I wish Lemmy would grow to the point when these Reddit moments of "I’m a dermatologist, and actually…” happen as usual as they happen on Reddit.
Hey at least we’re at the point where people are asking the questions! Literally three days ago nobody needed to summon a dermatologist.
I like your attitude!
Literally three days ago nobody needed to summon a dermatologist.
As a nerd with regular cycles of bad skin from dermatitis since my teen years I doubt nobody in a community of nerds needed to summon a dermatologist, but we may soon hit the sweet spot of being big enough to have specific expertise in comments without people lying for clout or karma farming!
Those were the days
That used to be the case on reddit. These days you have to scroll through hundreds of lame jokes to find an actual discussion.
As another user pointed out, most bacteria and other microscopic forms of life don’t really “breath” in the way we think of it. Often they just absorb oxygen from their surrounding environments.
They can be washed away, killed by chlorine (pools), or killed by salt imbalance (ocean). However it’s really hard (read near impossible) to kill them all, and even if you did they exist in our environments naturally and from other humans as well as on things we’ve touched recently. So they repopulate quickly.
There are some arguments that Sodium Laurel Sulfate kills “good” bacteria on our skin.
I’m a Demodex folliculorum and I’m currently dating a Demodex brevis so I’m somewhat of an expert. Our host is pretty gross and rarely showers which has made the real estate in this area really expensive. We’ve been trying to move to another host but the opportunity hasn’t come up yet. Anyway, to answer your question, we have scuba gear.
It’s so good to have diverse voices to hear from.
I am not a microbiologist. However I do know that bacteria are pretty resilient, and most pathogens and parasites can live for at least a few hours outside of a host. Plus your skin is really not all that smooth at a microscopic level, there are all sorts of little nooks and crannies to hold onto.
Drowning wouldn’t really be a concern for them, imo, but additives like chlorine are specifically meant to be disinfectants.
I can’t say I know the answer, but I do know that one of these bugs – Tardigrades – are extremely hard to kill. IIRC one was put into a vacuum and removed after some time. It was either completely fine right away or after a little while.
If I had to give a guess to other things, some of them probably die, yes. Hopefully someone else who knows more will be able to give more information!
TIL I have little bugs on my skin :(
Now hear me out:
What if you jumped through a tall fire, naked, a few times? Nothing so fast as to actually burn you, but enough to make you hairless.
I’m fairly certain that would kill quite a bit of the microbiome.
