We are quick learners by habit. Some things just become second nature to us and we continue going about our daily routine without realizing that we’ve been doing half of them wrong.
It’s time to get out of autopilot mode. Here are 6 everyday health habits you won’t believe you’ve been doing wrong!
1. Taking A Long Shower Every day
A good long shower is one of the basic tenets of practicing good hygiene, or so we think.
The upper delicate layer of our skin secretes natural oils and lipids that play an important role in sealing in the moisture in your skin. Showering involves scrubbing, which gradually destroys this layer of your skin, causing your skin to get dry and flaky.
To avoid this from happening, bring down your shower time to not more than 10 minutes each day and use lukewarm water. You should also avoid toweling yourself dry vigorously, as this may also deplete your skin’s upper layer. Instead, pat yourself dry to blot out the water. Once you’re done, use a good moisturizer to further help lock in the moisture and keep your skin soft and supple!
2. Slipping On A Condom Till The Very End
Even after all those demonstrations of ‘how to put on a condom’ using a banana, men are still doing it wrong.
Ever wondered why condoms have a weirdly designed tip? It’s for the semen to collect post ejaculation.
Most men either wriggle their penises all the way inside to the very tip of the condom, leaving no space in between, or even if they do happen to leave the tip free, they don’t squeeze out the air. Both these practices increase the chances of the latex tearing because the semen that’s spurted out doesn’t have any space to collect, thereby defeating the whole purpose of putting on a condom in the first place.
To avoid an accident, men are advised to squeeze the tip of the condom using their thumb and forefinger while rolling the condom down all the way along the length of their penis up till the base. This way, you can prevent your sex life from springing that unpleasant surprise on you that neither you nor your partner is prepared for.
3. Drying Your Hands Under Jet Dryers
If you thought electric dryers are better for your health than ordinary paper towels, think again. Research says that jet hand dryers are more likely to increase your chances of attracting bacteria than using paper napkins.1 Electric dryers are designed such that they pull in air from the bathroom and then expel this same air out onto our hands. And since the air contained within the closed bathroom space is not exactly the cleanest, all those airborne microbes will be also be discharged along with the hot air onto your hands.
Also, rubbing your hands vigorously under the dryer can also make the bacteria in your skin rise to the surface, thus increasing their chances of spreading to other exposed parts of your body.2
Trust us, you’re better off using paper towels. If you’re a tree lover, comfort yourself – for many companies are making an effort to manufacture paper towels and napkins made from recycled paper.
4. Using Regular Lube While Trying To Conceive
Conceiving a baby is a tough job and it’s not as simple as pushing the P in the V and releasing your sperm. Most women experience vaginal dryness when they strike the ovulation phase, which means sex can be pretty painful for them.
Enter lube, the perfect substitute for that slippery secretion that makes sex so much more enjoyable! However, regular lube can not only interfere with the pH levels of the vagina but can also kill most of the sperms as they race forward to that finish line. These factors reduce the likelihood of successful fertilization, thus foiling your baby-making plans.
Instead, invest in special lube that clearly states that the product is safe to use for couples trying to conceive. This means that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reckons this stuff won’t kill those very important sperms.
5. Topping Your Contact Lens Solution
Most of us lens-wearers are too lazy to empty out the old solution from our lens cases. Instead, we simply pour in some more fresh solution from the bottle for our lenses to bathe in.
The problem with this practice is that the leftover solution has been sitting in that case for so long, it’s already lost its ability to disinfect your lenses. By allowing it to remain in your case and topping it off with just a few additional drops of fresh solution, you’re basically leaving your used lenses to swirl around in a liquid that can no longer do anything to clean them. This is as good as taking off your lenses, washing them with ordinary water and then putting them back on. If this doesn’t put you off, the fact that this practice can increase your risk of infections that impair vision, certainly will.
Instead, we suggest you be a little less lazy and make it a habit to clean and rinse your lens case and then leave it to air-dry. When it’s time for you to take off your lenses again, fill your case with fresh disinfectant solution and then proceed.
References
