Your immune system is your best friend when you want to help protect your body against colds, influenza and other common illnesses that often strike young children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems. Keep in mind, if you don’t eat well and exercise, you might as well consider yourself compromised.
Don’t worry about labeling yourself; that isn’t important. It is more important you understand the steps you have to take to lead a healthier and cleaner life. Here is how you do that.
Step 1: Wash Your Hands
It’s no joke. The first step is the easiest step to follow, and you may feel like rolling your eyes.
However, the #1 way people get sick is by hand-to-hand contact. You may shake the hand of someone that is ill and forget to wash your hands before you eat your midday snack.
You may hold your child’s hand while going to the park, play on the equipment (which may contain several hundred different kinds of viruses or bacteria) and then sit down for a picnic without washing your hands.
These are bad habits, very bad habits. These are the kind of habits that will cause you to become ill. You and every member of your family should always wash your hands, especially if someone in the house is sick. Here are some times where it is critical for you to wash your hands.
- Any time you go out of doors and return home. This is especially true if you go to crowded places.
- Any time you and/or your children go to the park. If you want to have a picnic and there is nowhere handy to wash hands, then pass around some moist towlettes. You can find these almost anywhere. These are great for use when on-the-go. Another new invention is miniature bottles of sanitizer. You can buy pocket sized sanitizer and give one to each member of the family. You just squirt a tiny bit in your palms and rub them clean, no water or rinsing required. Some even come with built in lotion or aloe to promote softness for your hands during cold winter months.
- When you go out to eat. Any time you decide to go out to eat you should wash your hands before you eat your food. Again, this is an environment where you can easily use a moist towel or take a trip to the restroom to clean up before you eat.
- When caring for a loved one that is ill. Sometimes while caring for the people we love most, we forget how important it is to care for ourselves. However, you can spread illness by caring for someone and then touching another person if you do not wash your hands.
- When handling pets or pet material. Pets are lovely to have, but they often harbor many diseases. Make sure you wash your hands after touching the family dog.
- Before planning and preparing meals. You should always wash your hands before and after handling food products you plan to eat or to serve others. If you are ill you may contaminate everyone else in the household. Be especially careful when preparing foods that have a meat and a vegetable part. Raw meat may harbor many diseases including salmonella or E. coli to name a few. Make sure you do not use the same cutting board when preparing vegetables compared with meats. Each should have its own special cutting board.
