How To Prevent a Cold When You Feel it Coming

While you can prevent a cold, but, since colds are spread by a virus. Once you catch a cold, it has to run its cause. So the most important thing is to make sure you do not get the cold virus into your body.

To do this you need to keep a three pronged approach:

1. Avoid things that could harbor the virus
2. Keep a clean environment, and
3. Live a healthy lifestyle

So here is what you need to do to prevent a cold:

1. Avoid things that could harbor the virus
   
   • Make sure the air in your home and office is not too dry.
   • Avoid touching you face with your hands, or biting putting your hands in your mouth, unless you are sure your hands are clean.
   • Avoid crowded/stuffy areas.
2. Keep a clean environment.
   
   • Properly air out, or make sure there is proper ventilation in your home and if possible also at your place of work.
   • Wash your hands as soon as you enter your home or place of work.
3. Live a healthy lifestyle.
   
   • Drink plenty of water. Water helps keep your mucus moist, and in general helps your body to flush out any impurities that get into the body
   • At home try to change your shoes to shoes or slippers only used indoors.
   • Eat healthy foods, with plenty of fruit and vegetables, for a natural supply of vitamins.
   • Exercise: Go for walks, avoid stress, the walks should be pleasant.

Not an easy one, depending on your job or hobbies this can be one of the most difficult precautions to keep. Not only is it difficult if you work in a crowded area, such as a busy crowded work place, the mall, etc., and does this mean all crowds are to be avoided, such as sport games, the mall, theater, movies.

But if you are prone to catching colds then maybe you should find alternatives, such as shopping online, watching sports on TV, or renting and/or buying movies to watch at home.

Try to avoid any place that you do not need to be at. And if you are under the weather for any reason, or overworked and not getting enough sleep, your natural healthy defenses will be stressed out, and it is very easy to catch a cold.

When we are in a crowded area there is nearly always a greater risk, as there is greater likelihood there are cold viruses present.

Photo via Crowd silhouette/sxc.hu

Lets first consider how many people try to protect and cure themselves from a cold, they close the doors and windows to prevent the cold air from getting inside.

Keeping doors and windows shut. Does this work? Not at all.

When it gets too warm and dry in the house, any cold microbes from anyone sick in the family or visitors form a suspension in the air. And you may end up getting reinfected many times if you do not clear or freshen the air.

What Do You Need To Do?

• Use a humidifier to keep humidity at about 60%-70%.
• Moist nasal membranes repel microbes. If you do not have a humidifier, spray water from a squirt bottle, this will give you the same effect, but may be a bit of a pain.
  
  This may be a good solution if the air in your office is dry, just make sure you do not spray on any electronic equipment, and you should be fine.
• Air the house often. Open the widows for at least half an hour every day.

Having a water bottle can help you keep hydrated, if you always fill it up and take it with you whenever you are out and about. Having your own water with you can keep you away from the public fountain, but remember having water with you won't do you any good if you forget to drink it. So take that break and have a drink.

The best choices for reusable bottles are the stainless steel models; they are the easiest to clean, just stick them in your top shelf of your dish washer.

The bottles below all have rave reviews, with negligible or easy to work through cons.