01 January 2024 , 10:43
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A has concluded that the best way to properly wash your body is to adopt the so-called 'grandmother method', or the 'grandmother hypothesis'.
Recently experts warned of the five body parts that people weren't washing properly, including the belly button, ears, finger and toe nails and your legs. According to one expert, these are more likely to become infected over time if not cleaned properly because of the build-up of bacteria - so it's important to clean them properly.
And now a study, conducted by a team of researchers from George Washington University Computational Biology Institute, has further investigated skin microbiome - the community of microorganisms living on people's skin in healthy individuals.
These are often found across skin areas, for example between the arms, and often neglected areas of washing like the belly button and behind the ears, Express.co.uk reports.
The title of the study was inspired by Keith Crandall's grandmother. Keith, who is the Director of the Computational Biology Institute and Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at George Washington University, said that his grandmother had always told him to "scrub behind the ears, between the toes and in the belly button".
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Before conducting the study Keith’s working hypothesis was that certain areas of your body may harbour different types of bacteria to other areas of the body as they're often neglected during washing. Learning to sequence the DNA in skin samples, students working on the study compared the oily neglected areas to samples taken from dry, cleaner areas.
What the study found was that both Candall and his grandmother had been correct. Areas more regularly cleaned had a much more diverse microbiome and contained a potentially healthier collection of microbes than the neglected areas.
The team wrote in their study: "Dry skin regions (forearms and calves) were more even, richer, and functionally distinct than sebaceous (behind ears) and moist (belly button and between toes) regions.”
The results showed no significant differences found across genders, ages and ethnicities.
Keith Crandall added that skin microbiome is made up of microbes that can be helpful and harmful to you and if the balance shifts towards harmful microbes it can result in diseases such as eczema or acne. Whilst this area still needs further exploration the study served as a reference point for healthy microbiomes in adults.