Healthy greeting: Bye-bye handshake, hello fist bump!
The fist bump – Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama even do it, and for good reason. Replace your traditional handshake for a fist bump to lower the risk of viral infections.
Did you know that 80% of infectious diseases are spread through hand-to-hand contact? So if you do not want to catch all sorts of lurking viruses and bacteria, it’s time to say goodbye to the handshake and hello to the fist bump. This “hello” greeting – fist against fist, is the safest way (and more fun) to say hello to your colleagues or friends. Don’t worry, you can always hug your children and your dear husband… At your own risk, of course.
IS THE FIST BUMP BETTER FOR YOUR HEALTH?
On July 28, 2014 a British study was published – researchers studied the different ways to greet people and how that may spread deathly viruses. According to their results, the handshake remains the most dangerous of gestures, then the high five, and lastly the fist bump (lowering the risk of contagious infections by 90%!). The authors of this research therefore recommend that we all start using the fist bump, especially in hospitals to reduce the spread of viral diseases. For them, it is even a matter of public health. If we find it fun (and hygienic), the why not partake too!
Source: The fist bump: A more hygienic alternative to the handshake, American Journal of Infection Control, July 2014 .
Maureen Diament
