Our ancestors 300 years ago had no idea about the things we popularly call germs. They were not idiots: they realized that somehow some diseases went from person to person. They just weren’t sure how. Some thinkers even suspected that there were creatures smaller than our eyes can see that might be affecting us. Turns out they were right, but we had to wait until the invention of the microscope to verify that there were indeed small buggies that could cause disease.

The rise of the germ theory came (around 1861) at an unfortunate time on one level. The 19th century was also the birthplace of a movement that sought the betterment of mankind, and that movement brought a whole lot of good outcomes: the end of slavery in the US, cleaning up cities, a fall in prostitution, and a decrease in abortions. There were clearly bad outcomes as well, and one of those is what I’m dealing with today.

Cleaning up is good. But cleanliness quickly morphed into the idea that any “dirt” is a bad thing and that all germs are bad, and there came up a gradual but very real craze for cleaning.

Don’t get me wrong. Extreme cleanliness is good in some settings. If you’re having surgery, you want your surgeon and those assisting that surgeon to be very clean. Infection after surgery or other medical procedures is enough of a problem as it is without a medical team being slack.

I’m a professional nurse (RN) by training. When I was working on my nursing degree, I worked at a hospital that had residency programs for physicians. One of the doctors was the chief resident, and she was legendary for not doing the simple act of washing her hands from patient to patient, and this was several decades ago when latex gloves were not as standard as they are now. It is scary that I remember this woman’s name to this day.

But in ordinary life, you don’t need to be handwashing every 20 minutes. Much less using a hand sanitizer. Why? Because your body needs germs. Not to mention that those buggies are everywhere around us. Our very bodies are a complex interaction with the estimated 39 trillion microbial cells (bacteria, viruses, and fungi) that reside in each of us.

You are constantly dealing with microbes. They are on your skin, in your mouth, and in your system. You actually NEED them. What you DON’T need is to obsessively worry about them. If you have dirt on your hands, wash them. Soap and water is fine. And not all the time. Washing too much can mess with your skin, which is a natural barrier to infection. Microbes are not necessarily (and not even usually) your enemy. They are part of the complex dance that keeps you healthy. You want them there. You need them there. Stop worrying about them. I know that after the last two years of nuttiness it’s difficult to stop fretting about germs. But your life and your health will be better if you do.