Flu Prevention Tips - Good Health Habits Can Help Stop Germs

There is no permanent cure for colds and flu, therefore cold and flu prevention should be your priority. One approach is warding off colds and flu is apt to make your life healthier. The effective way for preventing the flu is to get a flu shot. There are other strategies you can adopt. Here are those tips which will help prevent colds and flu.

Wash your hands

Cold and flu viruses are normally spread by a direct contact. The person who sneezes onto his or her hand and then touches anything around like telephone, glass, keyboard etc. Germs have tendency to live for hours only to be picked by the next person who touches the same object. Therefore wash your hands often.

Do not Cover Your Sneezes and Coughs with Your Hands

Germs and viruses can cling to your bare hands, muffling coughs around and sneezes with your hands often results in passing along your germs to other people. When you feel a sneeze or cough coming, use a tissue or a handkerchief. If you don’t have a tissue or handkerchief, use your elbow for cover.

Do not Touch Your Face

Cold and flu viruses can enter your body through eyes, nose, or mouth. Touching your face is the major way children catch colds and a key way for pass colds on to other kids and their parents.

Aerobic Exercises

Aerobic exercise has the ability to speed up the heart rate which results pumping larger quantities of blood throughout the body; which makes you breathe faster, transferring oxygen from your lungs to the blood; and of course makes you sweat once your body heats up. These exercises help increase the body’s natural virus-killing cells.

Quit Smoking

Research shows that smokers can get more severe colds and more frequent ones. Even being around smokers profoundly decreases the immune system. Smoking dries out your nasal passages and paralyzes cilia. These are the delicate hairs that line the mucous membranes in your nose and lungs, and with their wavy movements, sweep cold and flu viruses out of the nasal passages. Experts contend that one cigarette can paralyze cilia for as long as 30 to 40 minutes.

Cut Alcohol Consumption

Heavy alcohol use decreases your immune system in a variety of ways. Heavier drinkers are more prone to initial infections as well as secondary could led to complications. Alcohol dehydrates your body — it actually causes more fluid loss from your system than it puts in.

Relax Yourself

If you try to keep yourself relaxed, you may be able to increase your immune system. There is an evidence that when you put your relaxation skills on, your interleukins (leaders in the immune system) response against cold and flu viruses, causing an increase in your bloodstream. Train yourself to picture an image you find pleasant or calming. You can do this activity 30 minutes per day for couple of months. Keep in mind that, relaxation is skill that can be learnt. People who try to be relaxed, but are in fact bored, show no changes in blood chemicals.