreme cases, when left unattended, poor hygiene can breed disease that can affect you or others.
For example, not washing your hands after you use the toilet, handle food, or touch dirty surfaces can spread bacteria, viruses, and parasites. These can lead to infections and diseases, like food poisoning, gastroenteritis, cold and flu, and hepatitis A — just to name a few.
Poor dental hygiene can lead to tooth decay and gum disease, which can also affect the heart.
Not bathing can result in a skin condition called dermatitis neglecta and secondary infections.
An obvious lack of hygiene can also affect a person’s work and social life. Some companies have a hygiene policy in place for the protection of employees and company image, especially if you have a public-facing role.
Bad hygiene can be broken down into two categories: personal hygiene and environmental hygiene.
Here are examples of both kinds.
•Poor personal hygiene:
•not showering often
•not brushing teeth
•not washing hands before or after handling food
Here are some signs that are indicative of poor hygiene in yourself or someone else:
•body odor from not showering regularly
•unwashed or disheveled hair
•bad breath, food between teeth, or signs of tooth decay and gingivitis
•wearing soiled clothing
•dirty and untrimmed fingernails and toenails
People are quick to pass off poor hygiene habits as laziness, but poor hygiene can be a sign of a disease, such as Alzheimer’s, or a mental health condition, like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
For some, lack of access to clean water, soap, or cleaning supplies can make proper hygiene more difficult to achieve.
Here are some easy ways to practice good hygiene:
•Brush your teeth twice a day. Doing it when you get up and before you go to bed makes it easier to get into a routine. Remember: You only need to brush for 2 minutes for a good clean, so you can do it even if you’re short on time.
•Wash your body daily. A quick shower or bath is all you need, as long as you cover the important parts (Think: pits and private bits). If access to water is limited, use a damp cloth or sponge to wash your genitals, around your anus, under your arms, between any skin folds, and under your breasts.
•Wash your clothes and bedding regularly. Doing laundry once per week is sufficient, whether by machine or hand. If you need to re-wear clothing, a quick wash in the sink and hanging it to dry for the next day works fine. Keeping your body clean lets you extend the time between washing clothing and sheets.
•Wash your hands often. If COVID-19 taught us anything, it’s that washing our hands goes a long way in keeping us healthy and reducing the spread of illness. Remember to wash your hands before and after contact with shared, or potentially unsanitary or contaminated surfaces to protect yourself and others.
•Wipe properly after going to the toilet. Wiping properly after going to the toilet will keep underwear clean and unpleasant odors at bay. Always wipe front to back to keep bacteria away from the urethra to avoid urinary infections. Body wipes or a bidet work, too. (Though keep in mind that wipes can make life hard for sanitation workers. So if you don’t need them, it’s best to stick with TP). If pain or a disability makes it hard to wipe, consider a toilet paper aid.
Practicing good hygiene doesn’t have to be time-consuming or require expensive products. A few tweaks to a person’s routine can help prevent bad hygiene.
Since poor personal and environmental hygiene can be a sign of an underlying condition, consider reaching out to a healthcare professional if you’re concerned about your hygiene or someone else’s.
- Overbathing. Your skin is the most exposed part of your body and collects a lot of dirt, sweat, oil, dead skin, and germs daily. Thus, it is essential to take a bath regularly to cleanse these impurities from your skin so that it can breathe and function properly.
- Exfoliating too often. Exfoliation draws out the impurities from your pores, giving your skin a deep cleanse. Plus, it loosens the dead cells settled on top of your skin so that they can be removed easily, thereby revealing fresh new skin underneath.
- Skipping flossing your teeth. Flossing is an often-neglected part of oral hygiene that needs more attention. Simply brushing your teeth may not remove all the food debris stuck between them or beneath the gum line.
- Covering your mouth with your hand when you sneeze or cough. Coughing or sneezing expels airborne droplets (respiratory and salivary) into the environment that contain infection-causing microbes.
The most important way to reduce the spread of infections is hand washing - frequently wash hands with soap and water, if unavailable use alcohol-based hand sanitizer (containing at least 60% alcohol). Also important is to get a vaccine for those infections and viruses that have one, when available.
May 18, 2018 · Personal hygiene is how you care for your body. This practice includes bathing, washing your hands, brushing your teeth, and more. Every day, you come into contact with millions...
Good hygiene practices such as regular handwashing, dental care, and bathing help remove germs, bacteria, and viruses from the body, reducing the risk of infections such as colds, flu, and gastrointestinal illnesses.
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Aug 22, 2024 · To be hygienic, take a shower every day, which will get rid of any dirt, sweat, and germs your body has accumulated. Also, make sure you brush your teeth once in the morning and once at night so they're clean and your breath smells nice.
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