Save Money By Avoiding Illness

With the normal flu season and the added concerns of H1N1 upon us, now is the time to be thinking of preventative measures to avoid illness this winter. Being sick is expensive. Not only do you have trips to the doctor and prescriptions, but usually it involves missed worked resulting in loss of income. So the more you can do to avoid becoming ill in the first place, the more you save.

One of the things I've always done to help avoid colds and the flu is gargling with salt water or peroxide solution (50% water/50% peroxide) or Listerine. I prefer the mint Listerine, not only because it tastes better, but the mint helps soothe my frequent sore throats. I now know that gargling in this manner is recommended for avoiding infections from flu viruses which proliferate in the throat and sinus cavities. However, I stumbled on the benefits of gargling twice a day when I had a bad winter for sore throats. When I gargled with the mint Listerine, it soothed my throat better than anything else I'd tried, so I kept it up all through the winter months. What I noticed was, even though my co-workers and family members all came down with seasonal flu and colds that year, I never got sick. The only thing I did differently from previous years, was gargling twice daily with Listerine. So I concluded that it not only soothed my throat, but also helped me avoid being infected with a cold or the flu.

Some other ways to help avoid infections, keep hands away from your face. The eyes nose and throat are ports of entry for cold and flu. Keeping your hands away from your face helps to avoid infection. Thorough and regular hand washing and regular use of hand sanitizer, are also good preventative measures. Another recommendation I read recently, drinking hot liquids like coffee and tea on a regular basis. The hot liquids wash the flu virus down into the stomach, where they are unable to survive and help prevent proliferation in the throat and sinuses.

Last but not least, consuming foods and juices rich in vitamin C. While some may argue that this is not a proven science, it definitely doesn't hurt and there is a lot of research to suggest that it does help. If you're taking a vitamin C supplement, make sure it also contains zinc to help increase the absorption rate.