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Most people believe that regular hand-washing is the best way to prevent infections. And they’re right: hand-washing does prevent certain infections, but too much washing can actually help some infections along.What’s going on?
很多人認為經常洗手是預防感染的最佳方法。他們是對的：洗手是可以預防某些感染，但是過多的清洗會滋生細菌。這是怎么回事呢？
Right now, there are millions of bacteria from hundreds of different species happily residing on your hands, not to mention your teeth, gums, eyes and ears. These bacteria are either transients or residents. Washing your hands helps remove transientbacteria that are just visiting from foreign places like the sink, doorknob and even other people’s hands. Washing shouldn’t remove your hands’ own resident bacteria,though.
此時此刻，你的手上有成千上萬不同品種的細菌，更不用說你的牙齒，牙齦，眼睛和鼻子了。這些細菌既不是暫住者也不是寄宿者。洗手能夠幫助清洗掉短暫細菌，比如來自水槽，門把手或者其他人的手。可是，洗手不會清除手上的寄生細菌的。
While it’s hard to imagine your hands as a bacterial homeland, these residents are perfectly normal and are important in maintaining your health. They help prevent transientbacteria from settling in, and each resident keeps other residents from overpopulating.
雖然很難想象你的手是細菌的家園，但這些細菌是非常正常的，同時它們對維護你的身體健康有著重要的作用。它們能夠防止暫住細菌定居，保持整個細菌數量的平衡。
If you scrub your skin too frequently, especially with anti-bacterial soap, you could upset resident bacteria, leading to the overpopulation of certain species and local skin infections. Scrubbing away residents might also let transients move in and cause disease. Finally, over washing could break down the skin itself. This allows harmless skin residents to go beneath the skin, where they can become dangerous transients.
如果你過于頻繁地擦洗皮膚，特別是用過抗菌香皂，就可能會打亂寄生細菌的平衡，從而導致某種細菌過剩引起皮膚過敏。洗掉寄生細菌也有可能會讓暫住細菌進入定居引起疾病。最終，過度清洗導致皮膚健康垮掉。這會致使無害的皮膚寄生細菌進入皮膚內，在那兒它們可能成為危險的暫住細菌。
So, while a good wash with soap and water is still a great idea, overwashing might lead to some unpleasant symptoms, not to mention inflamed and unsightly hands.
因此，盡管用香皂洗手是很好的做法，可是，過多的清潔也許會導致一些令人不悅的癥狀，更不用說發炎難看的手了。
