Washed Out?

There is an interesting opinion piece by Dr James Hamblin of Yale School of Public Health, who claims not to have used soap for the last 5 years (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jul/28/soap-dodger-meet-the-doctor-who-says-we-have-been-showering-wrong). Hamblin's basic point is that our skins have their own colonies of 'friendly' bacteria and these seem to aid our immunological systems. For example, they may prevent autoimmune skin conditions, like eczema. He points out that the very concept of 'body odour' was a very successful advertising gimmick, used in the 1920's, for Lifebuoy toilet soap. The number of preparations for washing and then remoisturising is enormous. I have often thought it weird, that we use shampoo to remove our hair oils, when many of them contain lanolin (oil from sheep wool). Hamblin suggests removing our natural skin oils on which our 'stowaways' feed, as well as constantly hitting them with antibacterial preparations, is probably not a good idea. In one sense, humans are colonies of organisms. In addition to skin bacteria, our large intestines are home to other species of bacteria, These generate vitamins for us and try to repel alien bacterial invasions. One problem of taking antibiotics, is that they do not discriminate between 'friend' and 'foe'. We can often upset our natural bacterial flora when we use them. Hamblin's thesis chimes with the claim that childhood asthma, in the West, can result from children growing up in largely sterile environments. Kids are never allowed to get 'down and dirty'. Hamblin points out that the Covid-19 pandemic has actually made 'cultivating' useful bacteria residents more difficult. We can't shake hands and are told to repeatedly wash our mitts (even Hamblin has to do this for his medical duties). He has a point but I'm not quite ready to give up soap yet.