If you’re looking for easy, natural ways to combat cold and flu season, listen up. A study published in the journal Microbiome says that letting natural light pour into your home helps kill germs. You may remember Grandma claiming something of this nature. You may even have had an intuition. But there had not been much research to explain how or why this is the case inside, until now. Researchers at the University of Oregon set up a study of 11 dust-ridden, doll-sized rooms and observed what happened when indoor rooms were exposed to daylight through regular glass, UV light, or when the rooms were kept dark, NPR reports. Dust was collected from actual homes in Portland then the miniature room were let to collect dust from outside, all while researchers kept them at a normal room temperature. Dust can sit around your house for 90 days (even if you…
How to avoid getting the flu beyond just washing your hands
Last flu season nearly 38 million people came down with the illness. Of those, 531,000 were hospitalized, and between 36,400 and 61,200 people died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of course the usual advice is great: Get the vaccine, wash your hands often, and avoid contact with anyone who has been sick. But beyond that, is there anything else we can do? Most illness are spread by your hands, so using sanitizer and washing them regularly is extremely important, especially after coming home from a day in our germ-ridden world. So that really is the number one thing you can do. But what’s some other advice for avoiding the flu this season all together? Disinfect items you touch often. Your cell phone, tablet, and desk phone are all prime hiding spots for germs. You touch the outside world, then touch your cell, then put it to your…
Easy 20-minute Bone Broth Chicken Noodle Soup
Think back to your childhood. If there was one guarantee when you got sick, it was that Grandma would be making you a big batch of chicken noodle soup. But does chicken noodle soup have any actual impact on impending sniffles? According to UPMC, when you’re sick, your immune system can receive support to help fight infections from standard cold and over-the-counter medicines. However, in some cases, the nutrients you get from a big bowl of chicken noodle soup can give additional aid to that support system. Studies have shows that the anti-inflammatory effects from the ingredients in chicken noodle soup can help ease cold symptoms, while the warm broth can clear nasal congestion. So while it may not be a miracle cure-all, chicken noodle soup makes a great meal when you’re feeling under the weather because it’s packed with nutrients. They are easy to digest, soothing to the throat…
Americans urged to get flu shots after last year’s 80,000 death toll reported
Eighty thousand people died from the flu last year — that’s more than the number of people killed in car accidents, gun violence, or opioid overdoses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging people to get flu shots early this year, especially those who are vulnerable or those with weakened immune systems including pregnant women, children, and older adults. The new data comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said last year was the deadliest flu season in more than four decades. Flu experts knew it was going to be a bad season, but the tally was nearly twice the estimate health officials originally projected. The high mortality rate last winter was driven by a type of flu that tends to land more people in the hospital and cause more deaths. Making the situation worse, the flu vaccine didn’t work very well. Despite the limitations of…
Airport security bins are dirtier than toilets, study shows
The dirtiest thing you’ll encounter at the airport isn’t the toilet seat. Nor is the tray tables or even your sniffling seat mate. According to a study from the University of Nottingham and the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare, it’s those plastic security trays that are the filled with the most infectious diseases. The research was published in BMC Infectious Diseases, which found 10 respiratory viruses including the flu and common cold lingering on various surfaces through the Helsinki-Vantaa airport in Finland. Scientists visited several times during the 2015-16 flu season and collected germ samples at various times of the day. As it turns out, the bins that hold your cell phone, shoes, purse, coat, and other belongings that need scanned for security, had more germs than any other area tested — including toilet, elevator buttons, and even the flight check-in kiosks. The virus found could easily cause you…
The most likely places you’ll catch a cold this winter
The cold and flu are a harsh reality of winter for many. Between October and March, about 5 to 20 percent of the U.S. population comes down with the flu, according to the CDC. Adults average about 2-3 colds per year and children have even more. While we all know to wash our hands frequently and eat a healthy diet, to stay healthy it also helps to know the places where we’re most likely to pick up cold and flu causing bacteria and viruses in the first place. Both cold and flu are contagious infections of the respiratory tract. Coughs and headaches are common to both. Congestion, sore throat and sneezing are associated with colds, while the flu brings tiredness, a high fever and an overall feeling of weakness in the body. A cold is milder than the flu, and one can’t turn into the other because they are completely different virus. What they…
These two workout classes are dirtier than your toilet
Gym classes are a great way to keep up motivation to workout. However the camaraderie you build when spinning or spotting isn’t the only thing you’re sharing. It seems that certain gym classes leave you more open to swapping bacteria. While all gym equipment — and all public places, for that matter — carry some expectation of germs, a recent study conducted by EllipticalReviews.com found that there are two gym classes in particular that are more unhygienic than a toilet. The researchers took three swab samples from equipment in four different workout classes (spin, hot yoga, barre, and weight-based workouts). The swabs were measured for the volume of microbes found and then the three samples were averaged to determine the level of colony-forming units (CFU). Weight-based workouts were the worst, with an average of 153,410 CFU detected on an average barbell. For comparison, a toilet seat comes in with about 3,200 CFU — that…
Here’s how long you’re contagious with the flu virus
If you’ve spent the last couple days cooped up inside your house fighting the flu and dozing off to Netflix, you may be wondering when you can return to civilization. You’re eager to do something constructive, yet you wouldn’t want to put your family or co-workers at risk for infection. So just how long are you contagious? Most people go back to work when their worst symptoms start to retreat, but that’s probably a little too early. The CDC says you can be contagious the day before you start feeling sick and up to seven days after. Children, elderly and those with weak immune systems can be contagious even longer. Those unpleasant symptoms are actually the result of your immune system fighting the flu virus. For starters, your body increasing in temperature, resulting in a fever because the flu virus doesn’t spread as well at higher temperatures. And that mucus has…
This is why your nose runs when it’s cold outside
Ever notice that your nose gets a bit runny when temperatures drop outside? There’s a reason for that. For many, a runny nose is an unfortunate part of winter. About 50 to 90 percent of people get a runny nose when it’s cold outside. But it’s not a sign that you’re getting sick, it’s just a side effect of your body warming up cold, outside air before passing it on into your lungs. It’s called “cold-induced rhinitis”, or “skier nose”, and it’s a completely healthy — albeit annoying — part of your body’s ability to regulate the humidity of the you breath. It’s the job of your nose to make sure that the air you breath is warm and humid so that it doesn’t irritate your lungs. When breathing in freezing temperatures, the air in the back of the nose always hovers around 79ºF (and as high as 86ºF), while the humidity is usually 100 percent,…