Dr. Ken, I caught my boyfriend not washing his hands when he was in the bathroom, and he acted like it was no big deal. But I think it's disgusting. Can you explain to him how messed up his filthiness is?
A recent study of hand-washing habits found that among the 6,000 people observed, nearly all the women washed their hands, yet only 66 percent of men did.
Failing to be a hand washer means your man is putting himself, you and anyone who's in contact with him, at risk of infection. Every time you shake hands with a non-washer, pick up or hold an object just held by a non-washer, or touch something just touched by a non-washer, you take a chance of infecting yourself with any number of cold-causing viruses or the flu. Bacteria can also be picked up or transmitted this way.
1. Wash your hands regularly: Before you eat; before and after preparing food; when you get home from work or after errands; after you cough or sneeze; after using the bathroom; after touching surfaces or objects in public areas.
3. Don't touch your face: Touching your hands to your mouth or nose, particularly, is like offering germs some food and a warm bed. If you need to pick, wash your hands first (and, for our sake, after).
UPDATE: Dr. Ken has responded to the enormous amount of comments and questions he's received about hand-washing:
Another article by Dr. Ken: Did you know that cell phones may be affecting your sperm count?
Dr. Ken Spaeth is a physician and Research Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is also co-author of the Bioterrorism Sourcebook. You can e-mail him your questions at askdrken@aol.com.
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Sunday 27 January
By popadoo
Wash your dick i the morning and your good to go all day!
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Sunday 27 January
By amy
...but oh so many of you 'clean' men really aren't so clean! how often do you get tested for various STDs? i hope you and i never meet. (no offense!)
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Sunday 27 January
By Jim
Our immune systems need diseases to fight, otherwise they turn on themselves, hence the up-tick in auto-immune diseases.
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Sunday 27 January
By pangracio
interesting..
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Sunday 27 January
By BanjoPlayingHamster
That's just filthy. Any hygiene-aware man will know that - having used the sink to pee in - you MUST ABSOLUTELY wash your hands in the urinal.
Anything else just isn't civilized.
Why else do you think men grab food out of the cooking pan? To spread the resulting cleanliness.
Really, women think they have a monopoly on hygiene strategy. *sigh*
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Sunday 27 January
By Nils
How does your answer relate to the request? You write about washing your hands in general, because of viral infections, she asked you to tell her boyfriend not washing your hands after going to the toilet is unsanitary. Which, by the way, it isn't. tests have shown that the human face, or the human hands for that matter, are many times dirtier than the genitalia.
So to answer your question Angela, should he wash his hands more often?
Yes, they're germ-factories.
Is it related to him touching his penis?
No, that sucker is pretty damn clean.
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Sunday 27 January
By Aaron
Yea, im with Jim.... being too "sanitary" is never a good thing. Super bug's aren't fun... This is why you see the people living in the cleanest how ever... getting sick. The littlest thing can upset they're immune system. In short... don't wash you're hands, and do society a favor :P
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Sunday 27 January
By Neal
Dr Ken - It's a big shock to you I know but men and women differ in their anatomy. Men don't wipe the tip of their willies - they shake - thus the only thing they touch is the skin of their willie. If we assume that they bathe frequently then that skin, which is covered all day, is much cleaner than any uncovered skin on their body.
Ladies (and gentlemen), do you wash your hands every time you touch your arm, your face, or other? If not then you're getting and distributing far more dirt, bacteria, and viruses from your skin and hands than you'd ever get from my post urination ones.
Now I can understand the need for ladies to wash their hands after a good pee. The have to sit which often requires touching the toilet seat. They wipe their hoo-has which means they have to touch that potentially impure toilet paper AND perhaps get their own urine on their hands if the paper isn't thick enough. Yes, urine is sterile - IF THE PERSON IS PERFECTLY HEALTHY - but lets not forget that the vagina is a breeding ground for yeast infections and the like. Many, though not most, women are clean enough that they always flush and quite a few can't stand on one high heel to flush with the other foot. Then there's always that stall door that they close and lock. Worry about washing your hands ladies - don't fret mine.
Of course it's true that men should wash their hands if they're not too clean down there, if they've had to raise the lid, lock a stall door, touch a toilet or urinal handle, or even open a door - and that covers a lot of the trips to the john.
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Sunday 27 January
By random
yeah COLDS arent caused by bacteria, BUT salmonella and e. coli ARE caused by bacteria. UBERFAIL.
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Sunday 27 January
By Peeboy
Washing hands after peeing is not just for sanitation..Peeboy sometimes has his urine spilt over on his fingers while he is holding his tube..he needs to wash them off..that's it..
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Sunday 27 January
By Peeboy
Washing hands after peeing is not just for sanitation..Peeboy sometimes has his urine spilt over on his fingers while he is holding his tube..he needs to wash them off..that's it..
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Sunday 27 January
By Mark
Nils,
I had the same reaction as you. You need to wash your hands after you pee to prevent colds and flu contagion?
I'm not so sure what studies would say, but I can safely say my penis has never had a cold or the flu.
Washing after number 2 makes perfect sense, but after number 1? I remain unconvinced. Unless of course you haven't bathed in awhile. 3 or 4 number twos before your next shower or bath probably contributes to that entire area getting compromised.
(Now how was that for PC speak!)
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Sunday 27 January
By Kit
Jesus, I always wash my hands but what the hell - DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE?! Ridiculous. Some of this is just stupid.
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Sunday 27 January
By wes
yes, wash your hands every time you touch something unsterile. i hope you enjoy your superaids in 20 years. idiots.
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Sunday 27 January
By Neosapience
People are paranoid as hell. I've worked around some of the nastiest, dirtiest people on the planet and I get sick about once every FIVE years.
You paranoid weaklings just don't understand how the human body works. Hah, I bet you don't even know that there are MORE bacteria living inside of you than there are human cells!
Your fear causes you FAR more problems than some little infection EVER could.
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Sunday 27 January
By Chris
Come on. You can argue any point with statistics. My observation has been that I know a lot of girls that don't wash either. My girlfriend for one. She thinks that there is no point because she uses paper to clean herself. You people need to stop making everything about sex.
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Sunday 27 January
By William Ottley
When ever I hear these types of stories, I have to ask myself. Did the writer's mother or dad, say to them "don't touch that. Its filthy". Did their parents teach them that their private parts are "dirty"? I for one, wash my hands BEFORE I go pee. I don't wash AFTER, why? Because my member is the most cleanest part of my body. When I go pooh, i do wash. This writer automatically condemns the person who didn't wash: "you and anyone who's in contact with him, at risk of infection." This to me, tells me there's issues involved..
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Sunday 27 January
By sam webin
Dr. Ken is an idiot.
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Sunday 27 January
By Gwiz
Agreed with Neosapience,
The way the body works in terms of keeping itself healthy and strong is by fighting infections. Much like how we exercise in order to have stronger and healthy looking bodies. But when you prevent from infections from entering the body, the body has nothing to do but sit on it's ass.
What do you think those flu vaccines you take contain? The flu virus itself! Except it's a smaller dosage so that the body can fight it off in order to prevent the real thing from entering the body with full effect.
So what happens when clean freaks don't get exposed to regular doses of infections? Their bodies are too weak to deal with the infections when they eventually do enter the body and then have dire effects, you become sick longer.
Personally, I almost never wash my hands... however I only get sick once every 6-12 months. And when I do, it's usually only for a few days, as opposed to many other people who end up getting sick for over 2 weeks.
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Sunday 27 January
By easan
The Asian custom of greeting others with hands in a prayer position, rather than shaking hands, would be a great step toward elimination of disease transition.
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