The Straight Poop on preventing urinary infections and groin odor an essay by John Fuhring Introduction
This is a delicate subject and one that is the most
difficult to discuss without it turning into something nasty or
stupidly funny. What I'm discussing here is the ordinary and
necessary function that all living creatures from bacteria to the most
advanced and complex vertebrates -- and that is the elimination of waste after ingested food has been
processed and nutrients have been gathered from it through the complex
process of digestion. What I want to discuss is the final result
of the elimination of fecal matter from the human body and how the
normal cleanup process most of us practice is inadequate.There is no argument, we humans may have superior brains and intellect when compared to all other apes and mammals, but we still have the same boldly functions so that we need to take in food and eliminate the digested remains. We call this elimination of digested food by several names ranging from the scientific to the most crude. This natural and necessary function is, of course, a 'bowl movement,' a, 'defectory,' a 'fecal elimination,' a 'dump,' a 'poop,' a 'crap' or most crudely, a 'shit.' Of all the animals that I am aware of, only the apes, of which we are a member, eliminate their fecal matter without contaminating the area near the opening from which the matter is purged from the body (the anal sphincter). With humans, because of our advanced social and community norms, our upright anatomy and especially because most of us wear clothes, including underwear that trap fecal bacteria, we must take extra steps to clean up fecal matter from the area around the anus. Fecal Bacterial Skin Contamination
Clean up after a bowl movement is commonly done using a
special absorbent paper (toilet paper) or by reusable cloths, a process
commonly called 'wiping.' In the past and even today, many people
use leaves and it was not uncommon to use dried corn cobs (after the
kernels were eaten) and in some cultures the left hand. In any
case, fecal matter always is
spread on to the skin around the anus by this clean up process. With absorbent paper, the
spread layer is very thin and the fecal matter is only found in the pores of
the skin, but it is still there with its abundance of fecal bacteria
contaminating the skin of the buttocks and eventually the region of the groin.Under the circumstances of a daily shower, this area of contaminated skin is cleaned with the contamination lasting only a few to several hours and is limited in its spread to the area of the groin. In the case of the male anatomy, the chances of fecal bacteria entering the urinary tract is pretty slim with daily showering, but because of the proximity of the urinary opening and other factors, the female anatomy is at much greater risk of urinary tract infection. Male or female, the risk is greatly enhanced if the contamination is not some how removed soon after a bowl movement and subsequent wiping. Methodology to Eliminate Surface Contamination
In many cases, daily showering is not convenient, desired
or actually possible due personal preference or to circumstances.
I myself consider a daily shower as very inconvenient and
wasteful of resources and carbon based energy needed to heat the water.
Also, when on a trip, especially a camping trip where daily
showering is impossible, there should be some way to clean the area
about the anus to remove fecal bacteria. For some months now I
have followed up my bowel movements and subsequent clean up (wiping)
with a final wipe with a piece of toilet paper containing a small dab
of hand sanitizer such as been made popular with the recent COVED
pandemic.This final wipe with a small dab of hand sanitizer on the paper has prove very effective in both preventing urinary infections (the reason I started doing this) and especially in preventing strong and unpleasant odors from establishing themselves in the area of my groin. If I have to, I can now go more days without having to shower. There is one warning that I'd like to mention and that is to avoid the anal sphincter itself or the burning sensation can be quite painful. Has this method of hygiene been tested and approved by any scientific body or panel of health experts? Of course, the answer is NO. This is only something I have tried and found to work for ME. I am only telling you about this because it worked for me, but if you too try it, you must be warned that this is not an approved method of hygiene, but I can think of nothing harmful about it. Necessity is The Mother of Invention
How did I come to experiment with this? For reasons
that are not important, I was prevented from bathing for several days
and although I observed all the usual hygiene methods, I developed a
urinary infection. I had never had such an infection and to say
the very least, I was both alarmed and quite miserable and very, very
inconvenienced and embarrassed at times. My GP recognized the problem, sent in a urinary sample for analysis and the report came back confirming that I was infected with E coli bacteria. E coli?!?!, that is a entric bacteria, how in the world could an entric bacteria enter my urinary tract, what was the source and what was the most likely route?? Immediately it occured to me that the source had to be from my own intestines and the route the bacteria took was along the surface of the skin of my groin. Most importantly, my normal hygiene methods, the methods (used by nearly every healthy person in North America) were inadequate. So, how to do a more through cleansing and bacterial elimination without bathing(?) --- by doing a final cleaning step using an antiseptic, but mild cleaner, namely hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer was chosen because of its known deadly effect on enteric bacteria (like E coli) and it is safe to use on human skin. An Important Update to the story
I thought I was so clever and original when I came up with
the suggestion to do a more through sanitary clean up after taking a
bowel movement, but my brother and a visitor to my site told me about a
technique they have been using for years that is (in some cases)
superior to what I have suggested. The technique is to use "Baby
Wipes" instead of harsh, alcohol based, hand cleaner. It seems that lots of other people, people who have had to clean up after their own infant children, have come up with a superior method to clean the skin a long time ago. Cleaning up after their own tiny infants, they were familiar with a product made specifically for the tender skin and the sensitive surfaces of a baby's anatomy, Baby Wipes. In many respects, especially in terms of irritation of sensitive tissues, these wipes are the preferred method of doing a final clean-up. As superior as Baby Wipes may be, I am continuing to use hand sanitizer because it is so cheap and I have an almost unlimited supply of it. With wipes, it is just something extra I would have to remember to buy and keep in stock, and for me, using hand sanitizer is just fine. END |