Althouse: Don't take a shower. Take a bath.

September 14, 2009

Don't take a shower. Take a bath.

"Levels of Mycobacterium avium were 100 times higher [in shower heads] than those found in typical household water supplies. M. avium forms a biofilm that clings to the inside of the shower head... [This] might explain why there have been more cases of these lung infections in recent years, linked with people tending to take more showers and fewer baths. Water spurting from shower heads can distribute bacteria-filled droplets that suspend themselves in the air and can easily be inhaled into the deepest parts of the lungs..."

38 comments:

The Drill SGT said...: that's only a problem for eco-nazi leftists. They jump right in that shower before it heats up in order to save the planet. Same folks that dont flush between toilet uses, for the same reason, water conservation :)

I, on the other hand, turn both shower heads on, and allow them to warm before rinsing my trim torso :); 9/14/09, 7:26 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Of course in a bath you're soaking in your own feces.; 9/14/09, 7:26 PM
The Drill SGT said...: unless you are Japanese :); 9/14/09, 7:28 PM
The Drill SGT said...: The Drill SGT said...
unless you are Japanese :)

Then you soak in somebody else's; 9/14/09, 7:30 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Althouse doesn't have a sonic shower?

Go up to 0:42

Computer activate sonic shower.; 9/14/09, 7:39 PM
Laura(southernxyl) said...: Lead researcher Professor Norman Pace, said: "If you are getting a face full of water when you first turn your shower on, that means you are probably getting a particularly high load of Mycobacterium avium, which may not be too healthy."

Who turns your face up to the shower when you are turning it on?; 9/14/09, 7:47 PM
traditionalguy said...: First one in the shower is the loser. Why not spray lysol disinfectant into the shower head once a week? I blame Bush because he hates poor people.; 9/14/09, 7:51 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: No wait, what? Doesn't the housekeeper spray cleaner on the shower heads? You'd think a little bleach spritz would do it.

That does it!

))) gently closes door (((

* looks up portable coffee can shower *; 9/14/09, 7:56 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Who turns your face up to the shower when you are turning it on?

I usually gage the temperature from outside.

I know its not the greenest thing but there is no way around it.

wv - rhole; 9/14/09, 8:02 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: This is what happens when you turn your face up to the shower when you are turning it on.

Its a no no ;); 9/14/09, 8:11 PM
knox said...: This is another one of those bogus health scares.; 9/14/09, 8:14 PM
Anonymous said...: Turn it on, walk into the office to check email, walk back when it is good and hot.; 9/14/09, 8:14 PM
Wince said...: What a great way to pick up some interesting techniques.

You all don't mind if I take some notes?; 9/14/09, 8:15 PM
bagoh20 said...: Start water
Read Althouse for 12 hours.
Turn off water
plan shower for tomorrow; 9/14/09, 8:23 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: If you turn on the hot water first until it comes out steaming hot then turn on the cold water you should be fine.

That piece is nothing but a morsel of alarmist malarkey.; 9/14/09, 8:30 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Turn the shower on.

Grab the blouse or pants or whatever I plan to wear and am too lazy to actually iron.

Spritz with water. Throw into the dryer along with those ball thingies that look like dog toys. Turn to "tumble press".

Go back to the shower which is now scalding hot. Turn the temp down and step in.

Also occasionally spray with bleach or lysol as already stated.; 9/14/09, 8:31 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/14/09, 8:32 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Thanks to Americans, looks like Europeans have found yet another reason not to bathe.

We cant even do that right.

lol; 9/14/09, 8:38 PM
Shanna said...: Grab the blouse or pants or whatever I plan to wear and am too lazy to actually iron.
Spritz with water. Throw into the dryer along with those ball thingies that look like dog toys.

My technique is a wet rag.

I don't care what the germs are, my hair never feels quite completely clean if I rinse it in the bath instead of the shower. And I never walk in for the first blast, because like everyone else except scientists, I wait until it gets hot.; 9/14/09, 8:48 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: James Taylor is sending people to their deaths ;); 9/14/09, 8:51 PM
former law student said...: Don't take a shower. Take a bath.

If I followed that advice I'd have to switch to baby wipes or something:

Years ago, I had a cyst near my tailbone. (Not a hairy cyst like Rush's Get-out-of-war-free card, but cysty enough). It got infected, and quite painful. I ended up going to a clinic every few days to get it packed with about a hundred feet of kite string. At home, my beloved wife was able to pour hydrogen peroxide on it before covering it with gauze. Finally it was healed enough for them to take it out (about the size of a large pea).

