Red, swollen, itchy and painful skin. It irks us and causes us
to worry about our health, our appearance and our environment.
We question: Did I hit myself? Am I allergic to something? Did
something bite me? We hear on the news that there are flesh-
eating bacteria and killer boils. Our neighbor is in the
hospital for an infection – should we worry? Relax. Our skin is
the largest organ in our body and is well-suited to the task of
keeping bacteria where it belongs – outside of our body. We’re
constantly in contact with bacteria. Some bacteria even live on
our skin full time. Strep and staph species are the most common
organisms. Also common are a variety of fungi that enjoy the
warm, moist folds of our body. When there is balance, these
hitchhikers cause no problems. But when we have high bacterial
counts on the skin, get cut, get stressed, are sick for another
reason, scratch at a bug bite, pick at a pimple, stay in a wet
bathing suit too long or use a lot of sticky lotions on our
skin, the balance can shift