The number one way to prevent a cold…
…is to wash your hands.
Most Americans don’t wash their hands often enough – or long enough – to prevent disease. There’s no excuse for not doing it right.
Use warm water. Use soap. Wash for a minimum of 20 seconds. That’s moving your hands against each other, the backs of your hands and the fronts, and even between your fingers. Wash like a surgeon.
What’s more, we tend to lie about how often we wash, suggesting that we know what we should be doing but don’t always do it. Studies have shown that people will say they wash after using the restroom, but video evidence shows that at least one-third of people using public restrooms skip the handwashing. Eeeeewwwwww.
Wash after you sneeze or cough (into your elbow, please, not into your hand). And of course, wash before you get anywhere near food, either to eat it or to prepare it.
We pick up the bugs that cause colds, flu, and other infectious diseases by contact with someone who is already infected or by touching surfaces that harbor germs. Good handwashing is the best defense against all those germs.
Photo by William Stadler
