Question: Which hand based bacteria are good for you, and how can we ensure we don't damage them when washing our hands?

Peter Elliott answered on 18 Jun 2014:

There are a wide range a bacteria that exist on our skin and for the most part they either take from us without damaging us or those that take from us and also give something positive back. One of the latter ones is Staphylococcus bacteria. It has been suggested that this bacteria can stop excessive inflammation which can lead to unwanted skin conditions.

These bacteria are great whilst they remain on your skin but if they get into your blood they can cause serious infections as in the different environment they become pathogens.

It is estimated that there are over a trillion micro organisms on your skin which exist in a balanced state. When you wash your hands you are going to have very little impact on those organisms that inhabit your skin in the long term. But what you will remove are any dangerous organisms that you might pick up whilst going to the loo for example. This is why it is important to wash your hands before eating so that you don’t accidentally introduce any pathogens that could harm you.

However, if we were concerned about the impact on these bacteria we could use antiviral targeting soaps to protect all the bacteria on our hands bug I would be very cautious about such a technique.