12 Important Tips to Prevent Cold and Flu Infection

Since there are no known cures for colds or the flu, prevention should be your
goal. A proactive approach to warding off colds and flu is apt to make
your whole life healthier. The most effective way to prevent flu, frankly,
is to get a flu shot. It may not be natural, but it works better than anything
else. But there are other strategies you can employ as well.

#1 Wash Your Hands

Most cold and flu viruses are spread by direct contact. Someone who has the flu
sneezes onto their hand, and then touches the telephone, the keyboard, 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. So 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.

#2 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, then throw it away immediately. If you
don't have a tissue, turn your head away from people near you and cough
into the air.

#3 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 people catch colds.

#4 Drink Plenty of Fluids

Water flushes your system, washing out the poisons as it rehydrates you. A typical, healthy adult needs eight 8-ounce glasses of fluids each day. How can you tell if you're getting enough liquid? If the color of your urine runs close to clear, you're getting enough. If it's deep yellow, you need more fluids.

#5 Take a Sauna

Researchers aren't clear about the exact role saunas play in prevention, but
one 1989 German study found that people who steamed twice a week got half as
many colds as those who didn't. One theory: When you take a sauna you inhale
air hotter than 80 degrees, a temperature too hot for cold and flu viruses to
survive.

#6 Get Fresh Air

A regular dose of fresh air is important, especially in cold weather when
central heating dries you out and makes your body more vulnerable to cold and
flu viruses. Also, during cold weather more people stay indoors, which means
more germs are circulating in crowded, dry rooms.

#7 Do Aerobic Exercise Regularly

Aerobic exercise speeds up the heart to pump larger quantities of blood, makes
you breathe faster to help transfer oxygen from your lungs to your blood, and
makes you sweat once your body heats up. These exercises help increase the
body's natural virus-killing cells.

#8 Eat Foods Containing Phytochemicals

"Phyto" means plants, and the natural chemicals in plants give the vitamins in
food a supercharged boost. So put away the vitamin pill, and eat dark green,
red, and yellow vegetables and fruits.

#9 Eat Yogurt

Some studies have shown that eating a daily cup of low-fat yogurt can reduce
your susceptibility to colds by 25 percent. Researchers think the beneficial
bacteria in yogurt may stimulate production of immune system substances
that fight disease.

#10 Don't Smoke

Statistics show that heavy smokers get more severe colds and more frequent
ones. Even being around smoke profoundly zaps the immune system. Smoke dries
out your nasal passages and paralyzes cilia, the delicate hairs that line the
mucous membranes in your nose and lungs that 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.

#11 Cut Alcohol Consumption

Heavy alcohol use destroys the liver, the body's primary filtering system,
which means that germs of all kinds won't leave your body as fast. The
result is, heavier drinkers are more prone to initial infections as well as
secondary complications. Alcohol also dehydrates the body -- it actually takes
more fluids from your system than it puts in.

#12 Relax

If you can teach yourself to relax, you can activate your immune system on
demand. There's evidence that when you put your relaxation skills into action,
your interleukins -- leaders in the immune system response against cold and flu
viruses -- increase in the bloodstream. Train yourself to picture an image you
find pleasant or calming. Do this 30 minutes a day for several months. Keep in
mind, relaxation is a learnable skill, but it is not doing nothing. People who
try to relax, but are in fact bored, show no changes in blood chemicals