Japanese scientists have recognized beard useful for health

A study of Japanese physicians from Kurume University serves as an outlet for us, bearded men - in a sea of ​​information about how facial hair impairs hygiene. The Japanese disprove the widespread view that this vegetation is a breeding ground for bacteria. The work was published last week in the Journal of Hospital Infection.

Japanese researchers studied the spread of bacteria carried by hospital workers - institutions whose biological purity is a must. The probability of transfer of pathogens to clean shaven hospital workers was three times higher than that of their bearded colleagues.

Among the tracked infections was methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ( MRSA ) - Staphylococcus aureus, which causes difficult treatable diseases in people such as sepsis, pneumonia. Nosocomial infections are most often associated with it. In hospitals, patients with open wounds and a weakened immune system are at greater risk of infection than other patients. Hospital personnel who do not follow proper sanitary procedures can transfer bacteria from patient to patient.
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The study involved 408 hospital workers, from which researchers took samples in 2013. In general, it turned out that the shaved workers may have more pathogenic bacteria, and not hazardous to their health - approximately the same amount as bearded ones. The researchers attributed their results to the fact that shaving causes microtrauma to the skin, which can support the development of bacterial colonies on the skin of the face.

In any case, the myth of the beard , as a breeding ground for bacteria, was not confirmed. Recently, the media reported that beards are so dirty that they contain the same bacteria as in feces - however, the source of this news was not scientific work, but transmission from one of the Mexican television channels.

Other serious researchers believe that beards can even fight infections. British scientists from University College London, disproving myths about dirty beards, raised colonies of 100 different bacteria in Petri dishes, adding to them hair from beards. It turned out that many bacteria, including pathogens, died in the presence of hair from a beard.

Although a large-scale study of the causes of the antibacterial properties of the beard was not conducted, the British employed in the study made a preliminary conclusion that microorganisms of the family Staphylococcus epidermidis were to blame for these properties. They were able to kill even the antibiotic-resistant type of Eschercichia coli. This discovery in the future could lead to the creation of new drugs.


The comic band The Beards devotes all its songs to the problems of bearded people.