When looking at your closet or clothes, there are only a few things that may occur to you. This could be: doing laundry, how to flaunt your curves, if your dress can keep you warm in the chilly weather, or what to wear for a certain occasion. However, besides keeping the clothes clean and hygienic, have you ever wondered how those clothing items may be ruining your health? Take a look at what those things are!
1. Thongs And Lace Underwear
That seductive pair of laced underwear or thongs may be delightful to look at yourself in, but letting that tight and rough material get close and personal with your rectum and vagina, puts you at risk of getting bacterial or viral infections.
Solution
Wearing lacy underwear should be kept for only certain occasions and NEVER when you’re out for an entire day or moving around a lot. Make sure the underwear you put on is clean and made of a breathe easy material like cotton, when worn for long durations.
2. Colored Underwear
The clothing dyes used to give that flashy red underwear its color, can be a killer for the sensitive skin around your vagina and urethra leading to serious yeast infections or rashes. The worst of the lot are said to be new, colored, and synthetic material underwear.
Solution
It is recommended to wear light colored or white cotton underwear which is not too tight.
3. Bras With An Underwire
Just like metal buttons made of nickel, the hooks of underwired bras are probably made of it too. Moreover, the tight and compressing nature of underwire bras also form painful red indentations on your skin and keep your breasts from breathing or having much blood circulation.
Solution
Wear a slightly loose bra so it is not suffocating you or leaving any marks, unhook your bra whenever you can or don’t wear a bra if you’re at home. Always make sure the underwired area is not touching your skin directly and is insulated by some cloth.
4. Bikini Bottoms
Wearing bathing suits such as a bikini bottoms, especially after soaking up some sun or swimming, are how yeast and bacteria thrive on your body. The synthetic fabric it is made of retains moisture, explained Owen Montgomery, the Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Drexel University College of Medicine in Pennsylvania.
Solution
This doesn’t mean you can’t go for a swim. All you have to do is change into clean and dry bottoms after you get out of the water. Also, make sure you wear slightly loose bikini bottoms because tighter ones reduce air circulation to your lady parts and makes infections a surefire possibility, especially when the sweat seeps into the tight indentures of the waistband.
5. Night Pajamas
Most of us tend to forget about how clean and unclean our nightwear is, like wearing fresh PJ’s just as you wear new underwear every day. As for those who sleep without underwear, you can’t imagine how unhygienic and dangerous it is to wear unclean PJ’s, as they rub or touch your vagina and urethra, which can make it dry and allows bacteria to enter easily.
Solution
Make sure you sleep in clean and comfortable PJ’s every night and always wear some clean undies under your PJ bottoms.
6. Leggings, Stockings And Spandex Tops
They’re so thin and delicate that you may scoff thinking they cause no harm. However, stockings and any form of tight or body hugging shape-wear squish your organs, which can cause stomach compression, pain, and even acidity. Likewise, leggings are also body-hugging and since they rub onto your skin, that causes sweat and oil-build up, which makes them the dirtiest and most unhygienic piece of clothing (as much as your underwear). If you’re the type that wears the same leggings to the gym twice in a row, chances are that you are at risk of getting fungal infections like ringworm, which leads to dry and flakey skin patches which often peel off and burn.
Solution
If you do not want to stop wearing them, at least consider saving them for special occasions and reduce the amount of time you spend in them so you stop suffocating your body parts. Moreover, do wear leggings only once and put them for laundry right away.
7. Normal Jeans And Skinny Jeans
When wearing those butt and leg flaunting skinny jeans, they are compressing the nerves and restricting blood flow to your lower legs, thighs, and groin. Over time this can cause your legs and foot muscles to become worn, out of shape, swell up, and even become numb. Besides compression, tight clothing also causes friction between your skin and the fabric, which rubs off the surface skin cells that contain protective natural oils keeping you from skin infections, rashes, and bacteria. Josh Zeichner, a dermatologist and the Director of Cosmetic and Clinical Research at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City, said that they also make you sweat more and traps heat which becomes a breeding ground for fungal, viral, and bacterial infections, like folliculitis (when hair follicles get suffocated and become in-growths or icky red bumps). In addition, any jeans with a button clasp at the crotch is made up of nickel, said to be one of the most common metals that irritate the skin, causing rashes on the skin it rests on, like below your belly button.
Solution
Assuming you have nickel-causing rashes, for future use, just paint the back and front of the nickel button with clear nail polish, coconut oil, tea tree oil, or stitch a cloth cap on it, as they will create a barrier between the metal and your skin. To keep few other harmful possibilities away, reduce the time spent in skinny jeans and wear them only on occasion. In case of any rashes, use anti-fungal creams to remove them and wear loose clothing. Choose skinny jeans which are stretchy, wash them after wearing them a couple of times, and do not do robust exercises in them such as squatting, as they can squeeze those nerves and cause more serious issues. This may sound extreme to you, but in recent events, a 35-year-old woman who used to squat frequently when wearing skinny jeans, had to stay in the hospital for 4 days! This case was published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. Scary eh?
8. Jumpsuits
As the easiest choice to wear, these one-piece outfits are wonderful to just put on without worry. However, they are a real pain when you have to take them off and put them on again. Right? So, that probably means you don’t go to pee as much and end up drinking lesser water, to lower your number of trips to the bathroom, when wearing them. When holding in your pee, the accumulated urine stagnates in your bladder and causes pain in your pelvic area, which can also result in lower back pain, fever, pain during sex, makes you vulnerable to urinary tract or bladder infections, and affects your digestive system due to low hydration. This was supported by Jill Rabin, a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine in New York.
Solution
Again, keep the jumpsuit for special occasions and limit the amount of time you wear it. Meanwhile, when wearing them, do not compromise on drinking water regularly, but time your pee breaks to at least every 3 hours to save yourself the annoyance.
9. High Heels
Other than the obvious scenario of tripping and falling flat on your face, thereby getting hurt or embarrassing yourself, wearing high heels every day or regularly alters the bone structure of your feet, causes ankle pain and imbalance, and makes your whole ankle to foot area very vulnerable to injuries.
Solution
A study in the International Journal of Clinical Practice said that exercises such as heel lifts (where you stand barefoot and move your feet up to stand on your tippy toes) and heel drops (where you stand at the edge of a stair and slowly lower your heels over the edge, like folding your foot over the step), can help reduce pain and keep your feet from becoming disfigured. If not, wear flats more often.
10. Flip-flops
If you’re the type that hates getting your feet dirty then wearing flip-flops are probably not your thing, so good for you! Scientists have said that wearing flip-flops exposes your feet to disgusting things such as dirt on the road, contaminated water, sweat build up, besides bacteria, viruses, and fungus. These can cause horrid infections such as tiny skin tears, blisters, hangnail, and even weaken your immune system overall. They are also said to affect your spinal posture, cause heel aches, and even disfigure your toes.
Solution
So, let’s keep those flip-flops for the bathroom, beach, pool-side, or gym, shall we? There are tons of easy to wear and carry foot wear out there!
