Health Matters; Hygiene

Good afternoon, dearest members of healthy Steem? I hope everyone is doing fine as the year is almost coming to an end. I wanna appreciate @sahmie for this contest titled Hygiene. It's quite unfortunate that some people unknowingly take their hygiene for granted, and overlook the reason that it is the reason they fall sick. There is a saying that "cleanliness is next to godliness" so I'll be talking about hygiene generally in this post. Personal hygiene is very important because it's the key to good health. Apart from eating good food which helps us to be strong and healthy, personal hygiene is very important because health is wealth. The way we keep our surroundings, our body cleanliness, our food and water can make or mar is.

Personal hygiene makes us healthy and feel confident. It is very important as it connects all aspects of our lives, health wise, financially, physically and otherwise. Let me explain how important it is.

• A person who keeps his environment clean or himself or herself clean will not fall sick, and therefore will not have to spend unnecessary money.

• Anyone who doesn't observe personal hygiene will fall sick in the long run and will eventually end up spending lots of money to get better. And not just money, but time trying to recuperate so time and money will be lost.

A person who doesn't observe personal hygiene will lose a lot as people will not want to associate with the person due to his or her unhygienic values, so he or she may lose his job and other things like customers.

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Daily personal hygiene habits has to do with those things one has to do daily that will help ones health now and I'm the future.

• Brushing of teeth twice a day is very important and should be done daily. While there are people that might not want to brush twice, once can be managed but it must be everyday. This will prevent mouth odour so that when you speak with others, they may not suffer from your bad breath.
• Bathing should be done daily, at least once a day. The odour that comes from a dirty body can make others suffer from associating with you. Also shave your armpits. Sometimes, a person may bath, but it's the armpits hair that smells, so shaving it should be done at least once a week.
• Sweeping the house should be done daily. A dirty house or environment breeds germs which can spread to food which a person eats.
• Your underwear especially as a lady should be washed daily and not heaped to be washed at the end of the week or month. This is because it has to do with your inner system and if infection takes place, it might lead to fault in the reproductive system.
• Your hands should be washed everyday and not just when you are bathing. It should be washed as often as possible. Before preparing a meal, before and after eating, after using the toilet, etc.

Our hygiene affects our relationships with others in various ways.

• It makes others either associate or decide not to associate with us. Example, everyone will always one to associate with a neat person with a nice body fragrance but will avoid someone who always have a body odour or whose mouth smells badly.

• People will avoid someone who is always sick due to dirty habit. They will not also want to be friends with a person who lives in an untidy environment neither will they want to visit the person. They will also try to avoid getting infected by such a person.

• A person who is clean or observes personal hygiene will attract people to hos or her business. He will have many customers and will also get referrals. This will result to a long time relationship which will promote the person financially and otherwise.

• A person who has body odour, wear dirty clothes, smells of cigarettes or alcohol will be avoided by others as they will not want to have physical contact with him or her or be in close proximity to the person.

Different cultures around the world practice different hygiene practices. Let's look at some of them.

• In Arab and African countries, especially Nigeria where I come from, the hand is washed before eating because we use our hands to eat food like pounded yam, garri which is flour made from cassava, fufu etc. But in other cultures, forks and knives are used.

• Also, while some cultures use tissue or toilet paper to clean themselves after using the toilet, some like the Yoruba culture of Nigeria wash with water after using the toilet. In Thailand, Egypt and Turkey, water is used to clean ones self after using the toilet.

• In some countries, nose mask is still used even after coronavirus has gone. Though the use of nose mask was as a result of the pandemic that occurred in 2020. In a country like Japan, nose mask was already 8sed even before the pandemic especially when someone had cold or cough just in order not to infect others. Also, Washing basins are sill provided in some public places to help people wash their hands from time to time to avoid spreading of disease or infection.

• Finally, the moslems wash their hands, mouth, nostrils, arms, face, ears, hair and feet before praying and this is an important part of purity and cleanliness in Islam.

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Hygiene plays a very big role in preventing the spread of illness. Let's look at the period of the coronavirus pandemic. One of the things that helped in reducing death and the spread of coronavirus was hygiene. People used facemask, they washed their hands often and there was no shaking of hands. Items were not even shared unless very necessary.

One person's unhygienic habit or dwelling place can lead to the person's infection and from there it spreads to others and many might end up in the hospital resulting to death of many. Practicing good hygiene habits kills germs and bacteria that carries diseases as risk of transmission is reduced.

Being hygienic is not just the duty of one person but everyone, cos sooner or later, whatever is the result will affect everyone. It's quite sad that in some households, the refuse bin is kept directly opposite to where the people stay or sleep. This is an aberration that should be looked into.

The refuse bin should not be kept close to living quarters and should be emptied when filled up.

Having good hygienic habits prevents us spending money on drugs and in hospitals. It's cheaper to live hygienically than to cure sickness gotten through bad hygiene.

Our children should be taught good hygiene habits right from a very young age as they tend to practice what they grew up doing.

Keeping our surroundings clean should be part of us.

We are to always practice good hygiene habits and also encourage others to do so too. Never turn a blind eye to an unhygienic environment as it might affect you later. Cleanliness should be practiced everywhere, not just when we are in the public while we keep our surroundings at home dirty because no one sees us. Cleanliness is next to Godliness. You can't be praying to God in a dirty environment.