Stay Healthy this Winter Season!

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Jives
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Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 1:00 pm

Stay Healthy this Winter Season!

Post by Jives »

So you think that getting sick is just part of the Winter Season? And that everyone will get sick eventually?

Actually NO! I have only been sick once in the last five years. And I work at a bacteriological battlefield, a school!

Since my immune system was previously compromised, I was getting sick quite often. Six to seven times a year in fact. I thought that was normal. Since I now take some common sense precautions, I very rarely get sick at all! (And of course my immune system is operating at a normal level now.)



Do you take any special precautions visiting people, or in cleaning your house?


Now listen carefully: Even if you are not in this thread, even if you are fine physically, listen to me now:

Use your common sense. Dress warmly before shocking your body by going from a heated room to the cold outside.

Be clean. how many times have I eaten food without washing my hands? Touched my face? Stuck a finger in my mouth or rubbed my eyes?

Most people don't even think about it! But you should!!!

Wash your hands before doing any of these things. Get some anti-bacterial soap, and just wash your hands before eating or sticking your fingers in body holes. DUH!

I have personally seen kids sneeze into their hands, then grab a doorknob and walk out. Every kid after that grabs the same doorknob, no wonder schools have pandemics!

I do wear a mask, but only if I am within one foot of a sick student's face. I make a joke about it, but I do it.This happens about once every two months. If the student is truly ill and they have their nose running and they are sneezing, I just tell them to keep their distance.

At the end of the day, I wash my hands when I get home. You should see how black the water gets! I never realized just how dirty they were before! I used to come home and fix myself a snack with dirty hands, leave it on the counter, then eat off the coffee table for Pete's sake! NO MORE!

Just some simple precautions, just a little alertness is all that's required. "Wear a mask everywhere" is just plain reidiculous!

Just watch out for sick people, keep them at arm's length, don't let them drink out of your milk carton, and wash your hands before touching your face, picking your nose, licking your fingers, or eating!!

If there is anyone on these boards that doesn't enjoy being sick, all you have to do is follow these simple, easy to do guidelines and you will be healthy for the entire year! Flu shot be damned!
All the world's a stage and the men and women merely players...Shakespeare
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chonsigirl
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Stay Healthy this Winter Season!

Post by chonsigirl »

Nice common sense advice, Jives. And as a fellow teacher, after one year of teaching we become a little immune ourselves to their germs, but have to remember the safety things to do. I had a flu shot, but only because I didn't want anything to come home to my husband. I was lucky, the nurses grabbed me and gave me one, after the edict came down that same day we couldn't have them again, the nurses knew I didn't have one last year.
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valerie
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Stay Healthy this Winter Season!

Post by valerie »

I'm right with ya on this one Jives, I can only add a couple of things.



The mechanical action of washing your hands is best... no need to use

the anti-bacterial soap. And wash your hands for the length of time it

takes you to sing the "Happy Birthday" song.



I don't touch anything with my hands when I'm out. I use my forearms

to push a shopping cart, open doors with my shoulder, don't use the

handrail on an escalator. All those people sneezing into their hands and

then grabbing the handrail... YUCK!! If you wash your hands in a public

restroom, use a fresh paper towel to turn the faucet off. I do keep

waterless hand sanitizier with me for those times I have looked at items

in a store and can't get to wash right away.



Getting a good night's sleep and plenty of exercise will help build that

immune system, too. The last really bad cold I had was 1995 (Lean

Cuisine for Christmas dinner!!) and I've only had one mild one since

and that was a few years ago. I hate being sick!



Taking steps might be a pain but soon it will become second nature,

it is for me. And I don't care what people think, I'd rather be healthy!



;)
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SOJOURNER
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Stay Healthy this Winter Season!

Post by SOJOURNER »

Heinens grocery store has put in a sanitizing wipe cloth station. Upon entering the store you grab a wipe and wipe down the push handle on your cart, if you choose to do so. It's surprising how many people just poo-poo the offer.
CountryDweller
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Stay Healthy this Winter Season!

Post by CountryDweller »

Very good ideas Jives. No matter how hard you try to stay healthy, someone is so willing to spread their germs.

Today, my husband and I ran out to pick lunch up at our local Burger King. We placed our order, the girl took our money, then she hands me our cups for our beverages with her fingers stuck inside the empty cups! I told her that I needed new cups to use. That she just handled dirty money, didn't wash her hands and she stuck her fingers inside the cups! She looked at me strange, but did give me new cups. Then, the other girl who was working on the fries order, just finished repairing a cash register, didn't wash her hands and scooped up the fries. Again, I brought to her attention the lack of sanitation and requested new fries after she washes her hands. Needless to say, my appetite had left me. And, it will probably be my last visit to their establishment.

If you think about it, money is the most dirtiest, germ carrier there is. Hundreds of people have handled it and it never gets cleaned.
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OpenMind
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Stay Healthy this Winter Season!

Post by OpenMind »

The unbroken skin is virtually impermeable to anything except corrosive substances. If, however, it is broken, you should cover the break to prevent ingress.

