With cold and flu season almost here, one of the thriftiest and best tips is to avoid getting sick. You save money on doctor visits and medications and, most importantly, you stay healthy and productive.
After being very sick several winters in a row, I started to look around for easy, frugal, and green ways to stay well. What I found I could improve at work surprised me, but (knock on wood) but by following these 10 simple steps, I have gone two seasons without getting sick:
By Pghgirl40 from Pittsburgh, PA
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Dear pghgirl40 from Pittsburgh, PA . I hope people listen to you. You have said everything I have been saying for 50 years or more. Wash those hands! Plus all the the other hints you have suggested. If everyone stayed home when they first start feeling bad and have that touch of sore throat or temp. They wouldn't spread it to others.
I agree with the washing hands, but don't you think not touching any of the buttons on anything is a little bit obsessive-compulsive? And sneaking off to wash your hands after shaking hands? I taught school for 35 years, and no one is germier than children, but all I did was wash hands before lunch and after using the washroom, and I was sick maybe once every 3 years.
You probably wouldn't think it was OCD to not want to touch buttons & to wash your hands if you do, if you really thought about how many dirty hands touched that stuff! I've seen people not wash their hands after: going to the bathroom, changing dirty diapers, coughing/sneezing into their hands, sticking their fingers into their mouths, picking their noses (adults too), scratching their butt, letting the dog lick their fingers after it licks its butt, etc! My step-dad almost never washed his hands after doing any of the above plus working outside on his little farm getting dirt, fertilizer, oil, antifreeze & weed poison on his hands -gee, he shared a whole cornucopia of stuff every time he went to town to buy something or have a cup of coffee at the corner cafe!
I hate to be graphic, but imagine a man, who has to touch himself when he urinates, not washing his hands, then touching everything before you do!! Or someone who changes a dirty diaper,gets poop on their hand & wipes it off with a paper towel! That is how people get staph infections!
I wish these people who don't think they need to wash their hands (can't see any germs after all, so what harm is it) & the people who think that it strengthens your immune system to be exposed to those germs could see what kind of affect is has on someone with a weakened immune system! Make them sick or cause an infection at best, put them in the hospital or kill them at the worst!
I wasn't so paranoid until my son was diagnosed with Leukemia at age 2 & we found out that what was more dangerous than the cancer was what could happen to him when he had no immune system! Just going to the store or to dinner, or letting him play on a playground could put his life in danger! He had to be hospitalized on antibiotics from fever if he got sick. Staph infection was our greatest enemy, and that is a direct result from people not washing their hands after going to the bathroom! I watched a little boy nearly die & spend nearly 3 months in the hospital because he got an infection he picked up at school!
My mother had a life-threatening illness & kidney disease.She had to take massive amounts of steroids-reducing her immune system. For a year she had to battle the illness & infections from what she caught from other people-on top of battling her disease.
I used to work at my children's school & was hardly ever sick also. Then I began catching everything that went around, it seemed like I was always sick, even after I quit working at the school to babysit my grandkids. I noticed that after I went grocery shopping, I nearly always got sick within the next few days-of course,look at all those germs & bacteria that people so generously share with me. I began santizing the cart handles before using it, then cleaning my hands after I loaded everything into the car,then again after unloading it at home. I don't touch any button with my finger unless I have took, I use the a knuckle or my key. I don't touch the keys on the card swiper (I use the corner of my card) & I don't use the pens at the store & most especially the doctor's office that they give you to sign your credit slips, I use my own. I always wash my hands as soon as I get home & make my family also.
I was eventually diagnosed with diabetes, something else that weakens your immune system. I follow the precautions above & hardly ever get sick. When I forget, sure enough.
There are people all around you who look healthy but have weakened immune systems for various reasons. I for one am very grateful not just to people who wash their hands, but also to the people who don't like to touch things other people touch & clean their hands if they do because by doing that, they aren't sharing the germs & grime from every single person who touched that object before them!
So maybe I have become a little OCD myself-but only because I know what can happen to me & someone I might not ever meet,but pass those 'creepy-crawlies' on to!
And now, I'll step down from my soapbox! LOL!
Great Granny Vi, Louel53 and lyonpridej,
Thanks for the feedback and additional info/support! May you and your families be blessed with good health!
OCD, maybe, but having been so sick and hearing stories like lyonpridej. I am convinced that a little germ proofing common sense can go a long way to keeping everyone healthy!
