Grandmother Was Right: Scrubbing Behind the Ears and Between the Toes May Help Keep the Skin Healthy
Key Highlights :
A new study conducted by a team of researchers at the George Washington University has shown that the composition of the skin microbiome varies across dry, moist and oily regions of the skin. The study, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, was designed to test what the researchers referred to as the "Grandmother Hypothesis." This hypothesis was based on the idea that certain hotspots, such as behind the ears, between the toes and in the navel, are normally washed less often compared to the skin on the arms or legs and thus may harbor different types of bacteria.
To test this hypothesis, the team of researchers enlisted the help of 129 graduate and undergraduate students. The students were taught to collect samples from the hotspots as well as from control dry areas like the calves and forearms. The samples were then analyzed to compare the microbes living in the hotspots to those in the control regions.
The results of the study showed that forearms and calves, which are often cleaned more thoroughly at bath time, had a greater diversity and thus potentially a healthier collection of microbes compared to the samples taken in the hotspots. The researchers concluded that proper cleaning habits can change the microbes living on your skin and consequently its health status.
This research is one of the first to look at the diversity of sites across the skin microbiome in healthy adult subjects and may provide a reference point for future research. It also provides further evidence to support the idea that, as grandmothers have long been saying, scrubbing behind the ears and between the toes may help keep the skin in those regions healthy.
