Here are  my Top Tips for a Healthy Winter!

• Wash Your Hands
• Help Your Immune system with sleep and stress control
• Practice Auto Safety
• Stop Tobacco Intake
• Get your Chronic Disease Screening
• Get Vaccinated!

Ok, that was the list – let’s dig into these issues!

1. Wash Your Hands

Why?

• Viruses are the most common source of winter-time illness
• Viruses need to gain entry into your body to cause infection.  The entry occurs most often by transferring virus particles from your fingers and hands to your lips, eyes, or nose.
• Once a virus has infected a human, millions of copies of it are released into saliva, nasal secretions, vomiting, and aerosol droplets that you sneeze, cough or spread through speaking or singing.
• These virus particles land on surfaces that you touch (doorknobs, latches, handles, counters) and there you go, they are poised to go into YOUR body from your hands or fingers.

2. Help Your Immune System

Your immune system depends on your white blood cells being in tip-top shape.  They are your first line of defense when virus particles get into eyes, mouth, nose, or lungs.  When these white cells are healthy, they recognize cells in your body that have been infected by a virus and they take decisive action:  they destroy that infected cell, blocking the production of more virus particles!

How do we keep this system in shape?

Stress Control and Restful Sleep

Let’s talk about stress

When you are under stress, your whole body is ramped up.  Your heart rate is increased, you breath faster, and your body releases more adrenaline. Over time, this always-on stress reaction seems to wear your body out, and makes your white blood cells too weak to fight.

Sleep!

Sometimes easier said than done for sure.  But, quality sleep IS ESSENTIAL in keeping your immune system healthy.  A host of repair processes are at work in your body during quality sleep.  Without this repair time, or with sleep that is broken-up by awakenings, your immune system just can’t be ready to fight.

3. Auto Safety

Buckle Up!

No Texting!

No Drinking and Driving!

It’s so simple but if you’ve ever been in a car wreck, you know that it happens way faster than you can imagine or even remember.  With the winter pandemic we have ahead, going to the ER because you weren’t in your seat belt, were distracted by your phone, or had your vision or reactions slowed by alcohol – just don’t do it!  And remember, there are other people – precious people, that can be hurt by you.  Just Don’t.

4. STOP TOBACCO INTAKE

Of all the things you can do to your body to really wreck it, none is quite so effective as tobacco.  Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic lung disease – all shoot way up when tobacco is in the picture.  This is a recommendation not just for this winter – it applies to every season!  STOP TOBACCO USE!

5. CHRONIC DISEASE SCREENING

We weren’t doing a good job screening for heart disease, cancer and diabetes before this pandemic!  And now, everyone is afraid to or discouraged from going to the clinic for fear of COVID19.  That doesn’t mean we should let up on finding these diseases early and talking about ways to prevent them!  If we find them early, we can head off complications.  If we can PREVENT THEM, we are way ahead of the game!  This is a special focus of Wellivery – let’s get your screening up-to-date!

6. GET VACCINATED!

All you adults listen up!

We have proven good success with seasonal influenza vaccinations!  You can get them at any corner drug store these days.  Blocking influenza infection protects you from serious pneumonia and blood infections.  Why wouldn’t you want that protection?

Are you up-to-date on your Tetanus?    This shot protects you from tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis.

Do you have a chronic disease?  Chronic disease opens you for serious lung and blood infections from bacteria.  We have excellent pneumonia vaccine – talk to your doctor or make an appointment on Wellivery to talk about it.

Shingles.  Anybody over age 50 is a sitting duck for this grown-up version of chicken pox.  It is very painful and can create lingering nerve problems.  We have a good vaccine to protect adults from shingles.  Nobody needs the inconvenience and pain of shingles!

I appreciate that you have a bunch of channels of information to manage, many being major or minor emergencies.

But, by just devoting a little effort to these SIX priorities, you can dodge some preventable illness and injury that just makes you life more difficult.

Prevention effort that pays!

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Until next topic, I wish the best of health to you!