Ways to Protect Yourself Against a Virus
Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle
One of the best ways to protect yourself against a virus is to make sure you are healthy overall. Eating a varied diet, taking dietary supplements, getting daily exposure to the sun, and enjoying regular exercise are all ways to keep your immune system working at its best. A healthy immune system is always better than wearing a mask, as it means your body will be able to fight and beat the virus.
Wear a Face Mask – Protect Against Coughs and Sneezes
Wearing a face mask when you are within 6ft of people you don’t live with has shown to be 23% effective in reducing the spread of a virus. The main use of bulk standardized facemasks is to stop the spread of a virus from the mouth of the wearer. A facemask doesn’t really stop you from breathing in the virus if someone without a mask breathes in your direction, but it can severely reduce the number of germs that are transmitted by a person wearing one.
Clean and Disinfect Commonly Touched Areas
This may seem obvious, but cleaning things that you and other members of the public regularly touch can drastically reduce the likelihood of you contracting a virus. Areas to be regularly cleaned include:
- Door handles
- Shared computer keyboards
- Backs of chairs
- Banisters, handrails
- Money – yes, cleaning your cash isn’t the worst idea when you consider how many people could have potentially touched it
Washing Your Hands
Although there has been an explosion of the use of alcohol-based hand sanitisers, don’t forget about the importance of using standard soap. Soap has been shown by many studies to be more effective at removing germs than alcohol-based hand sanitisers. In a clinical setting, where hands are already clean, hand sanitiser can be effective, but in a work or community environment where the hands are dirty or soiled, soap and water is considerably more effective at cleaning the hands. Soap molecules are good at destroying the surface membranes of some bacteria and viruses.
Following this simple advice is a great way to protect and care for yourself and your family. Most importantly, stay healthy – get outside, exercise, eat locally produced, seasonal organic food and build up an immune system that doesn’t allow the virus to get a grip on your body.