Answer:
4 percent of women said they wash them once a week, 31 percent said they wash theirs twice a month and 16 percent said they do so just once a month. Meanwhile, 32 percent of women said they almost never switch out their pillows.
At minimum, you should wash your sheets once a week, says Philip Tierno, Jr., Ph.D., director of clinical microbiology and immunology at New York University’s Langone Medical Center.
That’s because the second you crawl into your sheets, you’re infecting them with your constantly-shedding skin (you lose millions of skin cells per day!), lotions, makeup, sweat, hair, and anything you’ve picked up during your day, like pollen, pet dander, fungal mold, and dirt particles, says Tierno. All come with a not-so-healthy dose of bacteria—for instance, sweat can carry fecal matter and E. coli from your poop shoot to your sheets—which grows the longer you postpone laundry day. (Yuck, I feel ill).
TIP: the easiest way to prevent bacteria from accumulating (and to keep anything that’s already in there from getting to you) is to buy mattress and pillow covers, says Tierno. Look for ones that say they are “impermeable” and that encase the entire mattress, rather than just covering the top of it. Wash them every few months (aim for the change of each season) to get rid of any buildup.
So, be honest, how often do you change your sheets?
Read full article here
Source: Womans Health
