Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Many of us are feeling helpless in the face of the current pandemic, but the good news

is there are things we can do right now to reduce our risk of falling seriously ill and

dying from COVID-19 and preventing even greater infectious disease threats in the future.

Today on the show we discover there are lots of conflicting opinions about what the simplest

ways to inactivate the virus on our hands.

Because it's so difficult for people to keep themselves from unconsciously touching

the face, it's critical to be able to disinfect your hands by washing your hands with soap

and water, sudsing up for at least 20 seconds.

It's not clear why the CDC chose that duration.

There is evidence that if you have bacteria contaminated meat debris on your hands, washing

with soap for 20 seconds is preferable to without soap for 5 seconds, duh.

But most of the published soap to soap studies compared 15 seconds to 30 seconds and have

found there does not appear to be a meaningful difference between 15 and 30.

The recommendation to wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds was likely made

to encourage sufficient hand coverage.

Using invisible fluorescent or UV dyes, researchers have found the most frequently missed areas

when washing your hands include the fingertips, thumbs, and backs of hands.

So it's good to get into a habit of going through all the steps to come for all the surfaces

instead of just the happy birthing your way through the same motions.

Once the time go a little faster if you have a routine down, when artificial nails

...