Well, I think it's clear, the water and soap killed him -- he was right to fear them all along.
Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94
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Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94
#52what is the take away here?
If you're a hermit, don't let people near you, they transmit a lot of diseases :)
Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94
#53I haven't been brave enough to try it, but: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/06/i-stopped...
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Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94
#54"..skin covered in soot and pus..", "..diet.. ..rotten meat and unsanitary water..", "..fond of smoking..". "..dies at 94". I don't even know what to say. Those two snippets can't be in the same sentence right? I'll think twice before telling my kids to "eat healthy and don't smoke"!
One of the most interesting things in all of history to me is the longevity in Ancient Greece. Look up nearly any Ancient Greek one is aware of and you'll find life lengths not especially different than modern times. A study of 'Ancient Greeks of Note' [1] found an average life expectance of a bit more than 71 years.
The obvious explanation for this is a survivorship bias, but the vast majority of these Greeks made their way into the history books many decades before their deaths. I don't find the class issue relevant (beyond of course agreeing that poor Greeks would have had shorter lifespans) since all the money in the world couldn't buy one a single dose of penicillin.
Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94
#55I stopped using soap a decade ago. The only time I use it now is for rare occasions where I get something on me that requires soap, such as motor oil or chemicals. I also only wash twice a week or so.
People always recoil when I tell them, but then I ask them what I smell like to them. They say I don't really smell like anything.
The first month was the worst, because my skin took time to adjust to not having its oils washed off every day. I felt REALLY greasy for a couple of weeks, like the feeling you get when you've worn a pair of jeans far too long between washes. Then as my skin adjusted things went back to normal.
The only real issue is hair; it becomes REALLY unmanageable without shampoo. So if you have long hair, just keep using shampoo.
Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94
#56I haven't been brave enough to try it, but: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/06/i-stopped...
I shower at most once a week, without or just a little soap and/or shampoo. Everything is fine, what's in the article is true.
Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94
#57> But, local media say, Amou Haji finally succumbed to pressure and washed a few months ago. > According to Iran's IRNA news agency, he became ill shortly afterwards and died on Sunday. I'm really hoping an autopsy is done to figure out what exactly killed him, because this might be the most interesting opportunity for a hygiene case study in generations. Identifying even just one potential opportunistic disease, aut…
I had a 40 year old car that was rarely serviced but ran like a champ. I moved across country and the new mechanic told me I should use some cleansing agent to de-gunk all of the various hoses/manifolds/whatever in the engine. It seemed expensive so I went for to a second mechanic and mentioned it, and he was adamant that I not do it, and that all that gunk was what was sealing the hoses and letting the car operate.
I took his advice and drove the car for another 10 years before donating it.
Maybe something similar happened there? Maybe he had scabs that we're ugly but protective - they got scrubbed off, and then his body had to deal with a whole new wave of pathogens.
Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94
#58I recall that a similar thing happened in New York but with two men. A particularly unkempt homeless pair of men were given a bath and died shortly afterwards.
Google results are poisoned after this news though. Can't seem to find it. I think it's relevant here.
Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94
#59According to [1], he didn't wash in water, but with Fire instead:
"He would reject water in favour of what he called a “fire bath”. “Every evening as villagers gather, Kalau … lights a bonfire, smokes marijuana and stands on a leg praying to Lord Shiva,” the paper said."
[1] - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/25/worlds-dirties...
Re: Iranian man who didn't wash for half a century dies at 94
#60I stopped using soap a decade ago. The only time I use it now is for rare occasions where I get something on me that requires soap, such as motor oil or chemicals. I also only wash twice a week or so. People always recoil when I tell them, but then I ask them what I smell like to them. They say I don't really smell like anything. The first month was the worst, because my skin took time to adjust to not having its oil…
Soap isn't what gets things clean, anyway, water does. Soap merely lowers water surface tension, and making water molecules stick together less helps water clean more easily.