The winter is a prominent season for individuals to catch a bacterial infection. This is due to individuals being more cooped up inside with other people who are showing symptoms of an infection. These symptoms include but aren’t exclusive to coughing, runny nose, sneezing, and having a sore throat. Although it’s difficult for us to stay away from people who are showing symptoms of sickness during the winter, there are steps we can take to try to prevent getting sick ourselves.
Maintain a healthy lifestyle
Sick or not, it’s especially important to keep a healthy lifestyle year-round. A healthy lifestyle prepares your body and immune system to fight and bacterial germs or sickness that tries to attack your body. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle means having a balanced amount of fruits and vegetables in your diet, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep to rest and heal your body for the following day.
Use paper towels, not cloths
As a disposable drying cloth, paper towels are better for cleaning up messes and drying your hands since they don’t harbor bacteria and germs. Although cloths are reusable and sometimes softer than paper towels, they house germs that undo any cleaning or washing that you just performed. Use paper towels for drying dishes, hands, and messes to avoid the optimal amount of infectious germs.
Wash your hands regularly
While this seems like a simple task that doesn’t make much of a difference, washing your hands rids your fingers and space under your fingernails of infectious germs. You should use warm, but not hot water to wash your hands off. Warm water mixed with soap will properly remove germs and oils from your hand. You should be able to say the alphabet twice before you begin rinsing off your hand to ensure that you clean your hands for an adequate amount of time. And remember, to use a paper towel to dry off after washing your hands since they don’t harbor and hold germs as hand cloths do.
As an added precaution, we’d recommend taking vitamin C, D, and multivitamins on a daily basis to reinforce your bones and immune system. As always, make sure that drinking water is part of your daily habit. It’s always better to be proactive than reactive when it comes to sickness, so start protecting your body now.