Effective Ways to Prevent Common Cold and Flu

Cold and flu is among the most common illnesses known to mankind. What’s worse is that there are no known cures for this frustrating condition. Therefore, you should know ways to prevent cold and flu before it gets you. Common cold is contagious; viruses are easily transferred from person to person. You can get infected simply by inhaling the drops of mucus in the air that are full of germs, or by touching a surface that has cold germs on it.

While it is impossible to be completely immune to cold, here are a few precautions that you can take to prevent yourself and family from being infected.

Wash Your Hands

This can be considered as one of the most effective and simplest ways to prevent cold. Wash your hands often, especially after spending time in public places. Frequent hand wash can kill viruses that you might have acquired from touching an infected surface. If you are visiting a public place, it’s a good idea to carry a small tube of hand sanitizer with you.

Use a tissue, not your hands to cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough

Never cover your sneeze or cough with your hands, as this will cause germs and viruses to stick to your bare hands. These germs would then be passed on to your family, friends or anyone else you come in contact with.

Avoid touching your face

Don’t touch your nose, mouth, and eye areas especially when you are around someone with a cold. Touching your face with germ laden hands is the most common way of contacting the cold virus.

Drink Plenty of Fluids to stay Hydrated

Drink plenty of fluids like water, tea, warm soup, and juice. This will keep your body hydrated and reduce your risk of being affected by cold. Water helps to get rid of the body waste by flushing the harmful toxins out of the body. It is advisable to drink at least about eight to ten glasses of water each day.

Drink tea, green tea in particular. Green tea enhances the immune system because of the high concentration of polyphenols that it contains. A strong immune system will fight the germs more efficiently and keep cold and flu away.

Eat Yogurt

Studies have shown that eating a cup of low-fat yogurt daily can reduce your susceptibility to colds by 25 percent. Yogurt also has various other health benefits and it tastes good too.

Get Fresh Air

People tend to stay indoors when it’s cold or raining. It is a good idea to spend some time outside so as to increase your oxygen intake.  A closed, dry, crowded environment is more likely to circulate germs that cause cold and flu

Don’t Smoke and cut down Alcohol consumption

Both smoking and heavy alcohol consumption lower your immune system’s ability of fighting germs that make you fall ill. Studies have shown that smokers and heavy drinkers are more vulnerable to cold and flu. You can drink a little amount of alcohol, but smoking should be stopped completely.

Get sufficient Sleep and Relax

Sleep well and give enough rest to your body. Also, try to control your stress levels since too much stress is bound to weaken the immune systems and make you more likely to catch a cold. Once you have control over your emotions, the immune system response positively and strongly against cold and flu viruses.

Developing these simple, healthy habits can help you to keep the cold away and stay healthy throughout the year.