How to avoid a cold and flu

Although it's impossible to promise that you'll never catch another cold or suffer from another bout of flu, you can increase your odds of staying well with these strategies.

A U.S. study of 40,000 naval recruits who were ordered to wash their hands five times a day found that the recruits cut their incidence of respiratory illnesses by 45 per cent.

• Researchers who looked for germs on volunteers' hands found that one handwashing had little effect, even when using antibacterial soap.
• So wash twice if you're serious about fending off colds.

• Studies find a shockingly large percentage of people fail to wash their hands after using a public toilet. And every single one of them touches the door handle on the way out.
• So after washing your hands, use a paper towel to turn off the tap.
• Use another paper towel to dry your hands, then open the door with that paper towel as a barrier between you and the handle.
• It sounds a bit crazy, but it could help to protect you from infectious diseases such as colds and flu.

• Colds are typically passed not from coughing or kissing (although those are two modes of transmission) but from hand-to-hand or hand-to-object contact, since most cold viruses can live for hours on objects.
• You then put your hand in or near your mouth or nose and, voilà, you're infected.
• Carry hand sanitizer gel or sanitizing wipes with you and you can clean your hands at any time, even if the closest water supply is miles away. It works.

• It's less likely to be contaminated with viruses than your fingertip.
• This is particularly important given that the eye provides a perfect entry point for germs, and most of us rub our eyes or nose or scratch our faces 20 to 50 times a day.

• In some provinces, flu vaccination is offered free of charge to seniors or anyone with a long-term medical problem that makes them more vulnerable (for example, heart or lung disease, being on immunosuppressant drugs, having diabetes or no spleen).
• Employers often also offer the vaccine to health-care staff.

• Why? Because an Austrian study published in 1990 found that volunteers who frequently used a sauna had half as many colds during the six month study period as those who didn't use a sauna at all.
• It's possible that the hot air you inhale kills cold viruses. Most gyms have saunas these days.

Believe it or not, blaming yourself makes you more likely to catch a cold. At least, that's what researchers found when they studied more than 200 workers over three months.

• Even those who had control over their work were more likely to begin sneezing if they lacked confidence or tended to blame themselves when things went wrong.
• Researchers believe that such attitudes make people more stressed on the job, and stress, as everyone knows, can challenge your immune system.