Without our health what are we, unfortunately sick or dead. Life is too short, enjoy every day and as the late great Warren Zevon said: enjoy every sandwich, just make sure that you had clean hands when you made it. :)
An important point to remember is a person with a normal immune system does not have to worry about germs on door knobs etc. Infact said germ exposure helps build the immune system stronger. That said someone with an impaired immune system needs to take precautions. I too had a child with cancer and the biggest fear was from chicken pox and other infections. Of course if you are sick you should stay home.
I have been told by a coworker that the germiest part of the office is the computer keyboards...and the more I thought about it, it really makes sense. First of all in my office we share all of our equipment and desks. We do wipe down the phones but not the keyboards. I have purchased a keyboard and I think that when I am scheduled to work I will bring it and use it.
When I worked at my desk, I had a bottle of isopropyl alcohol and paper towels which I wiped off phone, keypads and desk daily all year. Also, the filing cabinet handles and at the switchboard desk to wipe off the phone even to use it while covering someone's lunch break. Germs are everywhere in an office setting. You need to only see high absentees in the winter time where you work to know they are about.
Other problem areas:
Infections are circulated by air conditioning systems
If you take public transport you will be exposed to more illnesses than if you travel alone.
However, keep washing your hands. It makes a big difference.
Also, as I taught my kids; wash your hands before and after using toilet. Who knows what may be on your hands before you touch yourself especially for females. Also hand Sanitizer is nothing more than alcohol in gel, So why not put the alcohol in a small mister purse sized bottle.
My family has a policy of not eating out--at fast foods or elsewhere- from about October to May in an effort to stay healthy. When the kids were little, I noticed that friends who ate out through the winter got sick a lot more than we did. And when we did get sick, it was shortly after eating out. Ever since we have adopted this policy, we rarely get colds or the flu. Just think of all the germs possibly going into the food. People who are sick don't stay home from work any more and this includes food restaurant workers. We also don't buy items at the grocery store from the deli during these months. This "policy" has made a big difference in our household.
If we want to really fight germs and bacteria to protect our health we must get the right information. Fighting bacteria is a science and we should get the information from scientific authorities, because what we have been taught, what we spontaneously think is the right thing to do, could be the worst. And the worst for our health is not necessarily outside and coming from other people, it is sometimes at home and in our own habits.
For example :
-washing raw meat under water before cooking it, especially chicken, is a very bad idea, it helps spreading dangerous bacteria in your kitchen and it increases the risk of food poisoning.
- the one place in a house that greets bacteria is the kitchen not the toilet.
-you have been taught to wash your hands when getting out of the toilet when it is even more important to wash them before you go to the toilet.
It is in our kitchen that we should wash our hands more often. Under the french law, you can not open a restaurant if you don't have : one separate room to store the unpacked food, one separate room to wash vegetables, one seperate room to immediately store and refrigerate raw meat. Waiters must use one separate path to bring back the dirty plates for the washing up, well away from the cooking place and that path must never cross the path waiters use to bring the plates to the customers. Luckily there are not such drastic rules for our kitchen but still we could be more at risk at home that at a workplace canteen if we do not live by this simple rule : At home the kitchen is the key place for our health.
It seems to me very important to look at what others do that can endanger our health but not with disgust because we should first look at ourself at the kind of risks we take with our health if not with our life. How many of you, gardening lovers think about tetanus ? You think that's nothing compare to covid19 or flue ? You think it is an irrational fear ? It may be to you but not to me. My grandpa got a little scratch on his hand from a rose tree and one day later we saw him at supper not being able to open his mouth to eat. His jaws were like stuck together, paralyzed and in a few hours it was his all body. He was taken to the hospital in emergency, received a terribly painful treatment to fight this virus. He survived but the treatment had worn out his hart and he died from hart failure a few years later. Gardening lovers when did you last had a tetanus booster ? You wish we soon will have that Covid19 vaccine but tetanus vaccine exists and it is so easy to be on the safe side with this virus, so why don't you care for your life ?
Now a simple tip to make your house safer for your health. Let's go to the fleemarket and look for antic pure copper, or brass, or bronze made doors knobs, handles and taps. Buy them and set them in your house. Copper is a powerful antimicrobial and it is back in many hospital and pensioners houses in Europe. It has been scientifically proven to be able to kill or anihilate action, when other treatments had failed, of the following (including H1N1 flue) : Acinetobacter baumannii, Adenovirus, Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans, Campylobacter jejuni, Clostridium difficile, Enterobacter aerogenes, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Helicobacter pylori, Type A influenza (H1N1), Legionella pneumophilia n Listeria monocytogenes, Poliovirus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enteriditis, Tubercle bacillus, Staphylococcus aureus resistant to meticilline, Entérocoque resistant to Vancomycine.
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