12 Personal Hygiene Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes (Mom Never Told You About #4!)

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3. Antiperspirant

Antiperspirant sounds like a good idea, and most people wouldn’t dream of leaving the house without using it, but it’s one of the worst things you can use. This personal care product works through an ingredient called aluminum chlorohydrate. This type of aluminum is absorbed directly into the blood stream through your skin, and then collects in the brain, increasing your chances of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s. There are plenty of natural ways to stop the odor and limit the amount of perspiration. Try making your own antiperspirant; your brain will be glad you did.

4. Over-Bathing

Mom probably taught you that you need a bath every single day. In fact, some mothers have been known to recommend bathing twice each day. Of course, the appeal here is obvious; removing dirt, bacteria, sweat, and stinky things from the body sounds like a good idea. But what you mother didn’t know is that over-bathing actually leads to skin irritation and infection. Washing too often can lead to dry, cracked skin, which increases the chance that bacteria can enter the body, causing infections. Your skin is the natural home of about 1,000 different species of bacteria. There is a natural balance that keeps these in check, but if some of the bad guys get under your skin, so to speak, you can get a nasty staph infection simply because of too much bathing. Once a day is plenty and if you aren’t really dirty, every other day is just fine.

5. Using Your Hands to Remove Sweat

If you are a gym rat, you probably work up a good sweat. Don’t make the mistake, however, of wiping sweat off your forehead or face with your hands. The gym is not always the most sanitary place and the bacteria or viruses from a thousand hands could have touched the machine you touched. Wiping your face will only put those germs right where they have easy access to your body. Keep a small hand towel in your waistband to wipe away sweat.

6. Cloth Diapers

This is always a big dilemma. Do you save landfill space by using cloth diapers or do you keep your home cleaner by using disposable diapers? The University of Arizona conducted a study that found that washing just one load of underwear (adult underwear, not diapers) transferred as many as 100 million E. coli germs into the washing machine. These germs could then be transferred to the next load of clothes. Imagine what goes on when you wash cloth diapers. To avoid this, never wash diapers with any other clothing. Use hot water and bleach to wash, then spray the inside the washing machine with bleach or pure white vinegar and allow it to dry to kill any leftover germs.

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