Why Is It Important To Wash Your Hands?

It is important not to touch the mucous membranes with dirty hands. In addition to using soap, it is essential to spend at least 20 seconds rubbing your hands to remove any contaminated items.

Washing your hands is very important. Through touch we incorporate information and substances from the environment. This information can be both positive (food), and negative (pathogens, toxic substances).

Therefore, we must take special care with the hygiene of our hands. In this article we explain why it is important to wash your hands and the best way to do it. Take note!

What do we use our hands for?

Thanks to our hands we carry out different daily activities through which we can capture or transmit germs, such as:

• Understand the world around us.
• Recognize the texture of an object.
• Caress our children.
• Hold a portfolio.
• Preparing food.
• Eat.
• Play etc.

In this way, if we neglect our hygiene we can be damaging not only our health, but that of the people around us, even loved ones.

Personal hygiene and health

Since man is born he comes into contact with the environment. He begins to relate to elements that are totally foreign to him. Therefore, your immune system begins to strengthen, which prepares you to face future attacks.

However, it is not always possible to get out of these confrontations. As a consequence, diseases caused by viruses and bacteria appear that manage to enter the body.

That is why, for centuries, a way was sought to avoid or reduce the unfavorable influence of the outside on health. After numerous failures, they found the answer, which lasts today and is good hygiene.

Washing your hands helps eliminate impurities that adhere to their skin and make us sick. In addition, there are other types of hygiene that we must take into account:

• Food hygiene: which guarantees the correct state of the products we consume.
• Mental hygiene: that attends to the perfect development and psychological functioning of the person and their community.

However, the hygiene that interests us in this article is that which depends on each of us individually: personal hygiene.

Surely you can think but I am clean! I bathe every day! However, this alone is not enough to speak of proper personal hygiene. We must take into account several aspects whose importance many times we do not know how to recognize.

Elements of good personal hygiene

Feeding

Who’d say? Yes, a balanced and healthy diet is the basis of good health. Thus, a healthy diet can help boost the immune system, which helps us protect ourselves from germs and external agents.

Also, keep in mind that the body needs enough carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, protein and fiber to perform its vital functions, even if you are trying to lose weight. It is also important that you eat the six meals a day:

• Breakfast.
• Snack in the middle of the morning.
• Lunch.
• Snack in the afternoon.
• Food.
• A light dinner.

Do not forget to chew your food well, it is an essential rule, that way you will grind the ingested well and also facilitate its digestion. It is also advisable to drink a lot of water, at least two liters a day.

Air and ventilation

Avoid dust and smoke, as well as polluted air. These 3 harmful elements can:

• Cause allergies.
• Damage the respiratory system.
• Cause the accumulation of toxic substances in your tissues.

In fact, some studies show that air pollution could be responsible for some 800,000 premature deaths each year. Therefore, it is important to maintain proper hygiene at home:

• Use the vacuum to remove dust, pet hair and dander, as well as mites that accumulate in corners and carpets.
• Avoid excess heat in the rooms and ensure that they are always well ventilated.

• Finally, a very simple advice: always breathe through your nose, since the air through the appropriate routes is filtered and heated before reaching the lungs.

Cleanliness

The external organs of the body perform very important functions, including protection. Therefore, they are much more exposed than others to infections.

Proper personal hygiene can help us avoid damage to the skin, eyes, mouth, and hands. Here are some measures to take into account:

• Body cleansing : baths should be performed daily, therapeutic and sedative baths are also advisable.
• Hair Grooming : Cleaning the hair and scalp should be done at least twice a week. We must be careful to rinse it properly and dry it well.

• Eye care : you need good lighting to read, write and perform various activities. Protect your eyes from reflections, accidents and infections.
• Cleaning the ear canal : it is advisable to do a doctor to avoid injuries to the eardrum.
• Wash your hands: we constantly pick up objects and then rub our eyes or another part of the body. Its correct cleaning will prevent us from transmitting infections.

We have already reviewed some important points of personal hygiene. Now we will delve into the importance of hand washing, as it is the main topic of this article.

Why is it important to wash your hands? How should we do it?

Washing your hands is one of the most important personal hygiene habits. As we explained before, through them we come into contact not only with the outside but with other people. Therefore, they are great transmitters of parasitic diseases and infections.

Having dirty or contaminated hands and putting them in the mouth, eyes or handling food with them is the easiest way to get sick. And what about the nails where a large number of microorganisms from the most diverse sources accumulate?

Do not hesitate, the best way to avoid infections of this type is to have good hygiene habits. Ideally, wash your hands properly before and after:

• Cook or eat.
• Go to the bathroom to defecate or urinate.
• Throw away the trash.

In general, we must clean them when coming into contact with any contaminated element. How do we do it? Well, here we show you the steps to wash our hands correctly.

Steps to wash our hands

The World Health Organization (WHO) has always emphasized the importance of good hand hygiene. Therefore, it has numerous documents about the best way to wash your hands. We encourage you to consult their website. Meanwhile, here is a summary:

• Dampen your hands with plenty of clean water.
• Rub them in with the soap so that you get plenty of lather.
• Rub your hands together vigorously for 20 seconds, both the back and the palms. Also check under your nails and between your fingers.
• Rinse with clean water.
• Repeat the operation if necessary.
• Rinse with plenty of water.
• Lastly, dry your hands thoroughly with a clean towel.

Now you know why you should wash your hands and how to do it, we hope you follow the steps and tips provided here. Maintain excellent hygiene and your health will thank you.