My wife works in a hospital, and she has been trained to always wash her hands. I on the other hand have always said that I am building my immune system by introducing my body to germs.
Not sure whose right here, but interesting theory nonetheless.
I think that at a hospital you aren't washing your hands for yourself but for others that (probably) have compromised immune systems already. I know it kind of goes without saying.
I know that the people I know that work at a day care got sick a lot initially (and so did their partners from them) but not so much anymore. I wonder if hospital staff have that happen as well?
Since nurses & doctors work with so many patients, it's very easy for them to carry someone else's disease to another room with a weaker immune system.
It's also that there are people in hospitals who are exceptionally sick, too. I was always a lot less worried in a trauma-focused hospital than in local clinics which served local nationals with a variety of illnesses and huge numbers of parasites.
Yup. And they wash their hands before and after to avoid cross-contamination with people outside the hospital.
This is the same reason cooks are supposed to be careful about doing this as well: if they contaminate the food, that's a vector for spreading stuff. It simply matters a little less because the actual process of cooking has sanitation purposes.
I think the hygiene hypothesis implies a golden mean: enough immune challenge to keep it functioning normally, but then too much challenge is just bad.
Not sure whose right here, but interesting theory nonetheless.