20 Tips to Prevent Cold and Flu

There is no known cure for a cold or the flu, so prevention is the name of the game from November through April (cold and flu season). Cold and flu viruses are often passed along from person to person and surface to surface in the workplace, at home and at school. According to the CDC, people are most contagious during the first 2-3 days of contracting a cold; and almost immediately and for about 5 days thereafter–even before symptoms develop-- after contracting the flu.

A proactive approach to warding off colds and flu can make your whole life healthier. You can’t cure them, but they are not inevitable.

1. First and foremost, the best way to avoid flu is to get a flu shot or FluMist.
Anyone who wants to reduce the likelihood of becoming ill with the flu or spreading flu to others should get a seasonal flu shot.

Other preventive techniques for cold and flu include:

2. Wash Your Hands
Most cold and flu viruses are spread by direct contact. Someone who has the flu sneezes onto their hand, and then touches the telephone, a desktop, or a kitchen glass. The germs can live for hours or even weeks on a surface, only to be picked up by the next person who touches the same object. So wash your hands often, for at least 15-20 seconds, with soap. If no sink is available, sanitize with an alcohol-gel hand sanitizer.

3. Clean shared items
Any surface that multiple people come into contact with is a potential source of flu or cold viruses. Wipe down phones, keyboards, handles and doorknobs with alcohol wipes or other sanitizer- type wipes.

4. Don't Cover Your Sneezes and Coughs With Your Hands
Germs and viruses cling to your bare hands, so covering coughs and sneezes with your hands results in passing along your germs to others. When you feel a sneeze or cough coming, use a tissue, then throw it away immediately. If you don’t have a tissue cough or sneeze into your elbow rather than your hand

5. Don't Touch Your Face
Cold and flu viruses enter your body through the eyes, nose, or mouth. Touching their faces is the major way people catch colds.

6. Drink Plenty of Fluids
Water flushes your system, washing out the poisons as it rehydrates you. If you reuse your water bottle, be sure to wash it out daily. Do not share bottles, cups or straws with anyone.

7. Take a Sauna
Researchers aren't clear about the exact role saunas play in prevention, but one 1989 German study found that people who steamed twice a week got half as many colds as those who didn't. One theory: When you take a sauna you inhale air hotter than 80 degrees, a temperature too hot for cold and flu viruses to survive.

8. Get Fresh Air
Fresh air is important, especially in cold weather when indoor heating dries you out and makes your body more vulnerable to cold and flu viruses. Also, during cold weather more people stay indoors, which means more germs are circulating in crowded, dry rooms.

9. Do Aerobic Exercise Regularly
Aerobic exercise speeds up the heart to pump larger quantities of blood, makes you breathe faster to help transfer oxygen from your lungs to your blood, and makes you sweat once your body heats up. These exercises help increase the body's natural virus-killing cells.

10. Eat Foods Containing Phytochemicals
"Phyto" means plants, and the natural chemicals in plants give the vitamins in food a supercharged boost. So eat dark green, red, and yellow vegetables and fruits.

11. Eat healthy foods such as whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables.

12. Eat Yogurt
Some studies have shown that eating a daily cup of low-fat yogurt can reduce your susceptibility to colds by 25 percent. Researchers think the beneficial bacteria in yogurt may stimulate production of immune system substances that fight disease.

13. Don't Smoke
Statistics show that heavy smokers get more severe colds and more frequent ones. Even being around smoke profoundly zaps the immune system. Smoke dries out your nasal passages and paralyzes cilia, the delicate hairs that line the mucous membranes in your nose and lungs that sweep cold and flu viruses out of the nasal passages. Experts contend that one cigarette can paralyze cilia for as long as 30 to 40 minutes.

14. Cut Alcohol Consumption
Heavy alcohol use destroys the liver, the body's primary filtering system, which means that germs of all kinds won't leave your body as fast. The result is, heavier drinkers are more prone to initial infections as well as secondary complications. Alcohol also dehydrates the body -- it actually takes more fluids from your system than it puts in.

15. Relax
There's evidence that when you relax, your interleukins -- leaders in the immune system response against cold and flu viruses -- increase in the bloodstream.

16. Avoid close contact with anyone who has a cold or flu
Although you can’t always tell when someone has a cold or the flu, if it seems obvious, avoid him or her. If a co-worker is ill, take steps to clean any shared surfaces, such as the coffee maker or door handles.

17. Avoid contact with known allergens
Allergies affecting the nose or throat may increase the chances of getting a cold or flu.

18. Let fresh air into your home at least once a week even if it is extremely cold outside.
Studies have shown that the air inside your home is 2 to 5 times worse than the air outside. Allowing fresh air in will help to get stale, unhealthy air out and fresh air in!

19. Avoid kissing on the lips of you feel yourself getting sick.
This includes your children as well as significant others!

20. STAY HOME IF YOU ARE SICK!

If you are sick, stay home till your contagious period passes. And with WhiteGlove House Call Health membership, you can stay home, even if you need medical care.

As a WhiteGlove member, you pay a single, fixed affordable visit fee. Our nurse practitioner will come you your home (or office) from 8 am to 8 pm, 365 days a year. This visit includes medical care, generic Rx meds, and our well-kit with chicken soup, crackers, Gatorade, ginger ale, Tylenol, Jell-O, Kleenex, cough drops, and more. In addition, you don’t have to spend money on gas, parking, tolls, Rx meds, etc.

Remember to get your flu shot or FluMist and use these helpful tips to stay healthy. But if you do get ill, call WhiteGlove House Call Health at 1-877-329-8081.