4 Tips for fighting off flu season
Stay healthy this winter with these easy, natural tips.
Curing a cold is far trickier than preventing one, so practice as many cold and flu prevention techniques as you can before it’s too late. These four simple tips will help you strengthen your immune system and prevent the spread of illness, so you save others from falling victim to a vicious sickness as well.
- Wash your hands, and dry them too
Everyone knows that washing your hands is super important, but drying them seals the deal. Germs left behind after a good hand-washing will stick around longer on wet hands than they would on dry ones. Also, damp hands when it’s chilly outside force your body work harder to keep itself warm.
- Get out of the house
Avoiding the outside world like the plague is a popular strategy during flu season, but this isn’t as perfect of a plan as you may initially think. While you may be avoiding the danger of catching a bug from friends or family, social interaction fights off depression and improves your mental well-being, which indirectly contributes to a healthy immune system. Moral of the story: get out and socialize, but wash your hands and avoid touching everything.
- Avoid sweets
Sugar is the white blood cells’ worst enemy. It zaps their infection-fighting powers, leaving a defenseless, vulnerable immune system. While cells recover once sugar leaves the bloodstream, that can take up to several hours. To put things into perspective, six tablespoons of sugar (3 servings of soda) is enough to render your white blood cells useless for an entire 24-hour period.
- Use essential oils
Essential oils are a great homeopathic alternative to slurping down cold medicine and popping pills. Oils like lavender, eucalyptus, tea tree, lemon, cinnamon, peppermint and sage are perfect for preventing illnesses. Eucalyptus, lavender, lemon and tea tree also stimulate immune function to help fight off sickness after it hits. There are different essential oils for almost every problem within the body, so do a little digging and find out which ones best solve your symptoms.
Good luck this flu season!