Doctor hasn't showered for months to debunk health and hygiene myths

James Hamblin is on a quest to rethink what we think we know about our bodies

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Writer and former radiologist James Hamblin is on a mission to question everything we think we know about our bodies. After a particularly life-changing investigation into the skin, he has stopped showering.

“I almost never shower,” he tells The Independent, adding: “but I don’t recommend that for everyone.

Hamblin, a senior editor at The Atlantic news website and a medically trained doctor who previously worked at UCLA, fronts the If Our Bodies Could Talk Video series and last year released a book of the same name.

The clips tackle subjects including ‘Explaining to a Child that Life is Difficult’ and ‘Juice Cleanses: The Worst Diet’.

After filming ‘You Probably Don’t Need to Shower’, in June 2016 Hamblin chose to test out this hypothesis.

“I was reporting this story on the skin microbiome and there is at least one company that produces bacterial sprays to change the microbes that live on your skin. Whether it works is totally unproven but the hypothesis is that it could change the appearance of your skin and body odour,” he explains.

Body odour is produced when bacteria on the skin metabolise oils secreted from hair follicles, particularly in our armpits, which creates a smell. Showering abolishes this bacteria, while deodorant serves as an antibacterial to delay this process.

“We know what not all microbes are good or bad,” says Hamblin. “It’s this complex ecosystem. Some are producing odours but some are keeping the odour producing ones at bay. The idea is if you let the ecosystem reach equilibrium you don’t smell bad eventually.

“You don’t smell like cologne or flowers or cinnamon but you smell OK.

“That got me thinking about all of these many microbes that live on our skin and how we wash them all off with elaborate cleansing rituals. I just started to question whether that is necessary or a good thing.”

Asked if he ever smells and how often he showers, Hamblin politely responds that he will sometimes rinse off in the shower, say, if he has been at the gym and is headed to a restaurant.

“My girlfriend says I smell like a ‘person’. Some people tell me it’s similar to when they go camping for a few days they don’t smell like body odour but they don’t smell fresh.

“Sometimes if I have bed head or I’m visibly dirty I’ll shower. Sometimes it’s a nice ritual to warm up in the shower on a cold day. That’s valuable too. When we’re connected all the time, it’s one of the few times people get to just stand and stare and their feet.”

Hamblin’s quest to question everything about our bodies has also lead him to adopt a mainly plant-based diet, due to the proven health benefits but also the environmental impact of eating meat. He also rejects the idea of “clean eating” and restrictive dieting.

“The population of world has climbed from 1billion people in 1800 to over 7billion in 200 years. That’s an amazing rate of growth. We cannot sustainably eat as many animals as we do now.”

"I don’t want to say that instead of saying meat and cheese are bad. I think it’s more helpful to say that we know that eating fruits and veg and nuts is healthy, but it's complex. There is a tendency for people to adopt a few sweeping rules like carbs are good or bad or eat all the fat you want or avoid fat, and it’s just not that simple."

Hamblin stresses that the only one of his habits he'd recommend others to adopt is questioning our surroundings and what we think should put in and do to our bodies.