Diluted bleach bath an anti-ageing elixir

摘要

Forget Creme de la Mer, Creme de la bleach may be next on your bathroom shelf. It seems that diluted bleach inhibits inflammation, which may help protect skin from radiation therapy and even natural ageing. Don't try it at home, but doctors have known for decades that bathing in diluted bleach alleviates eczema. "But no one really knew why," says Thomas Leung, at Stanford University in California. Many thought its antimicrobial properties kept the skin clean, and therefore less irritated. "But the solution doctors use is so dilute that it isn't fully antiseptic," Leung says. The typical concentration used is weaker than that found in swimming pool water.