Be Sure to Stay Healthy This Winter

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Winter can be a challenging time healthwise, which is why now is the perfect time to start preparing for those temperature drops and nasty bugs that can leave you unable to so much as even lift your head off the pillow!

Here are some tips to help you stay healthy, this winter by taking preventative measures:

Get a Flu Shot

Winter is flu season, and a flu shot can reduce the risk of contracting the illness by 50 to 60 percent for the average person.It can also make the symptoms of the illness far less severe if you are unlucky enough to catch the virus. So, get over your aversion to visiting the doctor’s office or your fear of needles and get vaccinated now!

Have Your Heating Tested

There’s a reason we have heating systems in our homes – the cold can be a killer, especially for the elderly and people who are suffering from various illnesses that affect the immune system. Cold is also the perfect breeding ground for a number of bugs that cause common winter illnesses. That’s why now is the perfect time to make use of the heating services offered by your local contractor. Make sure your heating system is in good working order, and you won’t risk being cold and getting sick when winter hits with full force.

Stock Up on Hand Sanitizer

Unless you’re a hermit, hand sanitizer will come in very handy during the winter months when you’re likely to come into contact with a whole lot of sick people and touch the same door knobs, keypads and computer keyboards that they have. Use it liberally and hopefully you won’t get sick.

Take a Vitamin D Supplement

If you live in an an area where there is very little sun during the winter months, then it is imminently sensible to take vitamin D supplements from now until Spring. Doing so could save you from winter depression as well as helping to keep your immune system functioning well, which is what you need it to do if you want to keep those viruses at bay! In fact, don’t just take vitamin D, supplement your diet with a multivitamin just to be sure.

Take Zinc

While we’re on the subject of supplements, you might also want to start taking daily zinc. There is some research, and lots and lots of anecdotal evidence, to suggest can help to prevent colds and lessen their duration should you have one.

Exercise

Winter might be the one time when you don’t feel like exercising. After all, when it’s cold and wet outside, all you really want to do is snuggle up and watch Netflix, but it is also the time when you really should exercise. Why? Because keeping fit will keep your immune system in good shape so that it can fight off any bugs that you come into contact with.

If you do all of these things and you’ll have to be really unlucky to get sick this winter!