Note: Don't let the yoga mat hurt your skin

When you complete difficult yoga movements such as handstands and knees hugging, have you ever noticed whether the yoga mat that has intimate contact with your skin is clean? According to Taiwan's People's Livelihood Daily, most public yoga mats in fitness venues are not regularly disinfected, which can easily contain dirt and breed bacteria, causing skin infection.

Some people may say that they often use a public mat to practice yoga, but they have not experienced physical discomfort. In fact, the reason is very simple. After the bacteria in the unclean yoga mat are transmitted to the human body, they will not get sick immediately. Instead, they will hide on the surface of the skin for a long time. Once the body's immunity declines, it will launch an attack, resulting in various infectious skin diseases. Dr. Song Ping from the Department of Dermatology, Guang 'anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, said that yoga mats that are not cleaned are likely to contain bacteria, fungi and dust mites. Among them, bacteria can cause folliculitis, fungi can easily cause tinea corporis and beriberi, and dust mites pose the biggest threat to people with allergic constitutions to induce allergic dermatitis and asthma.

There are a variety of yoga mat cleaning wipes, sprays, yoga gloves, foot covers and other products recommended to consumers in the United States. However, the above products are relatively rare in my country. Dr. Song suggested that the best way to prevent infection is to bring your own yoga mat. In addition, after exercise, you must use body wash containing antibacterial ingredients to take a bath, and your fitness clothes should be soaked in disinfectant, or dried in the sun for a long time after cleaning.

Some people may think that it is easy to solve this "trouble" by bringing some disinfectant wipes and wiping the yoga mat when they go to yoga, but Dr. Song does not advocate this seemingly convenient method. Because generally commonly used disinfection products do not wet the entire mat when used, the cleaning and sterilization effect does not meet the standard and cannot play a role. If a product with a higher disinfection concentration is used, the disinfectant remaining on the mat after wiping will also cause harm to the skin. (Internship Editor: Zhang Xing)