Contrary to popular belief, a healthy lifestyle doesn’t just mean eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly. Another major factor, although less recognized, that impacts your health and wellness is personal hygiene and cleanliness of the body and the environment.
Cleanliness can be a relative term, but most dictionaries describe it as a state or habit of always being neat, tidy, and free from dirt. Additionally, it’s typical to associate cleanliness habits with more obvious behaviors like showering, brushing your teeth, or washing clothes, but that’s not all it is. Your environment and surroundings, which are often not considered, can also severely impact your health. Since most diseases and health concerns arise from microorganisms manifesting in unsanitary conditions, keeping your atmosphere hygienic is an excellent way to combat illnesses.
This problem is a lot bigger than you might think. Even US military bases like Camp Lejeune in North Carolina have seen a fair share of how contaminated environments can drastically damage health. And so, to better convince you, this article has seven reasons why cleanliness is essential for living a healthy lifestyle.
Prevents diseases
The source of many diseases and infections is microorganisms all around us. Simple hygienic practices like regularly washing your hands, showering, and cooking your food can kill these germs and keep them from infecting your body. Additionally, maintaining clean environments, whether at home or in public spaces, minimizes the spread of contagious diseases and keeps you safe.
Sometimes, you may also unknowingly get exposed to contaminated surroundings. For example, those who lived or worked at Camp Lejeune might have encountered contaminated drinking water. Long-term exposure to this toxic water can cause fatal health issues with poor prognoses. Affected individuals can now file for a Camp Lejeune water lawsuit. It’s also possible that many casualties due to its consumption would not have happened had the proper authorities implemented cleanliness practices like treating the drinking water.
Boosts performance and productivity
You’ll be surprised to learn how healthy you feel when your body doesn’t have to fight off an infection every few weeks. With a clean and germ-free environment, the body can thrive and function effectively. This maintains the overall productivity of the workforce and allows individuals to complete their tasks without getting tired or overburdened. It also reduces the chances of employees falling ill and low workplace attendance. Clean and organized work environments also encourage employees to stay focused on the task and give them the mental clarity to get a job done.
Besides taking care of your hygiene, ensuring your everyday tools and equipment regularly get cleaned is essential. This practice prevents cross-contamination of pathogens and reduces the chances of a machine malfunctioning due to dust or grime accumulation.
Fosters social wellbeing
A healthy lifestyle encompasses all aspects of an individual’s life—physical, mental, and social. Clean and hygienic practices can help you maintain all these without additional effort. For example, living and keeping surroundings clean creates a sense of pride and accomplishment. It builds a positive atmosphere and makes you more likely to invite others for social interactions.
Public spaces such as parks, playgrounds, cafes, and shopping centers are also excellent places that can promote social cohesion. When cleanliness becomes a primary factor in caring for these places, more people are likely to come and interact, building a close-knit community.
Improves skin health
While many people are conscious of their dietary choices and exercise routines, few emphasize proper skincare regimens. However, when you implement cleanliness habits in your everyday routine, your skin health improves simultaneously. For instance, regular cleansing can help eliminate sweat, dirt, oil, or other impurities embedded in the skin throughout the day. Removing them from the surface prevents clogging of pores which may lead to more severe conditions like acne or breakouts when left uncared for too long.
Other cleanliness habits like regularly showering remove sweat from the body and get rid of all the dead cells and bacteria accumulated on the skin.
Lessens the risk of accidents and injuries
Regularly cleaning your environment and workspaces can significantly reduce the risk of accidents and injuries at home or in offices. Organized spaces help eliminate potential obstacles and hazards that may unknowingly cause someone to trip, fall, or slip. Some places like staircases, basements, and low-lighting areas are more hazardous, and always keeping them clean to prevent accidents is vital.
Depending on your workplace, you may also have to take proper precautions regarding equipment, tools, chemicals, or any other substance used at the company. For example, old and rusty tools promote bacterial growth, and touching these can cause severe health conditions like painful muscle contractions, a locked jaw, or rigidity.
Reduces respiratory problems
Patients with asthma, COPD, pneumonia, or other respiratory conditions often get severely triggered when dust and other pollutants accumulate in the environment. Regularly cleaning surfaces like tabletops and counters, washing the linens, and vacuuming the carpets can significantly reduce their accumulation and lower respiratory problems. It’s also vital to ensure each room of the house regularly gets fresh air and has proper ventilation to circulate it. This practice helps eliminate toxic gases and vapors in the atmosphere and brings oxygen, allowing individuals to breathe and respire better.
Cleanliness also means getting rid of, or at least reducing, the frequency of unhealthy behaviors like smoking. Since this habit causes the accumulation of harmful substances in the lungs and air passages, it causes difficulty breathing and paves the way for more severe illnesses.
Better psychological wellbeing
Studies show that a clean and organized environment helps reduce stress, creates a sense of calm, and improves the overall mental wellbeing of an individual. You’ll likely make better friends and acquaintances when regularly practicing clean and hygienic habits. In contrast, unsanitary conditions like body odor, messy homes, and unhygienic food prevent people from visiting you. So, for a boost in self-confidence and self-image, personal grooming and a clean, presentable house is vital.
Conclusion
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle encompasses several aspects of an individual’s life. While all factors are essential, cleanliness and hygienic habits are highly significant. These include practices at a personal level, cleaning the surroundings, what you consume, and proper sanitation procedures.
Good hygiene and cleanliness habits aren’t necessarily what you do but mainly what you are. Therefore, starting these practices from an early age is best so you and your family can live a long, healthy life.
