How To Beat Cold & Flu Season
While you can’t totally eliminate colds and flu (children average 8-10 colds a year) you may be able to prevent a few by following these tips:
- The most effective way to prevent the flu is to get a flu shot. Every year children die from a simple case of influenza. This year the Center for Disease Control is recommending that everyone over 6 months of age get vaccinated. The Virginia Beach Department of Public Health is offering free flu shots to all Virginia Beach residents. The health department will be offering flu shots at clinics at the health department and in the community. Please call 757-518-2700 or go to www.HealthyVB.com for dates and times of flu clinics.
- Wash Your Hands. Most cold and flu viruses are spread by direct contact. Someone who has the flu or a cold sneezes into their hand, and then touches the telephone, a toy, doorknob, a kitchen glass. The germs can live for hours -- in some cases weeks -- only to be picked up by the next person who touches the same object. Wash your hands often. If no sink is available, rub your hands together very hard for a minute or so. That also helps break up most of the cold germs. Or rub an alcohol-based hand sanitizer onto your hands.
- Don't Cover Your Sneezes and Coughs With Your Hands. Because germs and viruses cling to your bare hands, muffling coughs and sneezes with your hands results in passing along your germs to others. When you feel a sneeze or cough coming, use a tissue, and then throw it away immediately. If you don't have a tissue, cough or sneeze into the inside of your elbow.
- Don't Touch Your Face. Cold and flu viruses enter your body through the eyes, nose, or mouth. Touching their faces is the major way children catch colds, and a key way they pass colds to their parents.
- Get Plenty of Sleep. Adults need at least 8 hours and children 10-12 hours of sleep a night. Adequate sleep improves your immune system and helps you fight a variety of viruses and infections.
- Don't Smoke. Statistics show that smokers get more severe colds and more frequent ones. Children who live with smokers also have more frequent and severe colds. Smoke 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.