There is nothing quite like crawling into bed, wrapping up in your blankets and nestling your head into your pillow. But before you get too...
There is nothing quite like crawling into bed, wrapping up in your blankets and nestling your head into your pillow. But before you get too comfortable, you might want to know that your bed is not all that dissimilar to a petri dish. The combination of sweat, saliva, dandruff, dead skin cells and even food particles make it the optimal environment for a whole host of germs such as bacteria, fungi, viruses and even tiny bugs to grow.
Here are just a few of the things that lurk beneath our covers.
Bacteria
Our beds can play a host to a vast variety of bacterial species.
For example, research looking at hospital bed linens found that Staphylococcus bacteria were common. These bacteria are typically harmless, but can cause serious illness when they enter the body through an open wound – and certain species of Staphylococcus can cause more harm than others.
Take Staphylococcus aureus, which is fairly contagious and can cause skin infections, pneumonia and worsen acne. Not only have S aureus been found to live on pillowcases, research also shows that some strains are resistant to antibiotics.
Research also shows that alongside Staphylococcus, E coli and other similar bacteria, known as gram-negative bacteria, are also common in hospital beds. Gram-negative bacteria are a serious health problem as they are highly resistant to antibiotics and can cause serious...
