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"True story: I have a friend who is so freaked out by germs, she won&amp;#x27;t walk around without shoes in a hotel room. Instead, she creates her own pathways entirely out of towels that she walks on--even when she&amp;#x27;s wearing her slippers. She&amp;#x27;s a top-tier germophobe--and she&amp;#x27;s not the only one. If you read this article over at CNN, you might side immediately with my friend--when it comes to hotels, anyway. The article zeroes in on things like, people shed 1.5 million cells or cell clusters every hour while they&amp;#x27;re asleep--and hotel bedspreads are rarely washed. Faucets, shower floors, and toilet handles are also all germy hotbeds; one undercover camera captured video of a housekeeper cleaning drinking glasses with the same gloves used to clean the toilet. In this editorial, Alex Berezow (the editor of RealClearScience, who has a doctorate in microbiology) turns his magnifying glass on what he calls &amp;quot;a nation of germophobes.&amp;quot; He says that our fear of germs is doing us more harm than good, because &amp;quot;bacteria are a lot like snakes: Some are good, most are harmless, and only a few are dangerous.&amp;quot; He says that ultra-cleanliness may interfere with immune system development. According to microbiologist Philip Tierno, &amp;quot;Of the 60,000 types of germs people might encounter over the course of their lives, only 1% or 2% are capable of causing disease,&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;exposure to germs in hotel rooms is generally nothing some timely and thorough hand washing can&amp;#x27;t fix.&amp;quot; So how much of a germophobe are you? Are you worried about actual germs--or just skeeved out by the idea of them (I&amp;#x27;m not too scared of germs but thinking about sleeping in someone else&amp;#x27;s dead skin cells doesn&amp;#x27;t give me the warm and fuzzies)? More on germs: * The Truth About Germs * Health Do or Don&amp;#x27;t: Declining a Handshake to Avoid Germs * 5 Frightening Truths About the Germs Under Your Fingernails (and His!) More Ways to Get Glamour Visit Shopglamour.com for cute stuff starting at just $10! Enter the latest Glamour sweepstakes! Follow us on Twitter Add us to your iGoogle homepage Photo: Thinkstock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2011/03/rate-your-germophobia-do-hotel>