Keep your hands away from your eyes, nose, ears and mouth and sensitive skin areas until you have washed your hands thoroughly. Even so, shortly after washing your hands, you may well touch something that is 'dirty'. Therefore, it is good practise never to touch your eyes, ears, nose or mouth without a suitable tissue.

Airborne bacteria is constantly present. Make it a subconscious practise to breathe in through your nose rather than your mouth. The hairs inside the nostrils are filters designed to prevent ingress.

If someone sneezes over you, clean the affected area immediately.

Finally, and equally important, eat healthily to maintain a strong immune system.
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abbey
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Stay Healthy this Winter Season!

Post by abbey »

valerie wrote:

I don't touch anything with my hands when I'm out. I use my forearms

to push a shopping cart, open doors with my shoulder, don't use the

handrail on an escalator. All those people sneezing into their hands and

then grabbing the handrail... YUCK!! If you wash your hands in a public

restroom, use a fresh paper towel to turn the faucet off. I do keep

waterless hand sanitizier with me for those times I have looked at items

in a store and can't get to wash right away.







;)I also do all of the above, but i'm still coming down with a cold A-A-A-A-TCHOO....
Jives
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Stay Healthy this Winter Season!

Post by Jives »

OpenMind wrote: it is good practise never to touch your eyes, ears, nose or mouth without a suitable tissue..


Absolutely! Like Valerie said, it'll be second nature soon. You will thank yourself for thinking about this, believe me!!:cool:
All the world's a stage and the men and women merely players...Shakespeare
ELF
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Stay Healthy this Winter Season!

Post by ELF »

I wash my hands everytime I come in from the reindeer stable..........:)
booradley
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Stay Healthy this Winter Season!

Post by booradley »

getting sick now and again builds your natural immunity up
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Bez
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Stay Healthy this Winter Season!

Post by Bez »

It is is common sense to wrap up warm and to eat sensibly and of course hygiene and cleanliness are important. However, living too 'sterile' a life leaves you vulnerable to those 'nasties' that are all around us. By coming in to contact with them you build up an immunity. I work in a factory with 150 other people ..... I can't avoid them..... but by eating proper food and generally looking after myself I find that I am exceedingly healthy...maybe one cold a year and I haven't had any tummy upsets for as long as I can remember.

A guy at work swears by Garlic, and eats the stuff every day.....thinking about it...no one goes near him, so that's probably why he doesn't catch anything.:D
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lady cop
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Stay Healthy this Winter Season!

Post by lady cop »

i certainly agree that cleanliness and prevention are important, but none of us lives in a plastic bubble. if i may contribute another factor, i fed my kids a very wholesome diet as they grew up and i never had a sick kid! good genes and good fortune help as well. and i was never sick in my life until that heart attack which was not due to viruses, but being a type A person...so eat right and try to reduce stress. (if someone already mentioned these items, sorry.:o )
tedhutchinson
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Stay Healthy this Winter Season!

Post by tedhutchinson »

While it is true that hygiene is important in the transmission of disease your own vulnerability is determined to some extent by the strength of your immune system.

Generally speaking epidemics occur when the populations general levels of immunity are at their seasonal lowest. Cloud cover in the case of tropical rainy season epidemics, pollution clogging up the atmosphere in heavily polluted city outbreaks and the level of sunlight in northern latitudes winter flu season.

As this forum is read worldwide you may be interested in find out the Duration of Vitamin D synthesis in your locality by using the calculator here

http://zardoz.nilu.no/%7Eolaeng/fastrt/VitD-ez.html

You will find your latitude and longitude by using Google Earth or Multimap.

But for people in Canada, UK and much of Europe free vitamin D from sunshine will not be available until next April and you will have until September to build up your body's reserves. It is only after these vitamin D reserves have become depleted that we start suffering from numerous infections.

Of course some people are able to have Winter breaks in the sunshine to top up their levels, others use sunbed or tanning lamps not to get a tan (as that might induce skin cancer) but just to spend 10 minutes back and front to make 12000iu of vitamin d. Longer spells don't create an endless supply of vitamin d as when the body has made as much as it can cope with it junks the rest. So ten minutes exposure to any skin area is sufficient.

Another solution is to use Vitamin D supplements from cholecalciferol. More details of how much to use can be found at The Vitamin D council here http://www.cholecalciferol-council.com/

But common sense would tell you that if your skin can make 12000iu in 10 mins sunlight exposure there must be a reason for that amount.

Using your financial acumen you would soon suss out that if you spend £/$ 4000 daily your overdraft will suffer if you only depostit £/$400 daily.

Your body uses between 3&5000iu of vitamin D every day so to keep your levels constant you need to ensure your intake matches your expenditure.

I should perhaps have pointed out that milk in the UK is not fortified so this source of vitamin d from the diet isn't available in the UK. Food sources of Vitamin D can be found here but for all practical purposes it is impossible to get sufficient vitamin D to replace your daily usage from diet.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... oodsources

Those interested in hearing one of the World's leading Vitamin D experts discussion the scientific basis for his understanding and his research may like to listen to the presentation here

http://www.insinc.com/onlinetv/directms13oct2005

however I warn you it is somewhat heavy going and you may need to listen more than once to grasp the gist of it.
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