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12 Things You Need To Know About This Upcoming Flu Season
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11. If You Get The Flu
Please, please, please, if you get the flu, stay home! You are contagious for about 24 hours before symptoms start, so you have already spread it to more people than you will ever know. By the time you are obviously sick, you can infect every person in a room simply by sneezing and coughing. Please, do the world a favor and keep your flu to yourself. If you are a boss, please be understanding about this. No one likes people calling in sick, but it happens. It is far better to have one or two employees out sick for a week than to have most of your employees come down sick over a three to four week period. If you must go out to get food or other items, cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze or cough. That sneeze can infect everyone within a six foot range of you, so please, cover your nose and mouth, and buy a couple boxes of those anti-viral tissues to kill those nasty flu bugs when you do sneeze.
12. Know What To Do
If you or one of your family members should come down with the flu, there are a few things you can do to help ease symptoms and shorten the duration. First, don’t run to your doctor for antibiotics. The flu is a virus, and antibiotics are for bacteria, so this is will not affect the virus at all. It does wreak havoc on the body, killing the good bacteria in your digestive system that is part of your immune system. So if antibiotics are out, what can you do? Let’s take a look.
- Anti-Viral Herbs: Your doctor might want to prescribe the anti-viral chemical Tamiflu, but why not try some natural anti-viral herbs instead? Some of the best are ginger, thyme, garlic, cinnamon, turmeric, licorice root, lemon balm, and elderberry. These work best when you take them at the very first sign of the flu.
- Get Vitamin D: Depending on the weather, getting 30 minutes of natural sunlight (not through a window) can help lessen flu symptoms. If the weather does not permit, try taking some vitamin D3 supplements or using safe tanning beds.
- Vitamin C: Although it is best to consume natural citrus fruits for vitamin C, you can always take some supplements after you become sick to help strengthen the immune system, and stimulate the production of white blood cells to fight the flu virus.
- Take Probiotics: Most of your immune system lies in your gut, so consuming yogurt or fermented foods will help strengthen your immune system by feeding the good guys that live in your digestive system.
It’s important to note when you should seek medical care. Although most people find that their symptoms have greatly diminished within seven to 10 days, sometimes the flu leads to complications such as pneumonia. If you experience any of the following, seek medical help immediately:
- Difficulty breathing
- If the fever is high and remains high. A fluctuating fever is normal, but any fever that remains over 102 and won’t go down after 24 hours is a troubling sign that should be evaluated by your doctor
- If you are pregnant
- If the person is under five or over 65
- If the person appears to be getting worse or symptoms become more severe after seven days
If you have any concerns about someone with the flu, don’t hesitate to see your doctor. Remember that the flu does kill people every year, so it is far better to see your doctor and be safe if you think that anything is out of the ordinary, than to wait and be sorry later.
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