Hello! Welcome to My Bubble. Most of you have probably heard the expression "their own little bubble" in some variation. This blog is a reflection of mine. Just one girl's ideas, finds, responses to news stories and popular trends, recipes, life, thoughts, and opinions.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Simple Ways to Prevent H1N1

These are from Dr. Vinay Goyal a MBBS, DRM, DNB (Intensivist & Thyroid Specialist) with clinical experience of over 20 years. For those who did not get these via email, please read! Some are no-brainers (vitamin C and hand washing) but I didn't think of cleaning out my nose! ;D

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).

2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or slap).

3. Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.

4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.

5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.

6. Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

With the weather changing here in Ohio it is esp. important that we do these! Wishing everyone a happy and HEALTHY fall!! :)

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