Marketing for soaps and hand sanitisers typically uses scorched-earth language, stuff like Kills 99.99% of germs! The idea being: Destroy all bacteria. But that might actually be bad for youâthe way antibiotics disturb your body s chemical makeup. Like your stomach, your skin has a delicate balance of bacteria called a microbiome.
âOur bodies are a symbiotic organism that rely heavily on their relationship with bacteria, inside and out,â says Julie E. Russak, MD, founder of Russak Dermatology Clinic. âWe have more bacteria on our skin than we do in our body.â
Russak says that the skin microbiome protects us from invasive virus-causing pathogens and maintains the pH function of the skin. (That is, it prevents skin from getting too dry or too oily.) So how can we thwart the bad bacteria without offing the good stuff?
Marketing for soaps and hand sanitisers typically uses scorched-earth language, stuff like Kills 99.99% of germs! The idea being: Destroy all bacteria. But that might actually be bad for youâthe way antibiotics disturb your body s chemical makeup. Like your stomach, your skin has a delicate balance of bacteria called a microbiome.
âOur bodies are a symbiotic organism that rely heavily on their relationship with bacteria, inside and out,â says Julie E. Russak, MD, founder of Russak Dermatology Clinic. âWe have more bacteria on our skin than we do in our body.â
Russak says that the skin microbiome protects us from invasive virus-causing pathogens and maintains the pH function of the skin. (That is, it prevents skin from getting too dry or too oily.) So how can we thwart the bad bacteria without offing the good stuff?