Given that your phone goes pretty much everywhere with you, its worth noting that it picks up a lot of dirt, germs, and bacteria in the process. Like, a lot of it.

Case in point: In a study out of the University of Arizona, researchers took cultures from 27 high school students phones and found more than 17,000 bacterial gene copies on those phones. Among them were microbes that have the potential to make you sick, like Staphylococcus aureus and pseudomonas. Worth noting: Other studies have found some pretty intense pathogens like streptococcus , MRSA , and E. coli , on phones. So yeah, your phone is nasty.

Its important to point out that having any of those germs on your phone doesnt necessarily mean that youll get sick, says Karen WeiRu Lin, MD, assistant dean of global health at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. As long as those germs dont get into an opening in your body, youre okay, she says. But most people hold their phones really close to their faces.

Basically, youre rolling the dice when it comes to contracting some kind of illness if you clean your phone next to never. On the flip side, keeping your phone clean can help prevent the spread of a whole host of illnesses.

Obviously, that expensive gadget isnt exactly something you casually scrub with soap and water. So heres how to clean your phone without ruining itand how to keep it a little less germy day to day.

Theres no hard-and-fast rule on this, and a lot of it depends on how often youre using your phone, as well as where you take it, Dr. Lin says. If you basically keep your phone in a safe spot in your bag, and you know you only use it when your hands are clean, you can probably get away with washing it every week or so .

But if youre like most people and you take your phone pretty much everywhere, its not a bad idea to clean it a few nights a week, Dr. Lin saysespecially if its cold and flu season.

Cleaning your phone with any cleaner product is better than not doing it at all. But Rajeev Fernando, MD, an infectious disease expert in Southampton, New York, recommends doing the following:

A quick look on Amazon shows there are plenty of screen cleaners, wipes, and even UV light disinfectants that are specifically marketed as useful to clean your phone. But experts dont recommend using them, as they haven't been well-studied and proven to be effective.

I would never use one of these cleaning wipes on my phone, says Donald W. Schaffner, PhD, a professor at Rutgers University who has researched handwashing and cross-contamination. It's not that they'll harm your phone, per se, but you just don't need them. Instead, Dr. Fernando adds, its really better to just follow the proven phone-cleaning method listed above.

Take a pass on using bleach to clean your phone. Do not use harsh or hospital grade disinfectant wipes, Dr. Fernando warnsthey can damage your phone.

Many newer phones also have a fingerprint-resistant , oil-repelling coating, and cleaning products and abrasive materials will wear that down and may even scratch your phone. However, if you add a screen protector to your phone, this isnt as much of a concern.

If you talk on your phone a lot and youre worried about germs, Dr. Lin says its worth looking into using headphones or using your phones speaker when you talk to avoid putting your phone up against your face.

Also, Dr. Schaffner says, practicing good hand hygiene (and making sure you dont regularly place your phone on potentially dirty surfaces like bathroom counters and restaurant tables) can go a long way. Instead of worrying about the bacteria on their phone, people should be more concerned with the bacteria on their hands, he says. They can manage this risk by washing their hands and/or using hand sanitizer .

You and your phone cant live in a bubble together, and there's no way to keep it totally germ-free. But regularly washing your hands and making time for a weekly phone wipe-down can make a huge difference in what you're carrying around with you all day and, hopefully, how often you get sick.