Why do I always get sick? This is a common question from many of my patients. Most of us don’t realize we do a pretty awesome job of infecting ourselves with germs directly from our own homes before we’ve even left for work! Picture this…maybe yesterday your hand washing wasn’t the greatest after being outside all day in the 90+degree heat watching the Gay Pride Parade so when you dried your hands last night, there was still some bacteria on them that transferred to your hand towel. That moist towel had a bacteria party all night and then spread germs all over your hands and face this morning when you used it to dry off. Of course you also used your toothbrush and if it rested in one of the 27% of toothbrush holders that are home to Coliform bacteria, you just infected yourself with more germs. Down in the kitchen, your fave coffee mug was dirty so you grabbed that kitchen sponge to clean it out. A kitchen sponge is most likely one of the dirtiest items in your home with 75% of them carrying bacteria that makes you sick. Then while the fair-trade coffee was brewing, you felt ambitious and got out the chopping board to ut-up some fresh melon. You’re always super diligent to clean that board if you’ve been cutting raw chicken, but last night you just had a veggie omelet for dinner so you had wiped the board off with that disgusting sponge and let it dry. Ooops. Finally, the ultimate bacteria insult. You grab your cell phone from the charger and start scrolling through Facebook. Studies have shown that one in six cell phones are contaminated with fecal matter – and even if it’s your own, that’s still pretty gross.