Tips to Prevent the Swine Flu

While there are no absolute techniques to insure you do not get the Swine Flu, there are things you can do to help prevent the Swine Flu for you and your family. Prevention is a four fold process, cleanliness, respiratory care, social activities and diet.

Cleanliness to prevent the Swine Flu: At home use disinfectants to clean bathroom area's, especially the sink, counters, towel racks, faucet knobs, and mirrors. During Flu Season these area's should be cleaned at least once per day, and more often if someone in the house has the flu. Personal Hygiene, especially washing your face and hands regularly. Disinfecting soaps may not kill virus particles, but regular washing of your hands can help to keep them free of contaminants. Keeps your hands and fingers away from your face, especially the eye's and mouth. (Eat your pizza with a fork).

Respiratory Care: There are a few tricks that can help to prevent the Swine flu, many have used before as an avoidance. Gargling with warm salt water can help. As it has been explained to me, warm fluids and gargling can help dislodge viral particles allowing you to rinse them out, or swallow them into the stomach where digestive fluids can destroy them. Drinking warm fluids like tea, coffee, or a broth and such through out the day. Blow your nose on a regular basis, if you are one of the fortunate ones that does not have regular congestion you can nasal spray with a warm and mild salt water followed with blowing your nose as well as possible. Again, several times through out the day.

Dietary considerations: If you are going to prevent the flu, then a healthy immune system is almost a must. Add immune system boosting foods to your diet. Garlic is an immune booster, onions and oregano can help, as well as eating a healthy level of fresh fruits and vegetables. Those that can be eaten raw are better eaten raw as cooking reduces the nutritional benefits of the fruit & veggies. Replace your iceberg lettuce with long leaf lettuce like Romaine or others. Our family also takes Olive Leaf extract which is a natural anti bacterial, anti fungal, and anti viral.

Social Activities: Of course if you are going to be places where you may be exposed to the Swine Flu then the risks increase, but there are a few things you can do to help prevent the swine flu, even in every day social activities. Going shopping? Take some disinfectant wipes to clean the handle of the shopping cart. Don't handle every package on the shelf. Where possible touch only that which you choose to purchase. Again, wipe or wash your hands as soon as you have finished shopping and follow other practices to eliminate any contaminants. If your symptoms are following the natural progression of the Swine Flu and after five days the symptoms are leveling out or improving, then if you feel you can avoid a trip to the doctors office, then do so. Unless you have health problems like weak immune system, Asthma or COPD, etc, and require the doctors care for symptomatic care, the doctor cannot give you a cure for the flu, and being in his office can expose you to many more contagious conditions. Basically what it boils down to is the fewer activities you do around others, the fewer chances of exposure and the lower your risk.

Face Masks: These are optional. Face masks may help, the higher quality and more expensive masks normally being the better choice. By all means a face mask may catch a few particles, but not necessarily all so all of the preceding suggestions should still be practiced. Small air gaps around the mask and face leave a path of least resistance so there will still be particles getting through, so do not wear a face mask thinking it is a perfect shield.

None of the tips listed above are a 100% guarantee to prevent the swine flu, but each one makes it harder for the flu to successfully attack your body. I honestly cannot tell you when the last time I had the flu was. Kids are more prone because they play with many other children, but even though most of my family has gotten the flu one year or another, I've not yet contracted it myself which I am grateful for since I have COPD.

If you are more into the natural treatments of health issues, Olive Leaf Extract and Oil of Oregano are excellent for battling viral infections. Most of all I hope you all can successfully avoid the flu and enjoy a beautiful winter season.