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It's a staple of the modern morning routine: Wake up, hop in the shower, lather with soap.
But is that morning scrub-a-dub really necessary?
One man claims not. David Whitlock, a chemical engineer in Boston, has not showered for 12 years.
Whitlock isn't running an experiment in extreme water conservation. Rather, he believes that humans don't need to shower to be healthy, and that a daily soap scrub may actually remove a beneficial type of bacteria that keeps the bacteria that contribute to B.O. in check.
To boost the presence of odor-eating bacteria, Whitlock has designed a bacterial spray called AO+ Mist, which is now sold by the company AoBiome under the brand Mother Dirt. The company hopes this bacterial spritz could reduce the need for products such as soaps and deodorants and potentially even reduce or eliminate the need for showering for those so inclined.
His theory is that your skin will control odor-producing bacteria if left to its own devices, and that soap kills off good bacteria your skin needs.
(Score: 4, Informative) by bziman on Sunday November 08 2015, @08:48PM
Citation needed. Here's one that indicates that is not true: Human Lifespans Nearly Constant for 2,000 Years [livescience.com]. Here's another: The life expectancy myth, and why many ancient humans lived long healthy lives [ancient-origins.net].
Also, bathing seems to have been a part of most cultures going back over thousands of years - and only briefly fell out of fashion in Europe a few hundred years ago, before coming back. At least according to wikipedia [wikipedia.org].
There are plenty of good arguments for bathing, but a connection with long life isn't demonstrated here.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by opinionated_science on Sunday November 08 2015, @09:56PM
if you are going to cite, try peer reviewed journals. The mortality statistics of the last few centuries make grim reading, until the development of 1) segregated sewage 2) hot water (including clean drinking) 3) anti-biotics.
The Romans had almost all of these and used to have bath houses to sweat and using salt (an anti-biotic) and olive oil (an emolient) for scraping their skins clean.
Hence, hot water and soap have been around for millennia. As with most of the modern world, these things were only rediscovered post-renaissance, and improvements continue with scientific refinement.
The parasites that humans can get infected with, often shorten life. The most common one , malaria, is still a major killer. Don't think there aren't others waiting to dine on you....!
These articles trying to propagate the myth that there was some golden age in the past are total rubbish. It never existed.
To be balanced though, showering every single day of your life is probably not necessary.
But then again, depends on your personal hygiene tolerance, and of those around you!!!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @11:37PM
Occult anti-vaccism like yours is on the rise.
(Score: 2) by BK on Sunday November 08 2015, @09:57PM
I'm happy to concede that averaging in the zeros and ones infant mortality does skew the numbers, but the BCE urban societies were almost entirely slave based. Would you care to hazard a guess as to life expectancy of a Greek miner or Roman galley slaves? The ones who lived long were the ones who bathed... In these societies, half or more of the adults were slaves.
The preceding hunter gatherer societies were also unlikely to produce long lives. This is and to say that there weren't individual long-lived members, but rather that they were the exception not the rule. I suppose it's tough to prove it without a time machine, but as we continue to find artifacts and examples of members of the societies, it seems like we don't find very many skeletons of 70 and 80 year old members.
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @12:59PM
Are you suggesting that not bathing were the reason slaves and miners worked to death, starved or several other ways of dying prematurely?
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday November 09 2015, @08:54AM
Part of the downside to being 2400 years old is that you mostly likely live to see, and/or smell, some things you rather wished you had not. I was in Europe during that period when bathing fell out of fashion, and let me tell you, there were no jets or high-speed trains back then, nosiree! Oxcart! Through one smelly village after another! After a few months, and a Channel crossing, I finally made it to the Anglish town of Bath.