A Simple Way To Help Prevent Common Colds/Flu Many May Have Overlooked

[REP]

It's October, and cold and flu season is beginning along with the lovely weather. I've seen a few threads in which many good, common sense approaches to avoiding the germ du jour were mentioned - good hand washing, getting enough sleep, good nutrition, using hand sanitizers when soap and water is not available, staying well hydrated - but there's one more thing everyone can do, and it's cheap, easy and doesn't require an alternate belief system:

Use your own pen when signing credit card receipts/checks/etc when out shopping, etc. *Everyone* uses the pen at the checkstand - right after blowing (or picking) their nose, cleaning their kid's nose/behind, sneezing/coughing into their hands - you get the picture. Using your own pen is just one more cheap, easy and effective way to avoid a potential viral hangout.

[calico1]

1. Good suggestion.

Its little things that we overlook that often get us sick. I do use my own pen. Another thing I do is try to avoid using public restrooms. If I have to use one I flush the toilet using my foot, not my hand if it is not the self-flush kind. Also, after I wash my hands I either use one of the paper towels to open the door or scrunch my arm down into my sleeve so my skin isn't touching the door. What is the point of washing your hands if you then touch a germ infested door handle?

[LiberalEsto]

5. My high school health teacher taught us

to wash our hands, leave the faucets running, take a paper towel and turn off the faucets with the towel. Otherwise we would just be getting the same germs back on our hands from the dirty faucet handles.

I carry a small travel sized container of antibacterial hand cleaner in my purse. It's easily refillable. After grocery shopping or pumping gas I use the cleaner on my hands.

Another good thing is hydrogen peroxide. It's cheap and easily available. At the first sign of a cold, gargle with half peroxide, half water. Also dip cotton swabs in the peroxide-water mix and clean your ears and nostrils. Since I started doing this, I usually stay healthy even if my husband and daughters get sick. And I used to be the one that caught everything!

[greekspeak]

2. And then you have every door knob...

Also always keep some paper towel after you wash in the washroom...use it to open the door instead of touching the dirty doorknob/door handle.

Further, it would seem that at work, using your own pen is best. I know I have worked in a number of offices where several people may sit at the same desk each day. People just pick up what ever pen is in front of them. Use your own pen at work too!

[Sweet Freedom]

3. And wipe off shopping cart handles. Yuck /nt

[ret5hd]

4. and wear gloves before pumping gas...

and bring your own sheets/pillows if you have to stay in a hotel
and bring your own glassware/silverware/plates if you go to a bar/restaurant
and wear one of those paper masks if you have to venture outside

[chat_noir]

6. hotels...yecchhh

After watching that one episode of "Monk" where the hotel security head uses one of those forensic blood-detecting machines (UV Evidence Light?), he sees all the human secretions that hundreds (thousands?) of previous guests have left behind in the hotel room, I'm not sure I could stay in another hotel.

Monk may be OCD/germ phobic, but his reaction to this is probably not far off from what most of us would feel.