Whether you go heavy, go lightly or go to the bathroom to look in the mirror, you should wash your hands

When scientists hide in the toilet, they count only 67% of people wash their hands before going out. Many people, especially men, do not do this after urinating.

Don Schaffner, a professor of food science at Rutgers University, has been studying hand washing behavior for years."Even if you're light or heavy, you should wash your hands [after leaving the toilet]," he advised.

Hand washing is one of the easiest and most effective things to help you prevent infectious diseases .

Hand washing helps you prevent infectious diseases.

Toilet: The land of bacteria

Every time you go to the toilet, you go into the land of bacteria. And there are especially dangerous journeys than other journeys.

What is the worst scenario?

"If you have diarrhea and stick to your hands, washing your hands at that time is all the more important," said Professor Schaffner. "Make sure you apply soap on your hands and wash it cleanly . " Human feces carry many pathogens like E. coli, Shigella, Streptococcus, hepatitis A and hepatitis E .

Compared to feces, sticking urine into your hands is more acceptable. Research indicates that many people, especially men, do not wash their hands after urinating."These people may think they don't need to wash their hands," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Policy and Research at the University of Minnesota.

But in fact there are a variety of bacteria that exist in the urine, including Lactobacillus, Corynebacterium, Streptococcus, Actinomyces and Staphylococcus . So, anything that goes heavy or mild, you should wash your hands afterwards.

Even if you go to the bathroom without going to the toilet (washing your face, looking at the mirror .), you should still wash your hands. Because the surfaces in the toilet may contain a lot of pathogens that others leave. They could let the stool or urine stick to their hands, then touch surfaces like doorknobs, sinks, and walls . before their hands were washed.

And when you touch these surfaces without washing your hands, you will get germs. A 2004 study found that no matter what people go to the toilet to do, when they go out without washing their hands, most are infected with Staphylococcus in their hands.

Even if you go to the bathroom without going to the toilet, you should still wash your hands.

Hand washing: Small action but saving millions of lives

Religious tradition has encouraged people to wash their hands like a cleansing ritual thousands of years ago. But it was not until the 19th century that we kept our hands clean to reduce the incidence of infectious diseases.

Ignaz Semmelweis was a Hungarian doctor then realized that, when doctors and medical students treated the dead body and then touched the patient in the maternity ward, many mothers had fever and even died. After that, he asked them to wash their hands with disinfectant water and found that the mortality rate had fallen sharply.

Similarly, during the Krym War (1853-1856), Florence Nightingale , a British nurse proposed the rule of hand washing and other hygiene measures at the hospital where she worked. Soon after, the death rate there dropped by two-thirds, providing some first evidence that hand washing could save our lives.

After nearly 2 centuries, washing hands has become a part of our daily life. But there are still gaps that need to be filled.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 525,000 children under 5 years of age die each year from drinking dirty water, eating contaminated food (often by dirty hands), and being infected from human to human because of "poor hygiene".

Researchers at London Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimate that better hand washing practices can halve the death rate from diarrhea and save more than 1 million lives each year. Regular hand washing also reduces the risk of respiratory infections by 16%.

In the nineteenth century, Florence Nightingale, a British nurse recommended the regulation of hand washing and sanitation measures to reduce the number of deaths in the hospital she worked for.

Wash your hands whenever you feel dirty

Your mobile phone may contain 10 times more bacteria than the toilet. Similarly surfaces like door handles, keyboards, computer mice, and wipes in the kitchen are also dirtier than you think.

So whenever your hands can contain a lot of pathogens including bacteria, viruses and fungi."I think a general rule is that you should wash your hands whenever you feel dirty," Professor Schaffner said. Take any chance when you're near a hand washing sink.

And even washing quickly with soap-free water can help remove some of the bacteria that cause infection. Of course, this is not recommended for cases like after going to the toilet.

Washing hands with soap and water is always the best way to remove germs , even if you use regular soap instead of germicidal soap. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers and dry hand cleaners are not as effective.

Hand washing properly: Don't forget to dry

5-step hand washing technique for high efficiency.

For hand washing, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that we do the following:

1. 1. Wet your hands with clean water.
2. 2. Use soap to rub and rub all the concave points of the hand for 20-30 seconds (equal to the time of singing "Happy Birthday" twice).
3. 3. Wash your hands with clean water.
4. 4. Dry your hands with a clean paper towel or let them dry naturally

In it, many people often skip the 4th step, dry it . However, Professor Schaffner emphasized the importance of this step, because bacteria spread more effectively when hands are wet . Imagine you have a door with a wet hand, how many bacteria will it get on your hand?

"If your hand is still wet, then you touch that toilet door, your wet hand can really help spread the bacteria," Professor Schaffner warned. He said that without a tissue, he would wipe his hands on his pants to dry.