Site specificity
A moist toe-web is not a dry forearm.
Grice and colleagues (2009) sequenced twenty skin sites and found oily, moist and dry habitats more than a single skin germ.
Cutibacterium likes sebum, Staphylococcus epidermidis is a common colonist, Malassezia yeasts live on lipids.
Traits
Acid mantle
Sweat, sebum and residents help keep pH low.
Occupancy
Filled niches make it harder for some pathogens to attach.
Yeast neighbours
Malassezia is ordinary on sebum-rich skin. Bloom, not presence, is the usual complaint.
Not a gut clone
Skin communities share little with stool.
Washing is weather
Soap removes oil and transient dirt. Communities rebound.
Once you see skin as occupied, kill-99.9 ads look less like health and more like weather control.
Keep exploring
More in Beneficial allies
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