Flu Season, How to Avoid the Flu

First off it must be said that there are no promises in this life. Sometimes even the most well prepared person who has done everything right sometimes gets sick. Sometimes the person who behaves badly and does not follow the most basic common sense rules might manage to avoid illness. All we can hope for is to improve our chances of staying healthy.

Rule one, two and three of how to stay healthy is to wash your hands frequently. Wash after using a public facility of any kind. This includes ATM machines, grocery store carts, changing rooms at pools or cloths stores, keypads. Any where you will be handling publicly handled items, even doorknobs.

To wash your hands use liquid soap and warm running water. Wet your hands and apply the soap. Scrub for as long as it takes for you to sing three choruses of "Row, Row, Row, Your Boat." or as long as it takes to sing the alphabet. Be sure to lace your fingers together to rub between the fingers and pay attention carefully cleaning your finger nails. Wash up just past the wrist bone. During this washing make sure that your hands point, fingers down, into the wash basin. This will keep the dirty soapy water from running up to your elbows. Rinse well with plenty of running warm water and dry your hands on a clean paper towel. Repeat frequently or at least after each exposure to contaminating surfaces.

When you can not wash, and it is not always possible, reach for one of the alcohol gel cleaners applying the gel to the same hand and wrist surfaces. Rub the cleaner into your hands until the hand cleaner is dried.

Keep your hands away from your face, handle your face only when both your face and hands have been freshly washed.

Sneeze into your elbow. This will keep your germs away from others and off of your hands.

Avoid crowds and crowded places, this reduces your chance of exposure to illness.

Avoid sick people. If someone is ill, do not go near them, avoid going to their home or office. You can stay in touch via telephone or email, personal contact will only spread their germs to you and whoever you come in contact with. When you wash your hands after you have been coughed on also wash your face.

When caring for a sick family member wash your hands often, at least after each encounter. Turn your face away and close your eyes if they cough into your face. Children are notorious for this, they will get better with time as you will be able to teach them what you know.

Avoid smoke, cigarette or cigar smoke will effect your immunity and irritate your lungs and bronchioles, these are the air passages to and from your lungs.

Know that the fly shot just reduces your chances of getting the flu, it is not a promise of proven prevention. If you take ill and have had a flu shot, it still may be the flu. Be advised to treat it like a flu and stay home until you are well. This does not mean that you should not take the shot. If you are advised by your physician to take the flu shot you would do well to heed that advice.

Eat plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits, concentrate on the dark green vegetables, the reds, the blues and the oranges. Both raw and cooked these will boost your immunity.

Avoid eating concentrated sweets and sugars, these will deplete your immunity, your immunity is your bodies ability to fight off infection and disease.

Avoid excess alcohol consumption, alcohol acts as a sugar in the body, it also reduces your immunity. Drink fruit juice or water instead.

Drink plenty of water to stay well hydrated. Even mild dehydration will reduce your bodies ability to fight off germs so drink up.

Exercise so that your body increases your heart rate at least three times a week for twenty minuets. During exercise you should be able to talk but not sing, that is how you know you are working hard enough, if you can sing, you need to work harder. This exercise will deliver oxygen deep into your bodies tissues so that they are better able to defend themselves against infection. Exercising in the fresh air is better than indoors. If you can get fresh air and sunshine with your exercise, this will help your immunity to stay in tip top shape.

Laugh often, laughter improves our outlook on life and our immunity, it really is good medicine.

Get enough of sleep, this may be anywhere form six hours for you to nine hours for some of us. Be consistent in your sleep habits. Sleeping longer one night to make up for last night's lost sleep does not do your body any favors. A sleep deprived body does not function well and our immunity is one of the first things to suffer.

Sleep early instead of late, sleep taken before midnight is more valuable than sleep taken after midnight so get to bed earlier and awaken earlier. Remember Grandma's old adage, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." Well, the healthy part is very true, the rest of it I can not vouch for.