The bad habits that can be GOOD for you!
Apr-11-2013

From an early age we are taught to curb our bad personal habits - so it might come as a surprise to learn that some of these have health benefits.
From burping and finger-cracking to spitting, we reveal the upside of our horrible activities...
BITING YOUR NAILS

It's a habit most sufferers try hard to give up, but it may actually be good for you, says Dr Hilary Longhurst, consultant immunologist from the Bart's NHS Trust.
'Unless your hands are filthy, the bugs we encounter when biting our nails could boost our immune system.'
This is because our immune system has a memory, making a note of how to fight every bug it has ever encountered.
When a bug is encountered a second time, the immune system reaches into its memory and releases weapons - called memory lymphocytes - that it knows will beat it.
So, regular nail biting exposes us to small amounts of potentially immune-boosting bugs. (The same principle applies to picking your nose and consuming the result. 'It won't harm you, though you'll be a social outcast,' she says.)
Dr Longhurst suggests biting our nails might be an evolutionary hangover.
'In caveman times, we wouldn't have had scissors, so biting our nails would have been the only way we could keep them short and prevent us injuring ourselves.'

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Posted by Ken at 4:50 AM - Link to this entry  |  Share this entry  |  Print