Cold and Flu: How to Avoid Them This Season

By Virginia Laird

With the flu lingering (seemingly) longer each year, it can be more urgent than ever to take the right precautions to help your family attempt to avoid the cold and flu. Health and wellness experts suggest that there is little you can do to completely prevent the flu from taking over your home. Although, many recommend the vaccine to be helpful in preventing the flu, it too is not a sure answer. Professionals have compiled a list of helpful tips to make successful your efforts in keeping this virus from making its way through your home, including:

• Make sure you get plenty of sleep
• Choose to follow a healthy diet
• Follow healthy hygiene habits

Make Sure You Get Plenty of Sleep

Getting plenty of sleep is one sure way to provide a boost to your immune system. Health and wellness experts suggest that helping the entire family get enough sleep during flu season is one line of defense against this virus. It is advised that the average adult should get at least 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. However, some adults and all children require much more sleep than this.

Choose to Follow a Healthy Diet

There is research that proves that consuming plenty of fruits and veggies allows the body to get the vitamins and minerals needed to stay healthy and fight off illness. Health and wellness experts suggest that especially during flu season it is pertinent to make sure to eat a well-balanced and healthy diet. This can help the body stay free of other diseases and weight issues which can help it be more productive in keeping away the cold and flu.

Follow Healthy Hygiene Habits

It is necessary to instill healthy habits on your family throughout flu season. Almost everywhere you turn you will come into contact with the germs of other people. While not all of these people will have the flu germs, many will have illnesses to share. It is recommended that you should wash your hands a minimum of seven times a day. This includes times after visiting the restroom, coming in contact with others, and before and after handling food, among other times. Other healthy habits include covering your mouth when coughing, avoiding hand contact with your eyes if you haven't washed, and staying home when you are ill. Make sure you make your health a priority and start following healthy hygiene habits today.

Take this advice seriously so that you and your family may have the best chance of skipping the flu this season.

To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Richmond, Va.

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