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Medical Forum / General / General / October 2004Can I avoid the flu?
I doesn't look like I'll have an opportunity to get a flu shot this year. After watching various TV news segments, I realize some people have been waiting in long lines for up to seven (7) hours .... even overnight, just to get a shot. If I eat well, get plenty of sleep, avoid people during the flu season, and shop in stores only at night (avoid as much contact as possible) can I avoid the flu? Any suggestions appreciated. KM --------------------------------------------------- Health Officials Restrict Flu Vaccines To Most Needy Last Updated: 10/15/2004 5:26:11 PM Starting Friday, doctors and other health care providers in the District are required to give the flu shot only to those who need it most. The DC Health Department issued the emergency rule Thursday in an effort to conserve the area's short supply of the vaccine. Acting Director Gregg Pane says only the elderly, children under age two and the chronically ill should receive the vaccines. Caregivers who violate the order can be charged with a misdemeanor and fined up to one-thousand dollars. Pane says the District still doesn't have enough doses of the flu shot for everyone in the highest risk groups. But he says there should be enough available across the country for those groups, and it's now a matter of distribution. The department is now checking with doctors, hospitals clinics and others to find out how many doses are available in the District. More at: http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=33871 Wash your hands often. Also, when you go to the grocery store, wipe off the shopping cart's handle bar using a moist towelette before you touch it. Wash your hands often. >I doesn't look like I'll have an opportunity to get a > flu shot this year. After watching various TV news [quoted text clipped - 36 lines] > More at: > http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=33871 In sci.med ted <someone@somedomain.com.invalid> wrote: : Wash your hands often. : Also, when you go to the grocery store, wipe off the shopping cart's handle : bar using a moist towelette before you touch it. : Wash your hands often. #1. I even wash doorknobs and lightswitches. #2. Avoid confined spaces, poor airflow. Avoid sick people, and places with MANY people. This helps avoid microspray. We know that respiratory diseases spread fastest in congested buildings. (e.g. TB spread fastest among the poor, who were under-housed and crowded!)) #3. I *always* get up and move 15-20 ft AWAY when seated near someone sneezing/coughing. (e.g. on a bus, etc.) #4 Keep your throat/airway from getting irritated. #5 Avoid second hand smoke. (In keeping w/ #4) #6 Get forced air furnace duct-work cleaned. It can get loaded with settled dust and irritants. Forced air blows it around. (Same as #4) #7 I sleep with a window open a crack in the winter, no matter how cold. #8 Don't keep your home too hot. Bugs breed better in warmth. Try 68 degrees. Put on a sweater and extra socks. #9. Use a humidifier, ifyou are prone to having DRY air in your home. Dry air is -=irritiating=- to the airway, which sets it up for a bug. #10. Zinc lozenges (and echinachea) at 1st sign of sore throat. Carry two with you. Emma > Wash your hands often. > Also, when you go to the grocery store, wipe off the shopping cart's handle > bar using a moist towelette before you touch it. > Wash your hands often. Keep your hand away from your eyes and face. When you rub your eyes or touch your face, you get whatever germs people leave around. Jeff > >I doesn't look like I'll have an opportunity to get a > > flu shot this year. After watching various TV news [quoted text clipped - 36 lines] > > More at: > > http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=33871 YES!!! I am a former hospital administrator....I am not a doctor. Anyway, if you are not following the instructions and ideas in this thread, please, please get in the groove....yes, you can make it this winter without getting sick. There are entire books on handwashing, not rubbing your eyes, ears, mouth, etc., and the other ideas in this thread. They are all *excellent* tips. Here's all I can add quickly.......just two little things: First, buy a box of single size anti-bacterial Wet-Ones and carry them in your car and your pocket, etc......total investment of about $2.00. After contact with a public surface, i.e., doors in public places, public restrooms, etc., take one minute to wipe your hands clean. Secondly, if you are not taking Vitamin C, please Google up some info and do it. As a public school teacher, I got every germ tossed at me daily. I started the two steps above, and in over 4 years of public school teaching, I did not miss one single day of work due to illness. Quick Tip: IMHO, the two worst things that you can do is to use the public signature ball point pen at the drugstore when picking up prescriptions (man, that is asking for it); and, to be very, very careful when using public restrooms (like after using the restroom and washing your hands, grab a clean paper towel to open the door for you to leave.......otherwise, you'll be leaving with more germs than before you went in.) IMHO, anyone who says, "Yeah, I get sick every winter...there's nothing you can do about it," is wrong. They are the same people who drop a pen on the floor at work, pick it up and end up chewing on it.......gross and stupid. Why not just cut out the middle-man and lick the floor....same difference. Google has great sources on all of this. Be well and take care. ~jim~ > Wash your hands often. > Also, when you go to the grocery store, wipe off the shopping cart's handle [quoted text clipped - 41 lines] > > More at: > > http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=33871 > If I eat well, get plenty of sleep, avoid people during > the flu season, and shop in stores only at night (avoid > as much contact as possible) can I avoid the flu? Wash your hands regularly, especially before touching any food or your face. >>If I eat well, get plenty of sleep, avoid people during >>the flu season, and shop in stores only at night (avoid >>as much contact as possible) can I avoid the flu? > > Wash your hands regularly, especially before touching any food or your face. Standing in line waiting for shots that aren't available is a great way to get the flu.  SignatureThe incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often assume the appearance, and produce the effects, of a treasonable correspondence with the public enemy. --Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" You keep swallowing man chowder and you'll get more than the flu dumb a.s. > If I eat well, get plenty of sleep, avoid people during > the flu season, and shop in stores only at night (avoid > as much contact as possible) can I avoid the flu? The first thing you have to do is to have a lot of self-confidence. You'll need that because the things that you have to do to really avoid colds & flu will probably be criticized by other people as neurotic or paranoid. Most folks these days are deathly afraid of being called paranoid. Self-confident people can withstand such ad hominem attacks. Next, a major area to address is your hands. If you use computer keyboards that are also used by other people, then you have an area of concern. If the public restrooms that you use have doorknobs (usually older buildings) and can't be "elbowed open", then you have an area of concern. Your average men's room doorknob (or handle) is often the filthiest thing that you will touch all day. Handshaking is a bad idea during the cold and flu season. If you must shake hands for personal or professional reasons, discrete use of hand sanitizer will help. Don't scratch your nose until you get a chance to use the sanitizer, though. Do your coworkers have reasonable hygeine habits? When I was at a local grocery store deli, the attendant coughed into her plastic glove and immediately handled the meat she was slicing for me. She still doesn't understand why I objected. A coworker I had in the recent past would sneeze and cough without any attempt to turn his head or use a handkerchief. I made my feelings known. Are you one of those people who are proud that you have never taken a sick day? Don't be. How many of your coworkers have been infected by you and cost your company even more lost productivity? Married? Forget about it. If your mate is sick, then so are you. Got kids? You're doomed. Good nutrition, exercise, sleep, clean water, avoiding large groups of people, avoiding flying on crowded airplanes, handwashing, avoiding obviously ill people, etc. are just a few issues to consider in your fight against the flu. Be warned that if you go too far with this, you will be considered a neurotic freak. It is your choice as to whether or not your health is worth that. If you can do most of these things discretely, and without lecturing your family & friends, you have a good chance of avoiding colds & flu this season without having it impact your personal relationships. |
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