- Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
When you are sick, keep your distance from others to protect them from getting
sick too.
- Stay home when you are sick. If possible, stay home from work, school, and
errands when you are sick. This will help prevent spreading your illness to
others.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs are often spread when a person touches
something that is contaminated with germs and then touches his or her eyes,
nose, or mouth.
- Practice other good health habits, especially
when someone is ill. Take a good multi vitamin and probiotic. Get plenty of sleep, be physically active,
manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids, and eat nutritious food.
- Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces
at home, work or school, device touch screens, keyboards, phones, door handles,
steering wheels, shopping cart handles etc. regularly. If the house must be vacuumed while you are
ill, it is best someone else performs that task. Leave the house and allow the
house to air out for several hours before returning. If vacuuming can wait till
you are well that is better.
- Change furnace filters regularly. Use an air purifier with negative ionizer.
- Change your hand towels and bedding, especially
pillowcases regularly.
- Use the dishwasher’s hot wash setting to
disinfect eating utensils and dishes or use paper plates, cups and plastic
silverware and discard. Avoid using
plastic dishware if they are not put through the dishwasher on a sanitizing
cycle.
- Replace toothbrushes.
- Nutritional and herbal products that may help
fight infections and boost immune system include: Vitamin C, Vitamin D3, Ionic zinc and nascent
iodine, Elderberry, Ginseng, Turmeric, Goldenseal, Olive Leaf, Oregano Oil,
Garlic, Echinacea, Astragalus, Essential oil blends like Thieves (YL), Armor
(melaleuca) or OnGuard(DT). Oscillococcinum,
Olba’s oil, cough syrup, nasal spray etc. Thymus support through glandulars and
thymus tapping can be very helpful.
- Practice cough and cold etiquette. The fact is
that cold etiquette is more than simple good manners; it’s a matter of good
health, for you and your community. Here are five etiquette tips to follow when
you’re coughing, sneezing, and showing other signs of a contagious cold:
- Sneeze into your elbow, not your hand. As kids,
most people were taught to cover their nose and mouth with their hands when
they sneeze. But then where does that leave your germs? All over your hands, of
course. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been
campaigning to get kids (and adults too) to learn to sneeze into their elbows
instead. “You can’t get to a sink immediately,” says Kathryn Teng,
MD, a physician in the department of internal medicine and director of clinical
integration of personalized health care at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
“And you touch so many things. It’s really a great way to contain
germs.”
- Wash or sanitize hands frequently. When it comes
to washing your hands, “you really just can’t do it enough in the
wintertime,” says Dr. Teng. Of course, you can get viruses, colds, and the
flu any time of year. But “it’s more rampant in wintertime because we’re
inside and in closer quarters.” So head to the sink, soap up, and scrub up
after you sneeze, before you eat, and any other chance you get.
- Warn others that you’re just getting over the
flu. Haller’s son was born during cold and flu season. She had a houseguest
show up, planning to smooch all over that new baby, knowing full well that she
was sick. It’s just good manners and common courtesy, she says, to let someone
know that you’re sick before you show up to find out if it’s still okay to come
over.
- Stay home if you’re not feeling well. If you
have a fever or are just overall feeling sick, it’s best to stay home, says
Teng. That way you’re not putting so many others at risk. And at work or
school, those confined spaces are perfect for trapping germs and spreading them
all around. Your boss and your child’s teacher will thank you for your
consideration and your help in preventing the spread of your illness to the
whole group.
- Excuse yourself from shaking hands during cold
and flu season or if you’re sick. What’s worse than seeing a sniffling,
sneezing person extending her hand for you to shake? You don’t want to be rude
and ignore her, but it’s not exactly polite to offer a germy hand in the first
place. “I think it’s rude when people know that they’re sick and they go
ahead and shake people’s hands,” says Haller. “Don’t cough or blow
your nose and then hold out your hand for me to shake.” Instead, simply
politely excuse yourself by saying something like, “Excuse me for not
shaking your hand, but I’ve been sick.” Your friends and colleagues will
appreciate the gesture — and not sharing your germs.