Along the way, I asked what I had done to experience that particular thrill. The doc asked "Do you take baths?" I said yes. He said, essentially, that taking a bath was like soaking in a fecal soup, and that if I wanted to avoid cysts in the future I should always take showers.; 9/14/09, 8:55 PM
Penny said...: Whoa, we are left with some pretty bad options here. I will not bathe in my own feces, but I am afraid to take a shower tonight. Thanks for nothing, Lem! That Psycho shower scene scares me just thinking about it, and I doubt that I am the only lady who feels that way.; 9/14/09, 9:03 PM
Anonymous said...: There's one type of shower that's germ-free: golden.

Peter; 9/14/09, 9:09 PM
Penny said...: Trying to get my mind off the shower business, so let me follow Theo Boehm's lead with more about the relationship of the American's and the Europeans.

I was listening to Mountain Stage last night and Billy Bragg was performing when he wasn't shooting his mouth off. I will quote him loosely:

What is it with American Exceptionalism? You really need to get over this, America. It's time for you to get in step with the rest of us, and you can start by providing each and every person in this country with government healthcare.

Envy much, Billy?; 9/14/09, 9:13 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I don't have a bathtub.

Did somebody say shower voucher program?

wv - forgi; 9/14/09, 9:29 PM
KCFleming said...: File this under the standard medical news topic #3: Secret things that will kill you.

It's slightly less popular than topic #2: What your doctor doesn't know or won't tell you that will kill you.

If you tried to follow all their advice, you'd soon find suicide is the best preference.; 9/14/09, 9:33 PM
Shanna said...: Trying to get my mind off the shower business, so let me follow Theo Boehm's lead with more about the relationship of the American's and the Europeans.

I always think, when I hear some sort of admonishment to america to act more like europe, that we left europe for a reason. I mean, some of those people still have a monarchy! We're doing our own thing over here.; 9/14/09, 9:48 PM
Fred4Pres said...: But showers save precious water and are good for the evirnoment. At least I have been told that.

That only leaves washing in the fountain in the back yard. A bit much, especially in the winter. Makes me feel like Bill Murray in Caddyshack.

Can't you just spray the shower head with Lysol?; 9/14/09, 9:55 PM
BJM said...: Baths can be the source of female bladder infections too.

wv: pienifer - Wot the server is called in an East End pie shop.; 9/14/09, 10:28 PM
MadisonMan said...: Whenever I read something like that, that starts This might explain why..., I always say to myself or it might not and I turn the page.; 9/14/09, 10:32 PM
BJM said...: You have to laugh, Brazilians are being encouraged to pee in the shower and we're obsessing about germs in the shower head.; 9/14/09, 11:27 PM
Kirk Parker said...: bagoh20, are you stalking me or something???

No, seriously, you've got Best Comment for this thread already!; 9/15/09, 12:07 AM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/15/09, 2:31 AM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/15/09, 8:20 AM
A.W. said...: this just goes to show what i have said for years. We are going to find out that everything we thought was good for us is bad for us, and everything we thought was good for us is bad for us.; 9/15/09, 9:04 AM
Beth said...: Overnight, I've come to realize the study was probably funded by the shower fixture industry. There will be people will go out and buy a new one - I'll probably do that, in fact, having realized I haven't done so for many, many years - and in the meantime, they'll come out with a bacteria-resistant shower head, and get a whole second round of sales.; 9/15/09, 4:26 PM
PeterP said...: Forgive my ignorance, but what precisely is a 'shower' if not a short burst of rainfall?

English gentlemen only ever take a bath. It is, furthermore, an arrant lie to suggest that English gentlemen only ever take cold baths. Ours are perfectly temperatured thank you.

When we bathe in company, we of course ensure that we take the taps' end - Ann and I have this natural understanding. (Quite what the arrangements are for male homosexualists I cannot report, but I am confident some amicable solution is found.)

How strange one should have forgot how potent is the Divine Ms Althouse allure.; 9/15/09, 6:09 PM
BJM said...: @Beth - take the shower head off and soak it in a broad spectrum disinfectant over night.

We de-scale ours monthly to remove the calcium build-up, it's an easy fix.; 9/16/09, 5:11 PM