Yep, it’s upon us. The snotty-nosed, coughing, hacking cold and flu season.

Delightful.

Well, it’s not all that bad. Beautiful leaves. White snow. Holidays. It’s actually a great time… unless you get sicky.

So, although I have no magic bullets or charms that can guarantee that you won’t get sick, here are some things to think about.

1. Take good care of yourself. Drink a lot of water. Don’t go too crazy on the sugar and carbs. Get plenty of sleep. If you’re trashing your body, you ain’t gonna fight off the bugs too well.
2. Wash your hands a lot. Whenever I return home from being out in public or if I touch something that I know is likely to have a lot of germs on it, I wash my hands right away.
3. Try to avoid contact with sick people. This is a tough one depending on what life is like for you. If you have kids or work in a public setting, you might be doomed. But just do your best to stay out of the ‘firing-range’ of coughers and sneezers. Hopefully, they’ll do you a favor by aiming their mucus into their sleeve or a tissue, but this doesn’t always happen.
4. Use a sinus rinse/Netti pot. I think these are very helpful whenever I am concerned that I have been exposed or at the first sign of a stuffy nose or scratchy throat. It seems that flushing out the gunk and clearing the sinuses with salt water might help stave off the sickness.
5. Bump up your vitamin D and zinc. I generally recommend about 5000 IU of vitamin D and 25-50 mg of zinc daily for adults. These, as well as vitamin C and elderberry may help “boost” the immune system during cold and flu season.
6. Get the flu shot. This is a controversial topic that I know my readers have mixed opinions on. I’m not going to get into the thick of it here, but I would recommend that at least those who have weakened immune systems and would be vulnerable to the complications of flu (pneumonia) should get a flu shot. So, if you have diabetes, lung disease like COPD, etc, I think it would be wise to get it. For the rest of us, the CDC recommends that we all get the flu shot annually. I’ll just leave it at that.

Ok, those are the basic considerations that I think about as I’m heading into this upper respiratory season.

Again, if you’re already in the throes of an upper respiratory bug, check out my previous video on how to treat URIs.