It is that time of the year once again; Halloween. The night you have to let your kids out in the night to have fun and get some candy. The night you just can’t walk out dressed in a warm trench coat because its Halloween and you have to put on a unique costume. The most challenging thing about flu is that it circulates among the family members if not tamed. With everyone out in the cold interacting with neighbours, anyone could tag the weather from anywhere.
Top Tips to Keep Safe This Halloween
Washing Your Hands
Colds last six to fourteen days, mostly contagious. Common symptoms likely to show are a sore throat, a cough and a runny nose and in rare occasions a fever. Most doctors back the idea that colds are easy to catch by getting the virus on your hands then transferring them to your nose. Washing your hands regularly with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer helps reduce the cases of catching a cold.
Keep Your Environment Clean
Sanitizing your doorknob and cleaning your candy dish prevents the spreading of the viruses. On a Halloween night, you expect many kids to knock at your door for candy. You can’t pick who between your visitors has the flu. Keeping the environment clean will help not pass on the cold.
Healthy Lifestyle
Keeping up with a healthy lifestyle should be a habit not just on Halloween. Taking enough rest, making healthy food, avoiding alcohol and narcotics, keeps your immune stronger by the day. Although underestimated, the lifestyle you choose helps you control your immunity levels to contract diseases. The weaker your immune system, the more susceptible you are to getting affected. Immune-boosting foods include chicken soup, yoghurt, garlic, mushrooms, and oats.
Exercise
Taking a jog regularly, maybe take a skipping rope and do a few jumps with your kids will help fix your physique. It also strengthens your heart eventually strengthening your immune system. With your immune system stronger than before, you are likely not to catch the fluquickly compared to an individual who doesn’t exercise.
Get a Flu Shot
Flu vaccines induce antibodies to develop in the body. These antibodies protect against colds with the viruses that are in the vaccine. Since Halloween is a social night, get the flu shot two weeks before the holiday. Have a doctor from Frontline ER prescribe and administer the drug to you.
Distance Yourself From Victims
Stay away from people displaying cold symptoms like coughing and sneezing; this includes family and even close friends. If you are not lucky enough to prevent yourself from contracting a cold, you could cover your mouth while sneezing it helps protect those close to you.
Keep Your Hands to Yourself
Shaking hands is a standard way to say “hello” to acquaintances. On a Halloween, you are likely to meet hundreds of people. It is a wiser idea just to exchange words and candy. Their hands have probably come in touch with other infected hands spreading the flu virus. Also touching public and hardly sanitised surfaces could get you into trouble.
Avoid Crowded Places with Little Ventilation
When people huddle and stay too close together physically, it makes it easier for flu infections to pass between people. Halloween has everyone in a shopping craze causing crowding in shopping malls, grocery stored and outfit stores. Those gathering for a party gets exposed to catching colds. Get your grocery early enough before the shopping madness is up. You could also avoid individuals likely to have massive attendance.
Herbal Remedy
Integrating Echinacea into your daily routine could help monitor cold infections. Echinacea was traditionally used to heal wounds and infections by Native Americans. In the current day, it is popularly used to boost immune levels especially in the fight against flu and colds. It also acts as an agent that helps heal bacterial and viral infections. However, if Echinacea is used too frequently, it tends to lose its effectiveness. If you already have other conditions such as tuberculosis or lupus, this wouldn’t be the best option.
Drinking Plenty
Doctors recommend that we take about eight glasses of water a day to stay hydrated and healthy. Water facilitates the kidneys to function correctly and flushes out toxins that may have accumulated in the body. Being dehydrated makes mucus thicker and drier making one unable to cope against invading entry of bacteria and viruses hence more susceptible to getting the flu. If you already contracted the flu, drinking plenty of water will help flush out the infection.
Keeping Warm
It is quite understandable that you can’t have Halloween fun in a trench coat. Try and cover-up, the chill is a predisposing factor to catching a cold. Especially if it’s for your kids, find them costumes that can keep them warm during the cold night. Don’t let the flu stop your family from having fun on Halloween it only comes once in a year.
