Surviving Cold & Flu Season: Part 1

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Prevention Is The Best Medicine

Since there are no known cures for cold or flu, prevention is the best medicine. This year, it is more important than ever to take all necessary precautions to avoid getting the flu.

Healthy young people are at less risk for the serious complications, that can accompany the flu, but it could still mean a week or more out of work (not to mention the misery that goes along with that.)

10 Natural Ways to Reduce the Risk of Catching or Transmitting Colds or Flu

1. Eat smart. Eat a variety of brightly colored foods containing phytochemicals. These natural chemicals give the vitamins, held within the foods, a supercharged boost. 
2. Get enough sleep. Your body can’t recover without enough sleep. 
3. Don’t cover a cough with bare hands. Cough into the crook of your elbow or into a clean tissue and then dispose of immediately. 
4. Wash hands frequently. Viruses can live for hours and sometimes weeks outside the body. 
5. Don’t touch your face or the face of others. Cold and flu viruses enter the body through the eyes, nose and mouth. 
6. Manage your stress. It is well documented that stress can lower the immune system. 
7. Drink lots and lots of water. All of life’s functions take place in water and it flushes your system, washing out toxins as it rehydrates you.
8. Take a sauna. Studies prove that those who take two or more a week got half as many colds as those that didn’t. One theory is that viruses cannot live in temperatures higher than 80 degrees. 
9. Do cardio exercises regularly. Cardio forces the body to pump more oxygen-rich blood throughout the body. This helps to eliminate waste and produce more of the body’s natural virus-killing cells. 
10. Take nutritional supplements. Due to stress, food degradation, the environment and other factors, the foods you eat may be missing important nutrients.

Check back next week for ways to boost your immune system!