洗澡不用肥皂？颠覆你对沐浴的既定看法│2021年7月号

Could Your Skin Benefitfrom Being a Little Dirtier?

    Imaginesomeone telling you that they hadn’t used soap in the shower for the last fiveyears. Wouldn’t that be absurdly gross ?You’d probably guess that they smelled disgusting and were as dirty as astraydog. Skipping the soap is exactly what Dr. James Hamblin has done, though.About five years ago, Hamblin, who lectures at the Yale School of PublicHealth, started using nothing on his skin in the shower except water. He doesuse soap when he washes his hands, though, which Hamblin emphasizes isextremely important for keeping harmful germs at bay .Yet despite his lack of fragrantcleansers, Hamblin says he smells justfine, and his skin is now healthier than ever. Why is this?

    Hamblin believesthat we are so obsessed withbeing clean that we’re actually harming our skin by damaging the naturalmicrobiomethat lives there and keeps us healthy. Our negative image of body odor5originatedas part of a soapcompany’s advertising strategy in the 1920s. Since then, we’ve been insecureabout anyone smelling even a little bit of our body odor, so we use largeamounts of soap and deodorantto hide our natural scents.

    AlthoughHamblin admits he did smell bad for a little while after abandoning soap, thissoon ceased once his skin adapted to the water-only approach. More interestingly, until he stopped usingsoap, Hamblin had suffered from eczema. It suddenly cleared up after he changed his routine. Skin conditions and allergies like eczema have been on the rise inrecent years, which Hamblin attributes to our reduced exposure to natural bacteria and our overuse of soap.

    Dr.Hamblin’s findings show that going soap-free is not as ridiculous as it mightfirst seem. However, whether or not people would be willing to alter theircurrent hygiene routines isanother question. It seems unlikely that many people would be willing to giveup soap, especially with the initial “bad-smelling” phase. With that beingsaid, those who feel brave enough to go soap-free shouldgive it a goand see what benefits it really brings.

[字汇]

gross  令人作呕的；恶心的

This cheeseburger is gross, so I won’t have another bite.

keep at bay  防止；遏止……靠近

An apple a day can help you keep diseases at bay.

germ 细菌；病菌

Chefs frequently wash their hands to prevent germs from getting on the food.

obsess （使）着迷；（使）牵挂

My mother is obsessed with this movie; she’s seen it more than 100 times.

odor 气味；臭味

Eve frowned at the odor coming from the kitchen and opened windows to clear the smell from the air.

adapt 适应

It takes a while for college freshmen to adapt to the demands and challenges of college life.

洗澡不用肥皂？颠覆你对沐浴的既定看法

    想象一下有人告诉你他们过去五年来淋浴时都没有用肥皂。那不是太过恶心了吗？你可能会猜他们闻起来令人作呕，而且像流浪狗一样脏。然而，不用肥皂正是詹姆斯•哈姆布尔博士所做的事情。大约五年前，在耶鲁大学公共卫生学院授课的哈姆布尔开始在淋浴时不用任何东西，只用水清洗皮肤。不过，他在洗手时还是会用肥皂，哈姆布尔强调这对于防止有害细菌极为重要。尽管缺乏芳香的洁肤品，哈姆布尔说他闻起来还不错，而且他的皮肤现在比以前更健康了。为什么会这样？

　　哈姆布尔相信我们是如此在意于保持清洁，以至于我们实际上损害了我们的皮肤，破坏了生活在那里使我们保持健康的自然微生物群。我们对体味的负面印象源自公元 1920 年代一家肥皂公司的广告策略。从那时起，我们对任何人闻到一点点我们的体味而感到不安，所以我们用大量的肥皂和除臭剂来掩盖我们自然的气味。

　　尽管哈姆布尔承认他戒掉使用肥皂后确实有一段时间闻起来很糟糕，但一旦他的皮肤适应了只用水的方式，这个问题很快就停止了。更有趣的是，直到他停止使用肥皂之前，哈姆布尔一直患有湿疹。在他改变了一贯的清洗方式后，湿疹突然痊愈了。像湿疹这样的皮肤病和过敏近年来不断增加，哈姆布尔认为这要归因于我们减少了对天然细菌的接触和过度使用肥皂。

　　哈姆布尔博士的研究结果显示不使用肥皂并不像最初看起来的那么荒谬。然而，人们是否愿意改变他们目前的卫生习惯又是另一个问题。很多人似乎不太可能愿意放弃肥皂，尤其是在最初的「难闻」阶段。尽管如此，那些有足够勇气不用肥皂的人应该试试看它到底能带来什么好处。