What if I told you that fingernails are a breeding ground for disease, pestilence and even yeast infection? The reason you should stop sticking them into your face, even when you cannot see visible dirt under your nails!
Just think about what you touch every day: you scratch your skin, you wipe your hands against your clothes, or handle raw meat or vegetables — both of which carry pathogens. So, you are basically walking around all day getting bombarded with diseases like rhinoviruses, noroviruses, and fungi candida albicans which lives under your fingernails and can cause a yeast infection if spread to the genitals.
Clipping them might leave less area for bacteria to cover, but that doesn’t totally eliminate them.
Natural Nails Are Not the Only Concern
Artificial fingernails can harbour bacteria, as well as a large number of pathogens between the area between the organic nail and the fake nail. That’s why you won’t often see nurses wearing acrylic nails in hospitals, because this area is a perfect location for pathogens to grow.
What About Your Toes?
Even though your feet might smell worse than your hands, your toenails aren’t exposed to nearly the same amount of bacteria as your fingernails, because they are usually enclosed in socks and shoes.
Your toes are still at risk of infection from the fungi onychomycosis, a chronic form of athlete’s foot that makes your feet dry out and crack. This may lead to the development of secondary bacterial infections, ingrown toenails and in the rare case, loss of limb!
How Do You Clean Yourself?
Eighty percent of all infections are transmitted through contact, direct or indirect, says Dr. Philip Tierno. Because the fingers are the 10 dirtiest things on your body, here are some safe tips you might like to follow:
- Direct contact with another person — kissing, coughing, talking in someone else’s face — is easy enough to prevent. But indirect contact is where you get the gross stuff – yes, those nasty bacteria and viruses. This includes touching an inanimate object that has been contaminated by someone else, then touching your mouth or nose, or touching some object against a scratch or cut on your skin. All of which act as conduits for disease.
- When you wash your hands after handling food, use a brush with soap on it to get under the nails, especially if they are longer than average.
- When you use an alcoholic gel sanitiser, scrape your fingernails on your palm, which is now covered in the gel.
Dr Tierno also says you should scrub your hands to the rhythm of a song, and ensuring that you do it twice.
