Are beards good for your health?
As one newspaper put it: '"Some beards contain more poo than a toilet."
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35350886
Why do so many Pro Racing Cyclists now have Beards ?
- Anthony.R.Brown
- Posts: 75
- Joined: 8 Mar 2021, 7:16pm
Re: Why do so many Pro Racing Cyclists now have Beards ?
Have you read the article that you've just cited?
"Well, the researchers were surprised to find that it was the clean-shaven staff, and not the beardies, who were more likely to be carrying something unpleasant on their faces.
The beardless group were more than three times as likely to be harbouring a species known as methicillin-resistant staph aureus on their freshly shaven cheeks. MRSA is a particularly common and troublesome source of hospital-acquired infections because it is resistant to so many of our current antibiotics.
So what's going on? The researchers suggested that shaving might cause micro-abrasions in the skin "which may support bacterial colonisation and proliferation".
Perhaps. But there was another more plausible explanation staring them in the face. That beards fight infection.
Unlikely? Well, driven by curiosity we recently swabbed the beards of a random assortment of men and sent them off to Dr Adam Roberts, a microbiologist based at University College London, to see what, if anything, he could grow.
Adam managed to grow over 100 different bacteria from our beards, including one that is more commonly found in the small intestine. But, as he quickly explains, that doesn't mean it came from faeces. Such findings are normal and nothing to worry about."
Jonathan
- Anthony.R.Brown
- Posts: 75
- Joined: 8 Mar 2021, 7:16pm
Re: Why do so many Pro Racing Cyclists now have Beards ?
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention graphic from 2017 has resurfaced in the wake of coronavirus panic, showing which facial hair styles could render respirators useless.
https://www.post-gazette.com/news/healt ... 2002270116
https://www.post-gazette.com/news/healt ... 2002270116
- kylecycler
- Posts: 1378
- Joined: 12 Aug 2013, 4:09pm
- Location: Kyle, Ayrshire
Re: Why do so many Pro Racing Cyclists now have Beards ?
Ah well, you've just blown my excuse for being a lazy dirty ****** out of the water!Jdsk wrote: ↑3 Jul 2021, 2:52pmThe hygiene hypothesis needs to be accompanied with a lot of warnings about uncertainties. But there's much more evidence for effect in early life than there is for anything in adults.kylecycler wrote: ↑3 Jul 2021, 2:10pmI does make you think, though. I'm sure there's something to the hygiene aspect of it, but it's fairly well established that excessive hygiene, just generally, weakens the immune system and vice versa, so you never know, maybe you're healthier with a beard because of that.
And much of the concern isn't about weakening the immune system but about causing overreaction, for example with allergies and inflammation.
Jonathan
Actually, though, concerning face masks, I did find that as the beard grew longer, the face mask fitted less and less well. Not just that it fitted less tightly but it would even slip down. I knew the advice was to be clean shaven from the point of view of the mask fitting tightly so I've been shaving since*.
* ok that's a lie!
Re: Why do so many Pro Racing Cyclists now have Beards ?
: - )
Jonathan
Jonathan