What are some of the steps for protecting ourselves from the virus?
Hand washing, clean surfaces, and social distancing!
These are the single most important tools you have at protecting yourself and preventing the spread of this virus.
remember, 30 seconds of hand washing or sanitize your hands with alcohol based sanitizer, before and after eating, any time you’ve entered your home from outside, after touching any packages from outside, after interacting with others at work (if you are still working), after touching items in a wallet or purse, etc.
Wipe down surfaces that are touched frequently on a regular basis: door handles, steering wheel, refrigerator door, computer, cell phone, etc.
Remove shoes (leave them outside or in a mudroom), change, and shower when you get home.
Continue to remain distant, even as our business begin to open. THIS IS IMPORTANT. We have seen the curve flatten, but we are far from out of the woods, and we will absolutely see a worse second spike if we do not do this. Do not go back to hugging, kissing, shaking hands, sitting in groups. I’ll include an image (that isn’t mine, but I’m not sure of it’s origin) to help drive this point home:
Masks:
what we have seen is that wearing masks in public does seem to prevent the spread of illness.
It is imperative that you wear them correctly, and DO NOT TOUCH THEM while you are out and about.
You should also know how to appropriately take it off so that you don’t accidentally infect yourself while taking it off: wash or sanitize your hands, remove it from the point furthest from your face (from the ear loop or from behind your head, not grabbing the portion covering your mouth), and then dispose of it or immediately prepare it for sanitizing (if reusable or cloth) and wash your hands. Removing protective equipment is one of the times you are most likely to infect yourself, and part of the reason it wasn’t initially advised for the general public.
Most people do not know how not to cause cross contamination when wearing gloves.
Have you ever noticed how many times you see your doctor change gloves if they are performing a long procedure? Or do you notice that they don’t glove until they intend to touch the things they want to touch while clean and then immediately re-glove if they have touched something outside of that field? That’s because there is nothing about gloves that makes them inherently germ free.
Gloves are only clean as long as they haven’t touched a dirty surface. The minute they’ve touched a dirty surface, they are the dirty surface, and they are spreading germs, just like dirty hands.
Don’t wear gloves, and wash your hands frequently. You are less likely to feel a false sense of security, more likely to do what is correct and prevent the spread of illness.
*don’t forget to click the hyperlink*
Healthy diet
A healthy diet is essential to a healthy immune system. Supplements are wonderful, but our body REALLY likes to see things naturally, from foods. That’s how we were meant to get our nutrients. Not from pills. So it’s best to eat a diet that is rich in plants and varied in color to ensure you’re getting the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants your body is craving.
If you know me at all, you know I say EXERCISE FOR EVERYTHING!! From diabetes and hypertension to weight management to anxiety and depression to dementia…exercise can be my non-pharmacologic prescription for all of it. And guess what–there’s some evidence it can help boost your immune system and help protect against deadly complications in COVID-19 infection. So you know I had to include it in the list, right?!. Click the hyperlink on the main bullet for the main article and click here for my previous post on staying healthy during the pandemic.
Vitamin c? Zinc? Other supplements?
In the medical community, you’re seeing mixed feelings about using these things to try to help prevent and treat the viral illness. You guys know how I feel about them from previous posts. I also discussed elderberry, specifically in COVID-19 here.
