Father and son using wash hand sanitizer gel in the park before a snack.
Many people use hand sanitizer constantly. They carry miniature bottles with them, help themselves to sanitizer stations out in public, and even make their own at home during sanitizer shortages.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
Measures used to prevent the spread of viruses, such as increased frequency of hand washing and the use of hand sanitizers, are likely helpful in slowing the spread of illnesses. However, that frequency of use also has a significant impact on the skin barrier and the skin biomes, potentially causing dysbiosis, which can lead to undesirable skin issues.
In this article, we’ll unpack the causes of each of these issues, as well as how to help restore the skin biome when such issues arise.
The ancillary effects of attempted hand sanitizing
Simply washing hands with water removes most transient microbes that we pick up throughout the day, and washing with soap will absolutely do the trick. While alcohol-based hand sanitizers are very useful in settings where there is an increase in the transmission of pathogens (such as hospitals), there are no additional health benefits to habitual hand sanitizing unless a person doesn’t have access to running water.
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Thomas Hitchcock Thomas Hitchcock, Ph.D., is the Chief Science Officer for Crown Laboratories, where he oversees clinical development, medical affairs, biological sciences, product development, and research and development for the privately held, fully integrated global company dedicated to developing and providing a diverse portfolio of safe and effective scientific solutions for life-long healthy skin. Dr. […]
Any time we attempt to sterilize the skin — through hand sanitizing or hand washing — we adjust the skin biome to some capacity, depending on how aggressively we wash and how antimicrobial the soaps or sanitizers are. However, we can never literally sanitize the skin with those methods.
For instance, if we touch something “germy,” it is likely that washing our hands with a gentle cleanser will remove any surface-level, transient microbes we might have picked up. Yet, many people are seeking out soaps and detergents that claim to have the most antimicrobial activity but are also extremely harsh on the skin. Such products not only kill any pathogenic microbes on the surface of the skin, but also kill the majority of the commensal, or “good,” microbes. They also strip the skin’s natural barrier, making it more likely a person would get an infection. By over-cleansing or over-sanitizing, it is also possible to increase the risk of infection from opportunistic pathogens. So, when it comes to protecting ourselves against airborne pathogens, the real question is where, is the line between clean enough and too clean?
Then, there is the safety of the products we use to consider. With the surge in demand for hand sanitizers in recent years came an onslaught of products that had alcohol contents either higher or lower than advertised, which can affect how effective they are in killing microbes. Additionally, impurities, such as benzyne, were found in many products, bringing into question whether they were safe to use. These are things we cannot identify simply by picking up a bottle of sanitizer, and most of us don’t have analytical chemistry labs at our disposal. So, we were at the mercy of those companies making the sanitizers. Additionally, depending on the formulation of the sanitizers, they can be very drying and strip the skin barrier as well.
How to restore the skin biome and barrier
So, how can we help our skin get back to normal? Well, the answer is simple. Get rid of excessive cleansing habits and adopt a more moderate hygiene routine. Wash your hands or use sanitizers in a reasonable way. When left alone, the skin biome tends to be able to restore its balance. When microbiomes are allowed to grow again, they usually find healthy equilibriums naturally.
Most microbiomes are resilient and will reestablish themselves at healthy levels when we stop excessive sanitizing habits. Like most things in life, it’s all about balance. Wash your hands when you need to, but don’t wash just because it’s a habit or you “feel dirty.” If you haven’t touched anything that someone with a contagious pathogen has or may have touched recently, then you might want to reconsider whether you need to wash or sanitize your hands.
Trust your immune system
The more things we expose our immune systems to, the stronger they get. The fact is that if we were as susceptible to bacteria and getting contaminated as some would lead us to believe, we would quickly die after birth. Sure, some people are immunocompromised and require a bit of extra care, but this is not the norm — only 2% of the population are immunocompromised). Still, despite having very capable and functional immune systems, we continue to over-sanitize and over-cleanse.
The skin is one of the largest (if not the largest) immune organs in the body. So, what grows on the skin does affect our immune systems and health overall. Once we embrace that healthy skin is always going to be covered in billions of microbes — all the time — it can change our outlook on what constitutes healthy hygiene.
The fact that our skin is covered in microbes is not up for debate; it is just fact. Whether the majority of microbes are the “healthy” kind is the real question. Much of this depends on how we take care of our skin and whether we allow our skin to self-regulate using topicals focused on whole-skin biome care or whether we opt to disrupt the environment of the skin with products that are not conducive to biome balance. The more we help the public understand the necessity of maintaining the skin biome and building — and trusting — our immune systems, the healthier we’ll become as a society.
Photo: galitskaya, Getty Images
Thomas Hitchcock, Ph.D., is the Chief Science Officer for Crown Laboratories, where he oversees clinical development, medical affairs, biological sciences, product development, and research and development for the privately held, fully integrated global company dedicated to developing and providing a diverse portfolio of safe and effective scientific solutions for life-long healthy skin. Dr. Hitchcock is a formally trained scientist with expertise in molecular genetics, microbiology, and dermatology. He has 20+ years of research experience, including basic science, preclinical, and clinical research across several therapeutic areas. He has also been issued patents on his inventions in aesthetic medicine, dermatology, and microbiology. Dr. Hitchcock lectures and presents his research internationally. His work has been published in notable journals such as the “Journal of Biological Chemistry,” “Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences,” “Clinics in Plastic Surgery and Nature,” “Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology,” “Aesthetics Surgery Journal,” “Nucleic Acid Research,” and “Cell Transplantation.”
