Avoiding the Flu This Season

So there you are at 35,000 feet sitting in a pressurized aluminum tube cruising at 500 miles an hour with what sounds like a planeload full of tuberculosis patients. Now, you can try two things at this point. First, you could try and hold your breath for the duration of the flight between New York and Atlanta. Unless your Criss Angel or David Blaine, that's never going to work. So, what can the average person do to avoid the swine and regular seasonal flu? Thankfully, there are some simple steps we can each take to minimize our risk of exposure.

It's a myth that you're primary risk is from inhaling the virus. I recently spoke with an Emergency Room Physician regarding this form of transmission and his medical opinion was that masks are a waste of time. Unless you're right in someone's face taking their temperature or looking in their throat, that's not the way you're going to be infected. The most common method of transmission is via hand to eye or hand to nose contact.

In short, keep your hands clean! This can be done in a couple of ways. First, wash your hands. Sounds simple right? Well, not for most of us. Studies have shown the average person doesn't wash their hands for long enough to be effective. Heavy duty scientific research has come up with a highly technical solution to this problem. Sing Happy Birthday twice while you're washing your hands! If you want to be really sure, you can add the "you look like a monkey verse", but it's not necessary. The other way is with over the counter alcohol based hand sanitizers. It really doesn't matter which brand, but it has to have a minimum alcohol content of 60 percent. This number can be found on the back of the bottle.

Not only should you have clean hands, but keep your mitts off of your face. Research has shown the majority of infections come from hand eye/hand nose contact. So, don't go poking around up there unless you really have to. Also, remember not everyone else is going to keep their hands pristine like you do, so make sure to wash up before eating, putting in your contacts, or otherwise messing with your mug.

There's another area often overlooked during the flu season which might be the most important of all. Keep your body properly tuned up. This includes many things like avoiding stress and staying well rested; to exercising and taking immune boosting natural supplements. Another good tip is to stay well hydrated. If you're body is attacked by one of these two viruses, you don't want to be behind the eight ball at the outset.

That's it, it's pretty simple. Keep clean hands and take care of yourself. And hey, if none of this works and you come down with the flu-stay home, enjoy the time off and catch up on Oprah and Dr. Phil.