Top 10 Ways to Stay Healthy
By Austin Siegal
Cold and flu season has descended upon the Waldorf University community. Many people have been falling ill with bronchitis, influenza A and B and even pneumonia. There are many ways to stay healthy, but here are a few top recommendations.
- Get the Flu shot – Getting the flu shot lowers the odds of an individual getting the flu significantly. The flu shot works by injecting a weakened version of the virus in you. This allows your body to attack and fight it off, thus making you immune to that specific strain of the flu.
- Wash Hands with Soap and Warm Water – Washing hands with soap and warm water is one of the easiest things to do to help stay clean and healthy. Washing hands with cold water does not kill as many germs as warm water. And of course, always wash your hands after using the restroom.
- Get Plenty of Sleep – Getting adequate sleep is important in many aspects of life. One of the most important things sleep helps with is recovery and rebooting the body. Sleep helps your body focus on the things it needs to fix, and allows them to be repaired more quickly. That’s why sleep is a regular prescription when people fall ill, and it is helpful in preventing illness as well.
- Avoid Touching Sensory Areas – One of the easiest ways to get sick is by introducing bacteria to the body’s mucous membranes, such as your eyes, nose and throat. These all connect to your sinus cavities and infection can cause headaches, nausea and other symptoms that are not enjoyable.
- Exercise – Physical activity helps with a lot of things in overall health, but it also helps with preventing sickness. Exercise helps build the body’s immune system and gives a person have a better chance at fighting off germs.
- Hand Sanitizer – Hand sanitizer is extremely effective at killing almost every germ on your hands, and makes it a lot easier to avoid introducing bacteria into the body from your hands.
- Don’t Bite Your Nails – Many different kinds of germs lurk and reside underneath your nails, and nail biting gives them a straight path inside your body.
- Eat Healthy – Similar to exercise, eating healthy helps boost your immune system and make you less susceptible to becoming sick.
- Hydration – Staying hydrated helps flush toxins out of your body and keeps you feeling fresh.
- Don’t share drinks – Sharing drinks can be seriously unhealthy. One person may seem healthy, but all people carry different germs and mixing yourself with someone else’s germs could easily make you sick if your body does not react to them.