12 Tips to Prevent

12 Tips to Prevent Cold and Flu the "Natural" Way

There are no known cures for colds and flu, so cold and flu prevention should
be your goal. A proactive approach to warding off colds and flu is apt to make
your whole life healthier. The most effective way for preventing the flu is to
get the flu shot. It may not be natural, but it works better than anything else.
But there are other strategies you can employ as well. WebMD went to Charles B.
Inlander, president of The People's Medical Society, for suggestions you may
want to try:

#1 Wash Your Hands

Most cold and flu viruses are spread by direct
contact. Someone who has the flu sneezes onto their hand, and then touches the
telephone, the keyboard, a kitchen glass. The germs can live for hours -- in
some cases weeks -- only to be picked up by the next person who touches the same
object. So wash your hands often. If no sink is available, rub your hands
together very hard for a minute or so. That also helps break up most of the cold
germs. Or rub an alcohol-based hand sanitizer onto your hands.

#2 Don't Cover Your Sneezes and Coughs With
Your Hands

Because germs and viruses cling to your bare hands,
muffling coughs and sneezes with your hands results in passing along your germs
to others. When you feel a sneeze or cough coming, use a tissue, then throw it
away immediately. If you don't have a tissue, turn your head away from people
near you and cough into the air.

#3 Don't Touch Your Face

Cold and flu viruses enter your body through the
eyes, nose, or mouth. Touching their faces is the major way children catch
colds, and a key way they pass colds on to their parents.

#4 Drink Plenty of Fluids

Water flushes your system, washing out the poisons as
it rehydrates you. A typical, healthy adult needs eight 8-ounce glasses of
fluids each day. How can you tell if you're getting enough liquid? If the color
of your urine runs close to clear, you're getting enough. If it's deep yellow,
you need more fluids.

#5 Take a Sauna

Researchers aren't clear about the exact role saunas
play in prevention, but one 1989 German study found that people who steamed
twice a week got half as many colds as those who didn't. One theory: When you
take a sauna you inhale air hotter than 80 degrees, a temperature too hot for
cold and flu viruses to survive.

#6 Get Fresh Air

A regular dose of fresh air is important, especially
in cold weather when central heating dries you out and makes your body more
vulnerable to cold and flu viruses. Also, during cold weather more people stay
indoors, which means more germs are circulating in crowded, dry rooms.

#7 Do Aerobic Exercise Regularly

Aerobic exercise speeds up the heart to pump larger
quantities of blood; makes you breathe faster to help transfer oxygen from your
lungs to your blood; and makes you sweat once your body heats up. These
exercises help increase the body's natural virus-killing cells.

#8 Eat Foods Containing Phytochemicals

"Phyto" means plants, and the natural chemicals in
plants give the vitamins in food a supercharged boost. So put away the vitamin
pill, and eat dark green, red, and yellow vegetables and fruits.

#9 Eat Yogurt

Some studies have shown that eating a daily cup of
low-fat yogurt can reduce your susceptibility to colds by 25 percent.
Researchers think the beneficial bacteria in yogurt may stimulate production of
immune system substances that fight disease.

#10 Don't Smoke

Statistics show that heavy smokers get more severe
colds and more frequent ones.

Even being around smoke profoundly zaps the immune
system. Smoke dries out your nasal passages and paralyzes cilia. These are the
delicate hairs that line the mucous membranes in your nose and lungs, and with
their wavy movements, sweep cold and flu viruses out of the nasal passages.
Experts contend that one cigarette can paralyze cilia for as long as 30
to 40 minutes.

#11 Cut Alcohol Consumption

Heavy alcohol use suppresses the immune system in a
variety of ways. Heavier drinkers are more prone to initial infections as well
as secondary complications. Alcohol also dehydrates the body -- it actually
takes more fluids from your system than it puts in.

#12 Relax

If you can teach yourself to relax, you can activate
your immune system on demand. There's evidence that when you put your relaxation
skills into action, your interleukins -- leaders in the immune system response
against cold and flu viruses -- increase in the bloodstream. Train yourself to
picture an image you find pleasant or calming. Do this 30 minutes a day for
several months. Keep in mind, relaxation is a learnable skill, but it is
not doing nothing. People who try to relax, but are in fact bored, show
no changes in blood chemicals.