What's under your nails?

Even in the cleanest nails it lurks a large amount of bacteria: a search of 1998 conducted on students of Dermatology University of Pennsylvania pointed out as the nails it harbored hundreds of volunteers, the same as in much greater quantities were present on the fingertips and palms of hands.

The subungual space, that is, the one between the skin and the inner surface of the nail, is in fact the ideal environment for the proliferation of bacteria: the shell keratin protects them from the external environment, including washes, while the heat of the body guarantees the right temperature and an adequate humidity.

ARTIFICIAL. The quantity of bacteria is even greater in people that use artificial nails, which being usually longer than normal will accommodate many more.

From the practical point of view this means that washing hands, also practices recommended by the WHO as the most basic form of prevention against various diseases, it is not enough to completely eliminate microorganisms hidden under the nails: to reduce the amount you must also keep nails short and very, very clean.