Medical Offices of Manhattan’s Internist, Dr. Denise Pate speaks to Muscle & Fitness about tips to stop touching your face.
She’s quoted saying:
Avoid touching your face especially when a contagious virus is spreading. Viruses can easily transmit by touching contaminated surfaces followed by your face like eyes, nose, and mouth.
Face-touching is a habit elicited by most people. During times of this viral outbreak, it is time to alter our behaviors and to minimize that behavior as often as possible Dr. Pate suggests writing notes to yourself or marking down every time you are about to touch your face to help you notice just how much you are doing it.
Ultimately though, there are really no practical or conventional strategies that you can use to truly limit face-touching. It’s more about the mindfulness of washing your hands. Simply keeping your hands clean will suffice.
If you wash your hands with soap and water appropriately—a full 20 seconds of thoroughly washing fingers, back of hands, palms, and under fingernails—it’s the best way to keep the virus away and then you can touch your face. The next best would be to lather your hands with sanitizer.
And don’t forget to clean your phone (which may often touch your face) and other frequently touched areas around you. It’s everyone’s responsibility to remain vigilant in properly maintaining these commonly touched surfaces clean. If not, the unconscious habit of face touching will transmit the virus to yourself and the people you come in contact with.
View the original piece placement on Muscle & Fitness.
