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Why Spring Cleaning Won’t Benefit Your Health

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Emma Gallagher is a Brit living in North Carolina. She grows organic gardens and... Read More

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There is certainly nothing wrong with a good clear out of clutter, cobwebs, and dust to give your house and your soul a bit of a pick-me-up in the spring–or any time, for that matter.

But, is there such thing as being too clean, too hygienic, and too germ- and grime-free? Some experts claim that is very important for us to understand the difference between being clean and being hygienic.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, folks were frantically disinfecting their hands, counters, groceries, and anything else they touched in an effort to thwart the virus, and understandably so.

Some experts are now concerned that this heightened disinfecting of everything could have some detrimental impacts on our health as people confuse being clean with inappropriate use of hygiene regimes.

Cleanliness Versus Hygiene

Sally Bloomfield, chairperson of the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene and an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine believes that since many people associate cleanliness with health, an unnecessary obsession with cleaning can occur.

While cleanliness is the outward appearance of things being organized and sanitary, hygiene is actually the tackling of harmful bacteria to prevent illness. Bloomfield believes that hygienic measures should be carried out in specific circumstances and not as a general practice when doing regular cleaning.

It is about recognizing when harmful bacteria might be an issue in our daily lives. Some key areas to be aware of are:

Handling raw food
Using the toilet
Touching animals
Handling trash
Coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose
Being around other sick people

Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) in the UK carried out a survey that found that many people believed simple ‘dirt’ to be harmful. The RSPH, however, states that places considered ‘dirty’ are not necessarily heaving with pathogens, rather, contaminated food, domestic animals and other infected people are what we should be aware of.

Exposure to ‘Dirt’

Source: Mayo Clinic/YouTube

Some research has shown that exposure to benign microorganisms found outside in the ‘dirt’ can actually strengthen the immune system making it more resilient to a number of different conditions, such as allergies and asthma. Though, research is still being done on this.

It was in the late 1980s that epidemiologist David Strachan suggested that children being exposed to germs and bacteria may help to strengthen their immune systems. This was called the hygiene hypothesis.

As allergies in children rose in the late 20th Century, the link was made between it and the increase in cleanliness standards and lessening of interactions with animals.

It is now argued, that this is not actually the case. Instead, Graham Rook, a professor of medical microbiology at University College London (UCL), claims that the ‘hygiene hypothesis’ should be renamed the ‘old friends hypothesis‘.

According to Rook, these ‘old friends’ are actually benign microorganisms that have been around throughout evolutionary history, and it is with exposure to these that our immune systems are trained not to overreact when in contact with them, and nothing to do with how clean your house was growing up.

Bloomfield clarifies that exposure to these ‘old friends’ teaches our already intact immune systems not to react to things like pollen or common food allergens. According to this theory, food allergies do not have anything to do with cleanliness, but rather a child’s exposure or lack thereof to certain types of microorganisms.

To Clean or Not to Clean

The risk with such talk is that people might feel that they can stop washing their hands or intervening with good hygienic measures when they matter.

According to the experts, this is all to say that cleaning your house obsessively from top to bottom, might help you to feel clear of clutter and dust, but it is the ‘targeted hygiene practices’ that will really help to keep you healthy.

This article of for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice. Speak to a medical professional if you have any concerns on the matter.

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