Stop touching your face!

A seemingly innocuous activity like touching your face is actually a lot more serious than it really seems. While you might scoff at the idea that touching your face is not good for you, it can actually lead to many undesired consequences, some of them being quite serious.

Here are 3 very good reasons why touching your face is a habit we should all seek to break.

1. Think of the germs

You hands come into contact with hundreds and hundreds of surfaces daily – on these countless surfaces lurk even more germs. Basically, whatever you touch, you pick up dirt and germs from. Now, let’s say you’ve touched your door knob, your car door, your steering wheel, the traffic light button and then your face. That’s right, don’t think you want to keep doing that.

2. Breakout

'Heal Your Skin' author Dr. Ava Shamban, believes that although touching your face may not be the primary cause of acne, this could worsen the condition by adding more bacteria to the already inflamed area. This is especially true for people prone to suffering from acne breakouts, as their skin is believed to be more sensitive.

3. Aggravating the skin

By touching your skin constantly, you may actually cause existing acne to spread to non-infected parts of your face. The bacteria from an infected sebaceous gland on your face may get stuck, so to speak, in surrounding glands and clog those up too! So what may have started out, as a single pimple is now a much larger breakout.

4. Leaves ugly marks

Pimples are actually inflamed oil glands that have become infected. When you squeeze or burst a pimple, you are pressing the bacteria and dirt into your skin. On top of that, you may cause your skin to scar – leaving unsightly craters. So we suggest you keep those hands off that lovely face of yours!

5. Makes you sick

Touching your face could bring about illness, as it spreads bacteria and viruses. It could also serve to worsen illnesses. If you have herpes, for example, and were to have a breakout, touching your face would exacerbate the effects of herpes should you rub your eyes – it can cause blindness!

Written by

Sonia Pasupathy

Healthhygeinetouching your face