Hacks to avoid getting sick

It's important to protect yourself and your family. So here to give us some tips on how to avoid getting sick this holiday season is Dr. Shilpi Agrawal. Thank you so much for being here. Always good to have you. Yes, yes. So we're in it, right? We're in the flu season, all that cold season, but we've got some good hacks to help people avoid getting sick. Okay, I love that. And the key word there, to avoid. Avoid. We're trying to prevent this as much as possible. So where should we start? So first things, you know, I always mention sleep, right? Sleep is my favorite thing. But the important thing when you are getting sick or feeling those symptoms is when you are going to sleep. That same day, you start to feel that tickle in your throat, feeling that congestion, that night aim for nine to ten hours of sleep. You're going to clear your calendar, you're not going to say, oh I'm going to wait until the weekend to kind of take it easy, nope. That night. And the main reason is because our body has cells that work at night, they're actually called natural killer cells, and their whole job... It's to clear out viruses and infection, and they work when we are asleep. So nine to ten hours that night that you start feeling sick. Okay, I love that. I'm someone who used to push myself, and I learned a long time ago to stop, take care of myself. Exactly. And then I can, you know, be good for the long run. And sleep can be the difference between getting much more sick or kind of stopping it in its tracks. Yep. So humidity. During the winter months, we have such overly dry air and that makes it very hard for our respiratory tract to kind of fight out that mucus, clear out all of that congestion. So we want to aim to have the humidity level in our home be anywhere from 35 to 45 percent, particularly during these winter months. But many of us don't have a humidifier, right? It's not that easy to just quickly get it. Easy ways to add humidity to your house. Boil a pot of water for a couple of days in a row. Just make sure you don't leave it unattended. And you just let that water vaporize into the air. That will add moisture into the air. Okay. Also, when we are showering, if you just leave the bathroom door open, that, you know, when we normally see the steam on the windows, instead, that moisture will go into your home and make the air a little bit more... Okay. In that case, just leave the fan off. Yes, exactly. It seems counterintuitive, but you want to add it so that that air isn't so dry. Yeah. Yeah. Great tips. All right. This is something that helped me out a few weeks ago, Dr. Shelby. Yeah. We were saying that we always think about allergy medicine only for the allergy season, but particularly here too, we've had a few of those warmer days pop up. But the allergy medications are so helpful for getting rid of all of that congestion and mucus. So don't forget when you are doing your over-the-counter stuff to help you with the colds, also add in an allergy medicine. And that can be any type. All of them end kind of in that ene, the loratadine, the cetirizine. Those are great medications to help you when you're just starting to feel sick or want to clear that congestion or cough. I was going to say, how do you know sometimes the difference between allergies and a cold? Potentially something else, is there one key determinator? So fever usually will be present when we have viruses or other infections. Not always, but allergies, we really don't see a fever. So if you are feeling a fever, it's more likely to be a virus, but the medication itself will help clear up some of those symptoms. Okay, yes, I'm a testament to that. It worked for you, right? Yeah. And the last but not least. Okay. Hand washing and strategically putting sanitizer. So what do I, this is for the kids, right? What do they do? They come in the house, they toss their backpack and they hit the snack, right? Placing the sanitizer right next to the snack is the best way for them to just wash up if they're not going to wash. But I had a friend show me these, and I thought these were so cute. These are soaps that you can use and put in the bathroom to make washing their hands fun. Because if the kids like washing their hands with foaming wash or this kind of fun rock soap, then they're more likely to do it. So the more that they can just come in, wash their hands, and then get the snacks. They're touching their face all the time, touching each other, then that's going to reduce the burden of illness and make sure that they're not getting sick. And then of course, last but not least, my favorite, don't forget to get your flu shot. Of course. And you're already seeing patients come in for treatment. Already we've seen so many who have tested positive for the flu, who have very bad colds. So trying to do all of this in advance can really help keep you healthy and kind of healthy. Yeah, for moms out there like me, new ones with, now I have a six-month-old, I don't know where time has gone, but I was telling you how I realized, I mean, you don't think about it, but babies, they can't get up and go wash their hands throughout the day. So it's so important, even when it comes to infants and those littles, to make sure that their hands stay clean. Yes, that is such a great tip. Make sure that as a mom, you're wiping down their hands, because they're so mobile, they're touching everything. Everything. Trying to put everything in their mouth. In their mouth. So wiping all of that down, even sanitizing some of those pacifiers and toys, that's a Great way to get rid of all those germs. Okay. You always come through with the best tips. We appreciate you. We have a full list on the screen. Hopefully this will help you guys stay healthy and safe this cold and flu season. Thank you so much. All right.