#7 KEEP THE BODY CLEAN AND WELL GROMMED

Importance of Maintaining Personal Body Hygiene

Brief Synopsis: Tips and reasons why it is important to practice good personal hygiene.

"Good hygiene includes regularly and thorough washing of the person's body, hair, hands, as well as brushing and flossing teeth, caring for gums and keeping the feet clean."

The way to a beautifully maintained body is to give your body plenty of care and love. Hygiene is more than simply being clean. Practicing personal hygiene helps you to live a healthy lifestyle. Personal hygiene helps to prevent people from catching or spreading forms of disease or illness. From a simple perspective, hygiene means to be clean. Your health depends on your personal hygiene.

Caring for your appearance and body smells is important to a person's self-esteem. Body hygiene is the principle of maintaining cleanliness, as well as grooming of the external body. People have been aware of hygiene for thousands of years. People in history have spent hours in the bath taking care of their bodies and making themselves presentable to others.

Maintaining a high level of personal hygiene helps to increase a person's confidence and self-esteem. If your body is clean and taken care of externally, it automatically helps you to feel good internally too. Personal hygiene depends upon the culture in which a person lives. 'Culture,' in this context does not mean just the country or city a person lives in, it also means the group in which you spend most of your time with.

Body hygiene is important for everyone; it does not cost much to be clean, yet to be clean it is expected that your body should be washed at least once each day. If possible; besides washing, use a deodorant to stop body odor. At times, regular bathing in conjunction with anti-antiperspirants and deodorants do not help and are not useful in ridding yourself of body odor. The reason may be due to another medical condition. Even the intake of onions and garlic give a person a bad body odor. Body odor might also be a sign of liver dysfunction, diabetes, thyroid issues, or another medical condition.

A person needs to maintain body hygiene not just for the sake of their own health. You may judge a person by their personal hygiene, it gives you a picture of the person's personality. Someone who adheres to body hygiene will be better equipped to fight any sort of disease or illness. Every day a person is exposed to:

• Dust
• Smoke
• Pollution
• Bacteria
• Road grime
• The workplace
• Heavy traffic fuels

Just to name a few things. A person's clothing becomes unpleasant and dirty at the end of the day as they are worn the entire day. Sweat begins to make a person's body sticky, resulting in dust and dirt sticking to their body. At the end of the day, the person ends up carrying germs back to their own home. The bacteria on a person's skin makes their body stale and their body begins to give out a bad odor. The person's hair starts to get dirty as well.

For the majority of people, cleanliness is an important issue; poor hygiene is unhealthy and unacceptable. Good hygiene includes regularly and thorough washing of the person's body, hair, hands, as well as brushing and flossing teeth, caring for gums and keeping the feet clean. A buildup of bacteria can harm a person's health, although you can keep your body clean by caring for your hair, skin, eyes, nails and so forth. What follows are suggestions for pursuing personal hygiene.

Oral Cleanliness: Keep your teeth and gums clean. Brush at least twice a day to remove bad odor and food particles from your mouth. Floss at least once each day.

Loofah: People who live in warm areas sweat a lot and need to take care of the dirt and grime on their bodies. Use a gentle loofah to get rid of the dead cells on your body.

Use Clean Bed Linen: Be sure to change your bed linen each week. It is not necessary that your linen should be costly, but your sheets and pillows should be kept clean. Air your bedding out regularly; once per week.

Wash Your Hands: Wash your hands before and after you eat, before or after touching a wound, using the bathroom, after sneezing or coughing, after touching garbage, and after touching or playing with pets or any animal.

Essential Oils: The main purpose of having a bath and cleaning your body is to get it smelling good and make it clean. While having a shower, use a few drops of essential oils - it will make you smell fresh for a longer period of time.

Antiperspirants and Deodorants: Deodorants work to hide a person's body odor while antiperspirants work to dry up or control perspiration. Several products now contain both a deodorant and an antiperspirant. Different women and men use different products to suit them and in accordance with their tastes.

Change Your Clothing Regularly: Do not re-wear your clothes without washing them. It is harmful for people who perspire profusely. Make sure you wash your clothing in a good detergent with lukewarm water. Dry your clothing, perhaps in the sun; it gets rid of the remaining bacteria. Do not share underwear with anyone.

Scented Soaps, Colognes and Perfumes: A number of people use some kind of scented soap, cologne, or perfume. At first, these were used in order to mask or cover up body odor; now many people use them as a way of showing their individuality. Not everyone uses these products and some people prefer a more natural smell. It is not bad to use these products, yet you should definitely be careful to use them on sensitive skin because it may cause irritation - either to you, or to another person.

Menstrual Hygiene

All human rights stem from the fundamental right to human dignity. When women and girls are forced into seclusion, have to use soiled and damp materials, or fear leaking or smelling because of inadequate menstrual hygiene - dignity is hard to maintain. A lack of adequate menstrual hygiene denies women and girls their right to health, education, as well as the right to work in favorable conditions. A number of girls drop out of school when they begin menstruating due to reasons at times related to inadequate water, hygiene and sanitation at school, or harsh menstrual taboos. It signifies discrimination, hampers gender equality, as well as infringing on their right to education. While the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners demand that men be able to shave, there is no provision to make sure that women have the ability to manage their menstruation adequately.

How to Keep the Integumentary System Healthy

Keep your skin healthy by washing your face with a gentle cleanser

When you look at yourself in a mirror, nearly everything you see is a part of the integumentary system. It consists of your skin, hair, nails and various glands, such as sweat and oil glands. Taking care of this body system will benefit your overall health and keep you looking young.

Step 1

Bathe every day and wash your hands regularly. Keep your skin and nails clean to prevent infections. Avoid using harsh soaps, hair treatments and other irritating chemicals, as they will cause excessive dryness. Water that's too hot will have the same effect, so use warm water in the shower or bath. Cut your fingernails and toenails straight across after bathing to avoid hangnails.

Step 2

Apply sunscreen before you spend time outdoors. Choose a formula that protects against both UVA and UVB radiation and has an SPF of 15 or higher. Over time, too much sun exposure contributes to wrinkles, skin cancer, freckles, aging and dilated blood vessels. Avoid using tanning beds because they are also damaging to your skin.

Step 3

Eat a healthy well-balanced diet. Foods that are rich in antioxidants are good for your skin, according to Georgia Health Info, but consuming a lot of meat can contribute to wrinkles. Eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts and fish. Remember to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water.

Step 4

Examine your entire body on a regular basis. Check for abnormal growths, signs of skin cancer, and anything else that looks out of the ordinary in your skin. See a dermatologist right away if you have an unusual sore that isn't healing properly. You should also consult a doctor about a mole that is larger than 1/4 of an inch across or has an irregular border, uneven coloring or a rough surface.

Step 5

Avoid wearing things that are too tight on your body. Pick shoes that fit your feet properly, because a tight fit can cause ingrown toenails that become painful and infected. Clothes and jewelry that are too constricting may interfere with blood circulation. Don't put rubber bands in your hair too tightly, or they will break individual strands of hair.

Step 6

Don't smoke cigarettes. Smoking causes wrinkles and ages your skin. It constricts blood vessels, which prevents your integumentary system from getting the nutrients it needs in order to be healthy.