In 2022, Melaleuca ran a series of features they called The Skin You’re In aimed at highlighting interesting facts about our skin and the benefits of properly caring for it. As someone who is a bit of an information junky and favors knowing things, I found the pieces interesting. There was one in particular that really stood out to me and actually resulted in a permanent change to one of my own personal care habits.
The feature cited an obscure fact I never heard of which made me even wonder how such info was acquired. They stated that 20% of the population does not scrub below their waist in the shower but simply assume the soap bubbles running down their body is good enough—the kind of faulty logic comedy skits are made of. It’s mildly entertaining to speculate about how this information was discovered and cataloged.
Was there a man on the street with a clipboard asking strangers how they shower? Regardless of how this happened, one of every five people you know are lacking in truly proper personal hygiene, which provides a source of amusement when reflecting on your social life, especially those who are not Melaleuca customers and perhaps not good candidates for becoming one.
They also pointed out that our feet have 125,000 sweat glands each. Is it any wonder the feet can become so smelly?!
While making this point they raised another issue that we instinctively know to be true if you just think about it. Bad bacteria thrive in dark, moist, and warm places. Our feet inherently contain that perfect breeding ground right between the toes. It’s an anciently recognized truth. Darkness and evil have been closely associated through time and culture. Even the Bible in Psalm 91 uses the expression, “The pestilence that stalks in the darkness.”
I had never been consistent on scrubbing between my toes before reading this but I saw the “light,” repented of my “dark” ways, and corrected my previous sin.
There’s one more funny part to share in my experience. I don’t recall how we got on this topic with some friends but when I mentioned the part about the 125,000 sweat glands on each human foot, my friend said to me, “Don’t you hate it when someone fact checks you while you are talking?” He then immediately looked it up and found out I quoted the number exactly right. That’s me though. If I state a hard fact I make sure to be accurate. Otherwise I make clear I am being approximate or I don’t recall exact specifics. That ought to be common practice but there are those among us who are sloppy with just showering, let alone the presentation of information.
Remembering the 125,000 number is good but not required. All you really need to remember is to wash off well when you shower. Melaleuca personal (skin) care products will do their job well if you just do that. There’s also great value in being informed about skin care, something about which Melaleuca does a proactive job of sharing.