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Women's hands carry more bugs than men

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Marie Claire Beauty: Spree v steal, Hand and palm

Look away now if you want to stop your OCD levels rising, as news from the US suggests that women carry a larger range of bacteria on the palms of their hands than men.

To add insult to injury, all humans bear higher numbers of bacteria than was previously thought, so say America scientists.

A US study used special gene sequencing techniques and found the average hand was carrying a delightful 150 different species of bacteria.

Studying 102 human hands, the researchers identified over 4,700 different types of bacteria species and on average, it was women who had 50% more bacterial species on their palms than their male counterparts.

Lead researcher Dr Noah Fierer commented: 'The sheer number of bacteria species detected on the hands of the study participants was a big surprise, and so was the greater diversity of bacteria we found on the hands of women.'

Thankfully Dr Fierer's explanation that men have more acidic skin, therefore bacteria struggle to survive for long on their hands, quashes any ideas that women's hands are actually less clean.

The Colorado researchers believe they can determine a 'healthy baseline' of bacteria species present on human hands and in turn, help identify which bacteria are linked to specific diseases.

Before you reach for the handwash and start scrubbing, don't panic. Dr Valerie Curtis, director of the Hygiene Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said of living bacteria: 'Most are likely to be neutral, just living there without doing any harm of good.'