Back to blogging with a cold
November 8, 2006 by Grace Ibay
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Yeah I’m back in a woozy sort of way. Been out for a week vacationing and now I’m back home. I went overseas for a week and came back to a very cold Baltimore home. Not a few hours into US soil and I have a congested nose and dull headache. What’s worse, my 19-month old daughter caught it too. How in the world did we get sick so quickly? Was it the drastic change in weather and humidity, or that I didn’t dress up for the colder weather coming home?
Gabe Mirkin, MD of drmirkin.com tells us that contrary to what I thought, colds are caught NOT by cold weather but by germs I got from people who sneezed or coughed around me, or transmitted the viruses with their hands to objects that I touched. Makes sense. I was virtually locked in a tight compartment called an airplane for more than 12 hours.
You can also get a cold when a person blows his nose or coughs into a handkerchief and gets some of the germs on his hands, then touches a door knob, and hours later, you touch the door knob and put your fingers in your nose. You can get a cold from anything touched by a person who has a cold: your door knob, your pencil, your phone, desk, spoon, table cloth, or anything else.
Now as the Flu Patrol writer I should have taken better care, but I didn’t, so let me just pass on to you (and remind myself again) these tips so you don’t catch the colds or the flu, nor infect others, this season -
- Wash your hands frequently. Use an alcohol-based gel if you don’t have water. This is the most important thing you can do.
- Cough and sneeze into a tissue or into your hands, then wash your hands.
- Turn your head away from people when you cough.
- If you suddenly sneeze and have no tissue ready, bend your arm and sneeze into it.
- Don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth. This prevents germs from entering your body.
- Frequently wash shared surfaces — such as computer keyboards or phones — to get rid of viruses, which can live on them for several hours.
- Stay away from crowds, especially if you’re sick.
- Stay well-nourished to be better able to fight off infections. Fuel your body with natural vitamins found in foods such as dark green, red, and yellow vegetables or fruits, and foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which fight inflammation.
- Get regular exercise. People who exercise often recover more quickly than those who don’t.
[Source: delawareonline]
Tags: Common cold, Health, healthy living, blogging
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] November began with me catching a nasty cold, looking for sympathetic bloggers, and desperately looking for an “airborne” to treat it. Of course I passed it on to family. Now I don’t know exactly how I got it (but I did fly long distance and stayed in the city). I am now in more vigilant about contaminations, and even if I sneeze innocently I am using my shirt sleeve to cover my mouth. Better a snotty sleeve than a nasty hand. I’m not taking chances anymore, so this time I’m resting more, taking more sunshine and loading up on Vitamin D. So far I’ve been flu-free! [...]