According to articles done by the BBC and NewScientist, studies by the University of Colorado, Boulder, found that people who took showers were actually less healthy than those who didn’t.

Knock out those shower heads and chuck the soap; it’s good to be filthy!

Alright, now that the rest of the people who didn’t RTFA and just went by the above text are gleefully staying up nights smelling worse and being pimply (I’ve got my lulz for the day), here’s what ACTUALLY happened. Apparently, a pathogen associated with increased instances of pulmonary disease– lung conditions– finds the wet, narrow confines of a shower head, particularly those made of plastic, to be ideal breeding grounds. Studies done by microbiologists at 45 sites across the United States found on average shower heads carried levels of this pathogen 100 times that of the level found in regular drinking water.

Obviously, if you’re not elderly, pregnant, or born with some sort of compromised immune system, you should generally be fine with taking showers under crusty, bacteria-laden shower heads. There were in fact, no reported instances in the study of increased respiratory illness or other conditions due to Mycobacterium avium, only that the levels of said pathogen were 100 times above normal drinking water.

See the original article here.