During the epidemic period, everyone has paid attention to hand hygiene as never before, prepared a three-piece set of hand sanitizer, hand sanitizer and alcohol, and was eager to wash their hands more than a dozen times a day. However, washing hands too often will also cause great harm to the skin, and many people's hands have begun to show symptoms such as dry skin, disappearing fingerprints, and even more serious skin cracks and eczema on the hands. If you think about it, if the skin barrier on the hand is broken, or if there is a wound on the hand, wouldn't it be more detrimental to the protection of the virus?
Frequent hand washing is undoubtedly correct and necessary, there will be dust, dirt, bacteria, viruses, etc. on the surface of the skin, and it has been clear that the new coronavirus can be transmitted through contact. In order to remove all kinds of harmful substances in time, it is particularly important to clean the hands during this special period. But how do you wash your hands so you don't hurt your hands? This starts with why handwashing hurts.
The skin barrier of the hand is broken, which is not conducive to the protection of the virus| the idea of the figure worm
Why does washing your hands hurt?
The palmar surface of the hand is quite different from the skin on the back. The skin on the palm surface has a thicker keratinous layer and a thicker fat pad under the skin; while the skin on the back of the hand is thinner and less subcutaneous fat, so the skin moisture is easily lost and easy to become rough.
The sebaceous glands of the hands are scarce, the skin is inherently lacking in the moisturization of skin fat, and it is often affected by many external factors such as cold and dryness; frequent hand washing is even worse. During the hand washing process, a large amount of sebum on the hand is taken away, and the skin is stimulated by various detergents, as well as mechanical friction stimulation. After washing your hands, the moisture on the surface of the skin evaporates while also taking away the moisture in the skin of the hands. Cleaning also takes away sebum, making it more susceptible to drying, scaling and cracking.
The results show that the skin damage and dermatitis caused by frequent hand washing and glove use not only accelerate the release of resident bacteria in the deep layers of the skin, but also increase the colonization of Staphylococcus aureus and gram-negative bacilli, affecting the effect of surgical hand washing and hand disinfection. More and more types of hand bacteria were measured in people with damaged hand skin than in people with undamaged hand skin [1].
hiss! | figureworm ideas
Therefore, in this special period, in addition to washing hands frequently, it is also very important to do a good job of hand skin care, and in the case of conditions, try to choose a hand washing method with less damage to the hands.
Which of these common handwashing methods is the best?
Soap
As a senior washing product, soap has long been deeply rooted in everyone's life. However, due to the soap making mechanism of soap, it has unavoidable shortcomings, such as easy to cause skin degreasing and drying, and high pH value has irritation to the skin. Even soaps with disinfectant and sterilization functions can easily produce secondary contamination or become a cross-source of infection during reuse because their storage containers are difficult to keep dry [2].
Soap has unavoidable drawbacks| figure worm creativity
Hand sanitizer
Hand sanitizer uses extrusion type liquid, the bottle body pump head and hand contact surface is small, the contact surface is easy to clean, disposable bottles avoid the secondary pollution and cross-infection caused by the soap body in the process of repeated use, relative to the soap is more hygienic.
Extrusion type liquid extraction, bottle body pump head and hand contact surface is small, easy to clean| figureworm creativity
It is recommended to use hand sanitizers with mild ingredients, such as products containing amino acid-based surfactants and nonionic surfactants. Amino acid surfactant is a mild surfactant of a protein that does not irritate the eyes and skin, has low toxicity, strong softness, good biodegradability and good use, and is especially suitable for people with sensitive skin, infants and young children, and people who need frequent hand washing.
The bottle is usually affixed with a product ingredient list.
Common amino acid surfactants are:
N-Acylglutamic acid and its salts
N-Acylglycine and its salts
N-Acyl sarcosine and its salts
N-Acylmethyl taurine and its salts
N-Acyl-N-methyl-β-endine and salts thereof
Common nonionic surfactants:
xx glucoside
If you can't find a suitable gentle hand sanitizer for the time being, you can replace it with the corresponding shower gel or even facial cleanser.
Hand sanitizer & disinfectant wipes
Various commercially available hand sanitizers and disinfectant wipes are compound disinfectants based on ethanol (i.e., alcohol). These disinfectants have the advantages of being fast, broad-spectrum, and non-resistant [3]. And there is no need to use running water or other dry hand facilities, avoiding secondary pollution. However, ethanol can penetrate into skin crevices and inanimate objects, and has a strong dehydrating and degreasing effect on the surface and interior of cells, which is easy to cause skin dryness [4]. And ethanol has a certain irritation to the skin, allergic to ethanol or more severe skin irritation reactions should not use hand sanitizer containing ethanol.
Figure | Figureworm Creative
In summary, when conditions permit, using a mild hand sanitizer is a relatively clean and least harmful way to wash your hands.
Daily care of the hands
When washing your hands, you should also pay attention to the water temperature as close as possible to the body temperature, dry them with a hand towel or dry towel after washing your hands, and apply moisturizing hand cream. It is best to apply when your hands are still slightly moist after washing, so that the moisturizing effect is better.
In the choice of hand cream, the moisturizing ingredients are as simple as possible, such as vaseline and other safe and effective ingredients. Vaseline is a mineral wax that forms a protective film on the surface of the skin, has good adhesion, lipophilicity, and is waterproof, suitable for dry hand skin.
Apply hand cream well| figure worm ideas
When washing your hands regularly and in autumn and winter, you can choose a more viscous hand cream, and in spring and summer, you can choose a moisturizer with a refreshing texture. The seven-step handwashing method must have been learned by everyone, right? When applying hand cream, you can also follow the order of "internal and external bow and big wrist". Wash your hands without leaving dead ends, and apply hand cream to all aspects.
Well, just like this, so washed, but also so smeared | drawing: Wang Split Chai
Gloves should also be worn to protect the skin of the hands when exposed to substances that are irritating to the skin or when doing household chores. Daily attention should also be paid to hand sun protection. Appropriately increasing the movement of each joint of the hand and keeping the hand warm can accelerate the metabolism of the hand, thereby promoting the absorption of nutrients by the skin.
Wearing gloves to protect the skin of the hands| screenshot from "Longing for Life"
bibliography
[1] Rocha LA, Ferreira de Almeida E Borges L, Gontijo Filho PP. Changes in hands microbiota associated with skin damage because of hand hygiene procedures on the health care workers. Am J Infect Control. 2009;37(2):155–159. doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2008.04.251
Yang Lihua, Zhang Yong, Zhao Rui, et al. Analysis of hand sanitizer use in public places and its hygienic quality.Hand cleaner application and quality analysis in public place[J]. Chinese Journal of Health Inspection, 2016, 026(019):2859-2860,2864.
Wei Yi,Zhu Haiyang,Li Huashan,Li Qinglu. Application of N-Fatty Acid Glutamate Surfactant in Daily Chemicals[J].Daily Chemical Science,2003(04):20-23.
Wang Xiaolei, Tan Zhi, Tian Ye, et al. Effects of Different Hand Hygiene Methods on the Effect of Hand Hygiene in Medical Staff[J]. Chinese Journal of Disinfection, 2018, v.35;No.201(05):34-35+39.
Pang Dong, Zheng Xiuxia, Shang Shaomei, et al. Effects of different surgical hand disinfection methods on hand skin[J]. Chinese Journal of Hospital Infectious Diseases, 2006, 16(5):539-541.
Author: Flying Little Leather Police
Edit: Luna, Little Flute
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