Got an important presentation coming up?

Don’t want to miss an important date because of flu which everyone around you seems to have?

What can you do to beat the flu bug?

Antibiotics aren’t going to work on influenza as that is caused by a virus. Antibiotics kill bacteria, not viruses.

So what can you do to beat flu?

You best bet is to boost your immune system. In other words, take care of your health.

What do you eat? Do you get enough rest.

1. Sleep early every night.

I can’t overemphasize the importance of sleep. Notice how lousy you feel if you go without sleep. It is when you sleep that your body repairs itself. That’s when your body produces the white blood cells and everything else it needs to fend off invaders. That way, when confronted with the flu viruses, your body is in a better shape to defend itself.

2. Get your annual flu jab.

The young children and the elderly are most susceptible to flu, so youo might want to get the young ones and the elderly immunized. There are flu jabs available which must be taken every year if you want to keep the virus at bay. The flu virus mutates rapidly, so what works this year wouldn’t bother next year’s bug. The jabs won’t necessarily prevent flu, but at least if you do contract flu, if you have been immunized against it with a vaccine that is effective against that particular flu strain, that bout of flu would be less severe.

3. Stay away from crowds

Especially when the flu bug is in the air. The flu virus is extremely contagious. One sniff and lots of viruses are scattered in the air, waiting for the next victim. Maybe your body would fight it off and you wouldn’t sucuumb to the infection, but if you can minimize exposure to the bug better still. Avoid crowded places as far as possible.

4. Wash your hands before you eat.

Wash them thoroughly too with soap, for at least a minute, rubbing the soap all over the hands thoroughly, then rinsing it off. Have you any idea how many viruses your hands inevitably pick up as you go through the day. Opening the door, resting on a table.. things you barely notice you come into contact with everyday. Wash your hands before you eat so you don’t put more germs than necessary into your mouth.

5. Keep your hands off your face.

Throughout the day, avoid touching your nose and mouth with your hands as far as possible as that’s the surest way to get the germs from you hands where they can easily invade your body.

6. Exercise

Keep fit. Get active. A healthy body is less likely to fall sick so go for a walk, or a jog every single day. Ride a bike. Walk in the park. The exercise and fresh air will be good for you.

7. Carry an umbrella or raincoat with you.

Prevention is better than cure. Some people are more likely to succuumb to flu if they get soaked in the rain and stay wet for a long period of time. Are you one of them? If you get soaked, as soon as possible, take a hot shower or warm bath after that to warm up. If it rains, use the umbrella or wear a raincoat.

8. Take your vitamins.

Do you have a balanced diet? Are you getting all the nutrients you need in your food. Even if you eat plenty of veggies, would you have all the nutrients? Is the soil in which the veggies were grown depleted of the necessary nutrients? Vitamin supplements would help you ensure you get the necessary vitamins and minerals your diet might lack. Even then, that’s no excuse for eating junk. Take your vitamins. Eat fresh food, fresh fruits and vegetables and cut down oily, sugary snacks.

Fighting The Flu Virus – Effective Precautionary Methods To Fight the Flu Virus!

What are some of the simplest measures which can help you in fighting the flu virus?

Flu is not a bacterial infection which gets cured on taking anti bacterial medicines. It is very difficult to fight the flu virus which takes its own time to recede.

Therefore people should know the various preventive and precautionary measures, which helps you in fighting the flu virus. Preventive measures become more important for a person who regularly gets in contact with an infected person.

If you are frequently washing your hands, you have the least chance of spreading the infection. Cleaning and washing bed and clothes prevents flu virus from spreading.

A few people, such as infants and elderly have low immunity to viral infections and it becomes very difficult for such people to recover from the infections caused by flu virus.

If somebody in your family has a weak immunity, you can take flu shots to prevent infections although the vaccinations are not advised to people who are allergic to certain types of food items such as eggs.

Eating a diet rich in minerals and vitamins helps people in fighting flu virus. Intake of vitamins such as vitamin C and B enhances the immune system of the body and prevents you from getting infected.

If somebody gets infected, they should drink lot of fluids and juices to kill flu virus. Intake of natural products such as garlic and peppermint is also effective in fighting flu.

The swine flu outbreak has scared a lot of people these past few weeks. Many regularly watch television or tune in to the radio to get some updates regarding swine flu and learn how it started, when and where it first broke out, how this disease can infect us and what we can do to prevent it.

Lack of understanding has caused some to panic. Face masks are out of stock because we know that the swine flu virus can spread through the air. Some health agencies have also recommended vaccines as a means to avoid infection.

But do face masks really help? Do we need to be vaccinated against this disease?

