“Take care of your body.

It’s the only place you have to live”

Jim Rohn

Good health is not just regular exercise or eating healthy food….

This topic is a 4 minute read.

So read this post completely , in case you got  just that much time.

Otherwise take your own time whenever you are free to read.

Some of my regular friends in WP wondered as to why I am not contributing some useful medical stuff,being in the Medical profession.

I understand,but as you already know there is a wealth of information already available on the net, and my wish, not to crowd the space further.But still I try to add one or two helpful topics.This is my 2 nd post, and the earlier post being,

Something we have been doing wrong all along

Everyone of us…I am sure ,aware of importance of Hygiene.

All of us are busy teaching our young ,the importance of not just hygiene,but also personal hygiene.

Some examples of personal hygiene include

Regular bath,Regular brushing the teeth along with flossing,Trimming the nails,Regular washing of the hands,Regular shaving of arm pit and pubic hair,trimming the nostril hair,women maintaining hygiene during menstrual time(just washing with fresh water),for men in non circumcision cases thoroughly removing the smegma,anal hygiene (washing with fresh water after defecation),keeping our nostrils clean,cleaning the external ear pits regularly etc.etc

But surprisingly our teaching to the kid  never includes HYGIENE of the Belly Button or Navel which in the medical world it is known by the name umbilicus.

How many of you stand in front of the mirror and just have a look at the belly button on a regular basis ? (Navel gazing literally !! )

Belly button,as you all know is the scar left behind by the umbilical cord Which gets removed after birth.

OK, as you are aware as the stump of the umbilical cord gets dried up it forms a pit during the process of healing.

Is there any purpose of the belly button after birth ?

Yes.

1.Medically–

It helps in dividing the abdomen into quadrants,1.helping the physician to identify the cause of the symptom,2. can be used for blood transfusion in the new-born,3.Helpful for having laparoscopic ports.4.Any bulge of the navel indicates intra abdominal pathology.

2.Fashion ,society and culture

includes Midriff,

Crop-top

Navel-piercing

Belly Dance

Why Hygiene of belly button important ?

1. Belly button (pit) is a source of 2,368 different species of bacteria/fungi ,waiting to strike at the next available opportunity.

2. If you are male and hairy, or a person with belly button piercing,or you are a person in the habit of liberally spraying  talcum powder on your body, you can notice over the time collection of the lint or fluff ( a mixture of cloth fibers,hair follicles) and over the time it becomes smelly and ripe for bacterial/fungal infection and later pus formation.

3. The deeper your belly button pit,the greater the collection of dirt and germs, and just like these germs make your armpit smelly, here also the germs along with dirt collection give a foul smell and soon you can notice redness of the surrounding skin,pain and even pus discharge.

Notice above how the Lint/Fluff appears.The example above is large enough to be visualised.Intially it is small in size difficult to visualise.

Fortunately hygiene aspect of belly button is easy,only if we care to follow on a regular basis.

Just watch this video and learn how to clean the belly button. ( 1 mt-40 seconds clip)

Thank you for your patient reading !

My post is incomplete if I don’t mention One Australian Gentleman by name Graham Barkers,who holds the world record for collecting his own navel fluff stuff (lint) every day for 26 years.Check the following link.

Librarian enters Guinness book of world records for collecting belly button fluff

Navel fluff/lint source -feargod.net/fluff

IS pixabay derivative,sridhar,youtube,feargod.net/fluff