Sometimes I can be a bit of a health freak. My room is fully stocked with Bath and Body Works hand sanitizers, I always wash my hands before eating, and I eat my orange a day to keep the doctor away. So why can I never keep sickness from creeping up on me?
Well, part of the reason is proximity. With over six thousand students crammed together in these little dorms, every germ has ample breeding ground to grow yeasty and spread. Did you know a sneeze hangs in the air for hours after being released? That means even if you don’t touch a single doorknob or shake a single hand, if you walk through a “sneeze zone”, you might still get sick. That doesn’t seem very fair to me.
I guess the only thing comforting about this scenario is the ole slogan, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” I’m talking about your immune systems, and golly isn’t this sharing illness part of college swell? This gives a whole new meaning to what you’re really swapping when you swap spit.
Fortunately, after catching at least seven colds in the past academic year, and starting off this year’s FDOC with flu symptoms, I’ve acquired some pointers on how to get over the sick, and get over it fast. So you can go back to having fun and being ignorant of the typical germ hazards of dorm life. Most of these things are no-brainers, but I’m a fan of how well grandma’s wisdom can work.
♥ Continue to stock up on your Vitamin C. Drinking that OJ is not just good for preventing illness, but it can also put your white blood cells into a sort of “hyperdrive” when you’re sick. This means the more vitamins you put in, the faster you will get over this illness.
♥ And that goes for water as well. Drink your 8 glasses. (which you should be doing already, right?) But in particular, drink your 8 glasses while sick. You’ll literally be flushing the toxins out of your system. And whatever you do, don’t get dehydrated while sick. You’ll have double the symptoms (dehydration can cause nausea, dizziness, fatigue, headaches, and tingling sensations in your extremities—and not the good kind either.)
♥ Down some chicken soup or some type of warm broth. This is good when you feel like you can’t stomach anything, or when you just want that darn nose to stop dripping. Chicken broth is loaded with immune boosters and nutrients, while still being gentle on the stomach. Plus the heat will seep into your nostrils, loosening the (ahem) build-up there, allowing you to then blow and empty the contents of your nose.
♥ Dress warmly and avoid getting caught in the rain. Uh, Duh. This also means don’t go to sleep with your hair wet. Having a soaked pillow and wet scalp will lower your body temperature while you sleep (as the majority of your body’s heat escapes from your head.) Lowering your body temp is a big no-no for getting better. Obvi.
♥ Don’t hate me for saying it, but skip the party or other social function tonight. I know you’ve worked hard all week to have fun tonight. But it’s because I love you and want you to get better, dear collegiettes, that I ask you to sacrifice your social life for the sake of a mere illness. A lot of times, staying out late, drinking, and even just physical exertion can make a teensy cold into a monster case of pneumonia. And then it’ll be more your lungs than legs raging. Just take a rock star rehab!
♥ Try what’s known as “golden milk.” Golden milk is a get-well drink enjoyed by many yogis (that’s technical speak for yoga fanatics like myself) and other health-conscious people. You can find the recipe and other useful information about the healing properties of Tumeric (the primary antibiotic ingredient) here
That’s all for now, folks. I hope you can avoid getting sick at all this year, but in case you do, you are now armed with an arsenal on how to combat Mr. Viral Influenza and Mrs. Cold. Any other tips on how to nip that flu in the bud, collegiettes? Leave a comment below!