Avoiding Colds

 

Try to Avoid Getting a Cold The simplest way to avoid colds is to try and stay as fit and healthy as possible.

Your diet can and excercise regime can play a big part in this. Eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, keeping warm at all times, particularly if you go out, and maintaining a regular exercise routine are all important factors.

A healthy, balanced diet will also help you to feel more energetic and active. In turn, you'll be more likely to want to do exercise and less likely to feel run-down, which can make you prone to catching a cold.

There are other things you can do to help your immune system to fight off colds and flu.

Tips to help avoiding contact with the cold virus

We sit shoulder to shoulder with others on buses, in the office and pack tightly into elevators. Then we wonder why we get colds, which are spread by a virus that hops on surfaces such as our hands and thrives for up to three hours.

Here are some tips to help

• Wash your hands often. You can pick up cold germs easily, even when shaking someone's hand or touching doorknobs or handrails.
• Use paper towels to dry your hands instead of shared cloth towels.
• Avoid close, prolonged exposure to people with colds.
• Always sneeze or cough into a facial tissue and immediately throw it away.
• Don't touch your nose, eyes or mouth. Germs can enter your body easily by these paths.
• Clean surfaces you touch with a germ-killing disinfectant.
• Switch your child care. Using a day care of 6 or fewer children dramatically reduces germ contact.
• Use instant hand sanitizers. It will kill 99.99% of germs without any water or towels. It uses alcohol to destroy germs. It is an antiseptic, not an antibiotic, so resistance can't develop. Many kids think it's a treat to use it because its fun!

Helping Your Immune System

Avoid unnecessary antibiotics. They will not help to fight or deter colds. The more people that use antibiotics, the more likely they are to get sick with longer, more stubborn infections caused by more resistant organisms in the future.

Breastfeeding. Breast milk is known to protect against respiratory tract infections, even years after breastfeeding is finished, kids who havent been breastfeed average 5 times more ear infections.

Avoid second-hand smoke. Keep as far away from it as possible! It is responsible for many health problems, including millions of colds.

Get enough sleep. Late bedtimes and poor sleep leave people vulnerable and more susceptable to colds. Sleep is your body's natural healing process.

Drink water. Your body needs fluids for the immune system to function properly. Water is the best fluid intake you can use, because it doesnt contain things that the stomach needs to digest, thus diverting energy from the healing process.

Eat yogurt. The beneficial bacteria in some active yogurt cultures help prevent colds.

Take zinc. Children and adults who are zinc-deficient get more infections and stay sick longer.

 

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