When I first heard about the swine flu pandemic, I quickly did some research to find out how to prevent this disease. I found out that the flu vaccine is not affordable and not safe. I continued my research until I found Dr. Mercola’s article, “The Swine Flu Pandemic – Fact or Fiction?” I found it very helpful because it gave me some useful, natural and safe tips on how to avoid swine flu.

One of the most important things to do is to optimize your vitamin D levels. It is one of the best strategies to avoid disease. Dr. Mercola believes that vitamin d deficiency is the likely reason why we go down with the flu, not the flu virus itself.

The flu shot has been found to be ineffective and dangerous. During the swine flu outbreak in the 70s, many of those vaccinated suddenly suffered paralysis due to Guillain-Barré Syndrome.

There are many ways to safely boost your body’s natural defense against diseases. Avoiding sugar will help enhance our immune system because sugar decreases its ability to function. Avoid eating processed food because most have hidden sugar.

Rest well to strengthen your body’s ability to fight the flu and other diseases. Stress can also affect your immune system so it will be useful to find stress-relieving methods like EFT.

Exercise is always a big help and is good for your health. Good exercise helps circulate your immune system’s components and increases the chances of finding infections before it spreads to your body.

Taking animal-based omega-3 fats will help you maintain good health and avoid damage to your immune response caused by trans fat and processed foods.

Proper hand washing is the simplest way of preventing communicable diseases, including the flu. Using a chemical-free soap is advisable rather than an antibacterial soap.

Regular consumption of garlic can help because garlic works like an antibiotic and helps fight bacteria, viruses and protozoa in your body. However, this may probably not work for people who are allergic to garlic.

If it is not an emergency, better stay at home rather than go to the hospital. Hospitals might be the breeding ground of infections.

These are Dr. Mercola’s simple tips to avoid swine flu, the regular flu and other diseases. I hope these tips will help lessen your worries. It’s not that difficult to prevent illness; all you need is to be more aware and do the necessary research.

Influenza (say: in-floo-en-zah) is also called the flu. It’s an infection that causes fever, chills, cough, body aches, headaches, and sometimes earaches or sinus problems. The flu is caused by the influenza virus (say: vy-rus). A virus is a microorganism (say: my-croh-or-gah-nih-zum), which means it’s so small that you can’t see it without a strong microscope.

Flu Causes

Somewhere between day 2 and day 4 of the illness, the “whole body” symptoms begin to subside, and respiratory symptoms begin to increase. The flu virus can settle anywhere in the respiratory tract, producing symptoms of a cold, croup, sore throat, bronchiolitis, ear infection, or pneumonia.

Flu Symptoms

Symptoms of influenza can start quite suddenly one to two days after infection. Usually the first symptoms are chills or a chilly sensation, but fever is also common early in the infection, with body temperatures as high as 39 °C (approximately 103 °F). Many people are so ill that they are confined to bed for several days, with aches and pains throughout their bodies, which are worse in their backs and legs.[1] Symptoms of influenza may include:

Body aches, especially joints and throat

Coughing and sneezing

Extreme coldness and fever

Although nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea can sometimes accompany influenza infection, especially in children, gastrointestinal symptoms are rarely prominent. The term “stomach flu” is a misnomer that is sometimes used to describe gastrointestinal illnesses caused by other microorganisms.

Preventing Seasonal Flu: Get Vaccinated

The single best way to prevent the flu is to get a flu vaccination each year. There are two types of vaccines:

The “flu shot” – an inactivated vaccine (containing killed virus) that is given with a needle. The flu shot is approved for use in people 6 months of age and older, including healthy people and people with chronic medical conditions.

The nasal-spray flu vaccine – a vaccine made with live, weakened flu viruses that do not cause the flu (sometimes called LAIV for “Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine”). LAIV is approved for use in healthy* people 2-49 years of age† who are not pregnant.

Flu Diagnosis

You can usually diagnose flu yourself based on the characteristic of your symptoms. It is unusual for any other diagnostic tests to be necessary unless there are complications.

Your GP cannot normally say exactly which virus is causing your flu-like symptoms. The main role of laboratory diagnosis is to identify the main circulating types and strains of the flu virus.

Treatment of Flu

Usually, you’ll need nothing more than bed rest and plenty of fluids to treat the flu. But in some cases, your doctor may prescribe an antiviral medication such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) or zanamivir (Relenza).

These drugs, which treat both influenza A and B, work by deactivating an enzyme the virus needs to grow and spread. If taken soon after you notice symptoms, they may shorten your illness by a day or so.

Relenza ™ (Zanamir): This is a novel new drug only approved in the summer of 1999. It is an inhaled nasal spray that acts in the lungs, at the site of primary infection. In addition to treating the influenza type A and B, it successfully prevented flu in four out of five healthy family members who lived with someone already infected with flu.