If you’re using antibacterial soaps and household cleaning products, dry skin may become the least of your problems. Studies of the effects of what some now call ‘obsessive’ cleanliness have shown that the resultant formation of superbacteria – bacteria resistant to almost all antibiotics – actually increases our risk of disease and your dry skin could be the beginning of eczema or dermatitis.

Public awareness that germs may be taken too seriously was first highlighted in 1989 when an article in a British Medical Journal proposed that lack of exposure to germs in childhood could cause allergies later in life. The evidence was strongest for hay fever and eczema, although later research confirmed association with all allergic disorders. Research on the subject continued and with our grocery store shelves now filled with antibacterial products, some scientists believe we’ve gone too far.

The use of these products has caused bacteria to mutate into superbacteria, and the scientific community constantly has to develop new antibiotics to combat them. Studies have found superbacteria in hospitals, acrylic fingernails, and computer keyboards. In Japan, the stores offer antibacterial telephones, scissors, deposit books, stationary, ballpoint pens, and even bait. Dr. Koichiro Fujita, a parasitologist at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University and author of “Cleanliness is a Sickness” and many other books on hygiene in Japan, voiced his concern in an interview with Newsweek in which he stated that Japan’s obsession with sanitation is robbing the population of immune cells that deal with outside germs and parasites and is resulting in allergies, dermatitis, asthma and generally compromised immune systems.

In a nutshell, the immune system needs to be exposed to common germs to form antibodies. Avoiding germs at all costs creates an unhealthy environment.

The best way to guard against the development of eczema and dermatitis caused by outside irritants and pollutants is to use gentle, natural cleansing products and a good shielding lotion that will protect the integrity of your skin cells from environmental damage.