While taking a shower is considered a healthy practice, sometimes it could also prove detrimental to your health. But of course, there are a few hygiene steps that you can take to ensure that enjoy and healthy and safe bath. Unless you are muddy and sweaty, there is no room for bathing a number of times every day.

Moreover, health experts believe that it may sound gross to some but bathing a few times a week is fine and you are really not required to overdo it. The reason behind this is bathing too often strips the body of its natural oil making it dry. Moreover, using a soap or shower gel, will get your body exposed to harmful chemicals multiple times.

The market today is filled with various soap options, with each making a wide range of promises including killing bacteria, providing good fragrance and others. However, there are some which also kill the good bacteria on your skin. Several others open a gateway for the good skin of your skin. While the idea seems promising and 'much needed', the reality is it's not needed. Make sure you don't continue to use soaps that seem harsh on skin. Choose a gentle formulation that's sensitive to essential oils, is possible. For shower gels and bathing soaps, choose the which comes with moisturiser. Many don't like the idea of using fragrance-free soaps as they may not be a sensorial delight, but the truth is fragrant soaps can irritate your skin or trigger an existing allergy.

Loofahs are a great bathing tool for people who enjoy bubbly and foamy baths. While they efficiently scrub off dead skin and remove harmful bacteria, they also absorb dirt from your body. Wash them every week by soaking them in warm water diluted with potent cleaning agent and bleach. Though it's easier to find a place for it in your bathroom, it doesn't dry there quickly. Try to put it outside for 10-15 minutes at least so that it dries up quickly and germs are killed under the sun. Make sure to replace your plastic loofah every two months.

Do not clean your bathing towels more often. Weather it is your hand towel or bathing towel, you have to remember one thing your wet towels are breeding grounds for bacteria, mould and other pathogens. Therefore, it becomes extremely important to get your towels cleaned at regular intervals. Whether it's your hand towel or bathing towel, change them and wash them regularly. A wet towel is a breeding ground for bad bacteria, fungi and mold. If used in the right way, it can give you terrible skin infections like warts, yeast and fungal infections.

Most people do not take neck pain seriously. While it is uncomfortable, people attribute it to lifestyle factors like incorrect sitting posture or looking at their phones for too long. However, extended periods of neck pain could be serious.

Most neck pains do not need to be treated as a serious medical threat, however there is an exception. Harvard Health Publishing explains that there's a rare problem worth knowing about: a tear in one of the blood vessels in your neck. Doctors call this cervical artery dissection. It doesn't happen very often – only to about two people out of every 100,000 each year. However, it's a leading cause of strokes in people younger than 50, which makes it important for awareness.

What Is Cervical Artery Tear?

In your neck, there are two sets of important blood vessels: the carotid arteries and the vertebral arteries. Together, these are called the cervical arteries, and they carry blood to your brain. A cervical artery dissection is when there's a tear in the inner lining of one of these blood vessels.

When a tear happens in a cervical artery, blood can leak in between the layers of the artery wall. This leaking blood can form a blood clot. This clot can either completely block the flow of blood through the artery or break off and travel to an artery in the brain. If either of these things happens, it can cause a stroke, which is a serious medical emergency.

Who Should Be Careful?

Cervical artery tears happen more often in younger adults for a couple of reasons. First, some people are born with weak connective tissue in their bodies, which can make their arteries more likely to tear. For these people, a tear in a neck artery is more likely to happen when they are younger. In older people, strokes are often caused by other things, like the arteries in the brain getting narrow because of fatty buildup. But it's still possible for older people to have cervical artery dissections. One study found that some people diagnosed with this problem were over 60.

The second, and maybe a bigger reason why these artery tears are more common in people under 50 is that younger adults are more likely to do activities that involve neck movements that can sometimes cause a tear. There have been reports of dissections happening after things like heavy weightlifting, dancing with a lot of head movements, and even yoga. If certain yoga poses, like a shoulder stand, aren't done correctly, they can bend the neck too far backwards.

You can also bend your neck too far back when you're getting your hair washed at the sink in a hair salon. Even though it doesn't happen very often, there's even a name for it: "beauty parlor stroke syndrome." To be safe, you can ask your hairdresser for a neck extension, which is a little cushion that supports your head so your neck doesn't have to bend so much.

Watch Out for Unusual Neck Pain

If you have a cervical artery dissection, the neck pain is often different from regular neck pain. It might feel strange, it doesn't go away, and it's often joined by a really bad headache. If the tear is in the carotid artery, the pain might spread along the side of your neck and up towards the outside corner of your eye.

If it's in the vertebral artery, it might feel like something sharp is stuck at the base of your skull. If you have this kind of pain, especially if you also have stroke symptoms like dizziness, seeing double, jerky eye movements, feeling unsteady when you walk, or slurred speech, it's important to get medical help right away.

