Talking about navel-gawping, NC State Univ. study team has been researching germs that reside in the belly button area – trial dubbed the ‘Belly Button Biodiversity Project.’
J. Hulcr, who helms the trial, confessed to the study endeavor sounding somewhat out of the ordinary, though the navel area is a hotbed for germs and needs to be studied comprehensively. He adds how their study team is attempting to enlighten the masses regarding the part which bacterial forms do in our day-to-day existence. Bacterial forms exist on the skin & body, and factually, every individual is a carrier of around a hundred trillion micro-organisms. In contrast, our human body has around ten trillion cells.
Disparate to body areas like the nasal or underarms areas, the belly button isn’t secreting anything. Moreover, the navel is an often-forgotten part of our body – how many of you are scrubbing or exfoliating it as you would religiously do for the facial area – bacterial forms in the belly button tend to remain intact and serving as an acceptable illustration of the kinds of bacterial forms existing on the body.
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Dire vs. Good Bacteria
Researchers have, till now, gathered almost five hundred samples taken from the navel using cotton swab & their posting in the enlarged form of every individual’s bacteria is done on the site’ wildlifeofyourbody.org.’ You do not have to be a scholar to observe that the cultures are varying across individuals.
Hence, which bacterial forms dwell in the navels? Many forms of them though the study group mainly discovered that duo prevalent skin bacterial forms like Staphylococcus & Streptococcus are mostly found that are good bacteria.
Hulu concurs with the absolute necessity of having bacterial forms for our survival. He likens it to the importance of forests for animals. The existence of bacterial forms is non-harmful. It is merely under particular conditions when such bacterial forms could be potentially detrimental – for instance, when some person has compromised immunity or injured skin such as sunburns.
The Gist – Stop freaking out about your navel germs.
Bonus Belly Button Trivia
Here are other intriguing findings of the navel area that you might not be aware of:
Outies vs. Innies
The scientists enquired from the trial entrants if they were having inverted or outwardly projecting belly button lick – to which merely four percent of those researched stated that they had outie belly button piercing.
An outie or innie belly button is Nature’s Call.
In technical terms deemed a scar, navel would mark the link of the maternal umbilical cord (life-line offering crucial nutrition, O2 & removal of wastes such as CO2) to her unborn child in-utero. Clamping of the cord is done soon following delivery & rest would be shed for unveiling the navel. The final form of the navel is dependent on several factors like how the scar is attaching to the core muscles, slackness of adjoining skin, fats underneath the skin & how flattish or bulging your tum is. Navels differ vastly in their shapes & sizes.
The shape of belly buttons could alter.
Belly buttons could alter in form solely during gestation when the abdominal area expands, causing some innies to protrude out though mostly there isn’t much alteration in the make-up. Following child delivery, the navel mostly would be retracted to its earlier look & form.
If you loathe your belly button, there is cosmetic rectification available.
Individuals are going in for plastic surgery to change their licking belly button’s look – the procedure known as umbilicoplasty. It is quite popular among those wearing low-waist types of denim & midriff-baring clothes. As per the latest info furnished by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, over eight thousand of these surgical procedures were conducted amid 2002-2005, with ninety-two percent of them being females. The majority of the individuals undergoing this procedure are keen on transforming their protruding belly buttons to innie navels.
There’s a perfect navel shape.
As per scientists from the Univ. of Missouri who showed pictures of varied navels to a set of males & females, the smallish, vertical T-form of belly button having a thin skin flap was considered as most erotic.
To own an attractive belly button might make the person a more enticing mate, as per a trial researcher from Finland A. Sinkkone, who printed his theory in the FASEB medical journal.
Particular individuals have a greater susceptibility to navel lint as compared to others.
There’s a greater likelihood of one having navel lint in case you are a guy, mid-aged and above, with a lot of hair on the body & having innie-form of the navel, as per scientist K. Kruszelnicki from Australia, who surveyed almost five thousand individuals regarding their navel lint (it is a mix of a tiny part of cloth fibers getting lodged in the navel along with sweat, cells of the skin & bacterial forms).
Regarding stinky navels, the profusion of bacterial forms thriving in that cramped space is to be held responsible. Hull points out that the bacterial culture samples they examined ultimately reeked the smelly, filthy sock.
Navel – say a big hello to suds.
The study group helmed by Hulcr cited that majority of the individuals confessed to not washing their navels regularly. So, what’s deemed apt navel cleanliness? Scrubbing it isn’t necessary, and merely showering and cleaning it during that time would suffice.
Think twice before piercing your navel
Any piercing on the navel takes more time for healing (nearly nine months) than other sites being pierced (piercing done on the ears & eyebrows would be healing in 6-8 weeks), as per information by the AAFP. The protracted healing period could be making the area more susceptible to infections, and donning restricted clothes could augment that risk. The AAFP points out that barbell piercing rather than rings could lower irritation & scars forming (one could change to rings when the area has healed).
