How to Protect Yourself This Flu Season

Now that the holiday season is just around the corner, the change in weather and more contact with people is sure to make it easier for flu to spread around. Protect yourself and your family with these six tips:

1. Make sure you’ve had your flu shots. It’s surprising how many people get sick every year because they missed getting the seasonal flu vaccine. Think about this: getting a flu shot might take you two hours (including travel time), while getting sick with flu could cost you days feeling miserable or even incapacitated.

2. Keep a hand sanitizer at hand. Washing with soap and water is best for ridding ourselves of the virus that cause flu, but if that’s not possible, cleaning your hands with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer will do almost as much good. Practice this whenever you hold something that has been touched by various other people, such as door handles, money and public computers.

3. Freshen up your nose. Nope, we don’t mean putting a fresh coat of powder; we mean cleaning the insides of your nose using a nasal rinse and a bulb syringe. This will not only flush out any viruses you may have inhaled but also help clear the dirt inside your nose to make you feel refreshed and lighter.

4. Add more garlic to your diet. It may not be so good for you breath, but garlic is great for boosting your immunity and improving your internal systems thanks to its rich antioxidant content. This means that it’s an excellent way to ward off flu as well as for preventing cancer. Need another reason? Garlic is also good for the heart.

5. Look on the bright side. A research from the Behavioral Immunology Laboratory (University of Pittsburg) found that people who have a positive view of life produce more amounts of antibodies to flu. So the happier you are, the less likely you’ll fall down with a case of flu.

6. Boost up with fruit juice. Doctors recommend we take nine servings of whole fruits and vegetables every day to strengthen our immune system. If that’s too time-consuming, make things easier by juicing your entire daily fruit and veggie requirement, and just drink that throughout the day. We recommend carrots, parsley, broccoli, kale and apple.