Whenever a scientific survey is taken of people using public restrooms by an independent observer who does this surreptitiously, guys always fare worse in the hand-washing department. Men generally wash up around 75 percent of the time, and women are in the 85-90 percentile.

Of course, whenever pollsters conduct telephone surveys and ask people if they wash their hands after going to the bathroom, 95 percent respond yes. That’s human nature speaking loud and clear. Who wouldn’t want to answer in the affirmative if asked whether they wash their hands after taking care of business? I know I would be ashamed to tell a pollster otherwise.

So it was with a bit of skepticism that I read an AP story last week that women lead men in bacteria on their hands, hands down. What gives with that? I thought.

The story described how researchers at the University of Colorado took pathological samples from the palms of 51 college students, or 102 hands total. Using a new, highly detailed system for detecting bacteria DNA called pyrosequencing, they found an average of 3,200 bacteria from 150 species on each hand. Women had different bacteria from men but significantly more kinds, even though women reported washing their hands more often. But this sure seems like a small sample size to me.

So why does it appear that the feminine touch carries more germs? That question was put to the University of Colorado researchers, who replied that the differences between the sexes could be due to differences in sweat production, hormones, and even the use of cosmetics.

That’s an interesting finding, but what really floored me is that the university researchers believed that hand-washing did not completely eliminate bacteria. They felt that either bacterial colonies rapidly re-establish themselves after you wash your hands, or the students did a lousy job of washing their hands.

I would go with the latter because I can see how people would breeze through this rudimentary task. It’s a shame that too many men and women neglect the most fundamental rule of good hygiene because the hands are one of the five main areas where germs enter the body—the other four being the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

Since germs prefer to hitchhike rather than fly through the air, tiny microbes find the hands and the soft tissue underneath the fingernails to be staging areas for their assault on the body’s immune system. Once germs establish a beachhead on your fingertips, it’s a matter of time before you rub your eyes, scratch your nose, stroke your ears, or touch your mouth. Your body’s immune system is under attack as the germs, like soldiers assaulting the beaches of Normandy, invade the portals to your body.

Something can be done to repel this raid on your immune system, and you begin by incorporating the three elements of hand washing: soap, running water, and friction, although I would add a fourth—motivation. There’s no excuse why anyone should neglect washing his hands after going to the bathroom, handling meat, or touching doors and other property in public places. A few seconds at the sink can save you hours or even days of discomfort or a trip to the doctor’s office.

I use a semisoft soap to remove germs from my hands and from underneath my fingernails. I lather the soap over my cuticles for 15 seconds and rinse with running water as warm as I can stand.

I urge you to wash your hands often and with vigorous intent, and you’ll protect yourself from those bacteria lurking on the skin of your hands.