Metagenomics, a cutting-edge diagnostic technique that uses genetic sequencing to identify harmful microbes, is transforming medical science worldwide. According to its developers, this tool can identify all bacteria, fungi, or parasites present in a sample by comparing them against a vast database of millions of pathogens—offering unprecedented accuracy and speed.

In a recent case, a team at Moorfields Eye Hospital arranged for a fluid sample to be taken from inside a patient named Ellie's eye and sent to the metagenomics labs at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). This lab is the only one in the UK officially recognised to carry out metagenomic diagnostic tests for patients and is one of just a few globally.

Currently, standard diagnostic methods for bacterial infections involve growing the sample in a Petri dish. For viruses, PCR tests are commonly used, which became widely known during the COVID-19 pandemic, when millions took swab tests at home to detect infection. However, PCR tests have limitations. Speaking to the BBC, Dr Julianne Brown, principal clinical scientist at the GOSH metagenomics service, explains, "The trouble with PCR is that you have to think of the viruses that might be causing an infection and do a separate test for each and every one. So if you've got an infection with something that's unexpected, rare or not previously known, you won't find it."

In Ellie’s case, metagenomics revealed she had a rare strain of bacterial infection called leptospirosis, typically found in South America. It’s believed she contracted it while swimming in the Amazon River during a 2018 trip to Ecuador and Colombia. Receiving the test results was an emotional experience. She was prescribed three weeks of antibiotics, and within days, her vision began to clear and the inflammation subsided.

Metagenomics Is Expensive Than Normal Diagnostics

A single metagenomics test currently costs around £1,300—considerably more than conventional diagnostic methods. However, as the technology advances and becomes more accessible, experts believe these costs will decline significantly. Regardless, it has unmatched advantages:

No culturing required: It bypasses the need to grow organisms in a lab, saving time and potentially uncovering unculturable microorganisms.

Comprehensive analysis: It can detect a wide range of organisms in a single test.

Rapid results: Faster than traditional methods of isolating and identifying pathogens.

Metagenomics Is The Future

Virologist Professor Judy Breuer, who has been developing metagenomics at GOSH and University College London (UCL) for over a decade, says her team now receives three or four samples per week from hospitals across the UK. These are in addition to the tests carried out on their own patients. She notes that many of these samples come from sterile parts of the body, like the eyes or brain, where traditional testing methods often fail due to the inaccessibility of the bacteria. With the promise of quicker, more accurate results, especially for hard-to-detect infections—metagenomics is proving to be a powerful tool in modern medicine.

In adolescence, it is common to have skin problems due to the sudden influx of hormones. Your skin turns bumpy and red due to pimples and white heads. Acne occurs when the hair follicles in the affected area get clogged with oil and dead skin cells. A lot of people believe that people who have acne just need to wash their face properly. While hygiene is an essential part of skin care, acne can occur due to many factors like bacteria trapped in clogged pores that can cause inflammation, stress, medication etc.

While it is more commonly associated with teens, these can carry into adulthood as well. While adult acne is common, researchers have found a concerning link between it and eating disorders. The study found that people with adult acne are 2.4 more likely to have an eating disorder.

The Link Between Acne and Eating Disorders Explained

The research team, whose work was published in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, found a difference in the likelihood of having acne depending upon their eating disorders. They disocvered that adult participants who had acne were about two and a half times more likely to also have an eating disorder compared to adults who did not have acne. The study looked closely at their information to see this higher chance, and it suggests that people with acne might be more at risk for eating problems. This is something that doctors should pay attention to.

How Can Acne Affect Eating Habits?

The researchers noted that the increased risk of an eating disorder linked to acne remained even after the researchers took into account other things that could potentially influence eating habits. Things like whether there is a history of mood disorders like depression or anxiety, or pre-existing concerns about body image.

After closely observing these points, the researchers suggested that acne itself might play a more direct role in increasing someone's susceptibility to an eating disorder. Even after considering these things, having acne on its own still made it about 65% more likely that someone would have an eating problem. This means that acne itself might play a role in making someone more likely to develop unhealthy eating habits as an adult.

How Was This Study Done?

For their research, the team studied almost 7,400 grown-ups who had been told they had acne. Then, they compared this group to a much bigger group of over 207,000 grown-ups who did not have acne. By looking at both groups and comparing them, the scientists could see if there were more eating problems in the group that had acne. This big comparison helped them find a strong link between having acne and being more likely to also have an eating problem as an adult.

What they found shows that having acne can really be something that makes it more likely for grown-ups to have eating problems. They think that if someone is already worried about things, having acne might make them worry even more about how they look. This could lead to thinking too much about their body and doing unhealthy things with food, like not eating enough.

Experts explain that the study only looked at grown-ups, and he thinks it would be good to study kids and teenagers too, since they often get acne and can also have eating problems. He really wants anyone who thinks they might have an eating problem to get help from a doctor, even if they don't have acne.