A Serious (and Gross) Reason to Take Your Shoes Off Inside Your Home
Should you have a no-shoes-in-the-house rule? (Photo: Lusha Nelson)
We hate to alarm you, but there’s a disease potentially living on the bottom of your shoes. And the worst part is, if you ingest it, you just might find yourself on the toilet for an extended period of time.Yup, it’s true. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine says about half a million people are infected with a bacteria called C. difficile, which can give you watery diarrhea (and in some cases can progress to life-threatening colon inflammation) at any given time.And while most cases of it appear in hospital patients, 35 percent of them start elsewhere…like the bottom of your shoe.One gross way it gets there is through animal feces—even bird poop can carry it. And once the spores land on a surface, they can live there for months just waiting to transfer into your body.
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If you do get sick, many of the strains are resistant to bacteria, making it more complicated than just taking an antibiotic to get better. Pretty gross!
The good news is that prevention is simple. Just take your shoes off at the door and stop wearing them inside your home! If you have pets, clean off their paws with some disposable wipes before letting them traipse all over the place as well. Your immune system will thank you.
By Susan Yara
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