Protect Your Health
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In this day of rising health care costs,
that old adage couldn’t be more true. As the cold and flu season arrives along with the
colorful falling leaves, here are five ways to help keep cold germs at bay.
- Wash Your Hands. Cold germs can pile up on your hands. Avoid touching your eyes and
nose—especially while working on a client—and wash your hands thoroughly with warm soapy
water after each session. Use paper towels instead of terry cloth towels, which harbor
germs. Keep an alcohol-based hand cleaner at your reception area to help clients stay
germ-free, too.
- Disinfect Surfaces. According to the
National Institutes of Health, rhinoviruses
can live up to three hours on your skin. They also can survive up to three hours on objects
such as telephones and stair railings. Cleaning environmental surfaces with a virus-killing
disinfectant can help prevent the spread of infection.
- Exercise. The first randomized clinical trial to investigate the impact of moderate
physical activity on common-cold incidence, conducted by Cornelia Ulrich, PhD, and
colleagues, found that postmenopausal women who exercised regularly for a year cut
their risk of colds in half compared to those who didn’t routinely work out. Moderate
daily exercise of 30–45 minutes is recommended. These findings were reported in the
November 2006 issue of
The American
Journal of Medicine.
- Boost Immunity. Vitamin E may help protect against the common cold, according to a Tufts
University study. Reported in the August 18, 2004 issue of the Journal of the American
Medical Association, a year-long study with 617 people aged 65 and older found that daily
supplements of 200 IU of vitamin E helped reduce the incidence of the common cold by
20 percent. Vitamin E is best absorbed when taken with a meal that has some fat.
- Eat Soup. A good hearty soup warms the body and soul on a chilly day. Add some
cold-fighting ingredients and you’ll have a magical combination. Garlic, onion and
shiitake mushrooms all have wonderful antibacterial and antifungal properties
and make flavorful additions to soup recipes.
Source:
mtjŪ (Massage Therapy JournalŪ), Fall 2007.
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