If you have ever watched Deal or No Deal, the TV show where contestants vie for big money while 26 gorgeous models look on, you may have noticed that Host Howie Mandel never shakes hands with his guests.

Instead, Howie, who is a self-proclaimed germaphobe, offers his knuckles for tapping, thus ensuring less transfer of nasty germs. (Howie is officially a mysophobe, the original descriptive word for someone who has an “irrational fear of dirt or defilement.” You heard it here first.)

Whether the comedian learned that lesson while spending time as Dr. Wayne Fiscus in the St. Elsewhere morgue with Dr. Cathy Martin (actress Barbara Whinnery,) Howie could teach us all a lot about how stay healthy through the coming cold and flu season.