ok, i really do not want to catch the flu...any strategies?
 

i hand wash like a man possessed. has much as i can considering i spend the majority of my day, underground. miners are not known for any handwashing skills, i shake hands with work gloves on.

i get PLENTY of sleep (8+). i up'ed my veggie and fruit intake. i eat all the plant colors. i still jog 2+ miles, 5-6 days a week. no kids to drag germs home.

any target foods that boost immunity? vitamins?

will probably line up with the kaiser permanente old folks and get (both) flu shots.

avoid humans, and stay out of their habitat

Flu shots

Become a bubble boy

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Qzd9HIsRWe...Bubble+Boy.jpg

i dont mind getting sick. part of being human...but i have an awesome hunting trip/adventure coming in 3-weeks...i dont want to miss this.

I can't think of anything else you can add. But tell us more on your trip!?

George

george...many trips. one is uber secret...but we have the governments, blessings. imagine getting surrounded by hogs...and i still missed, sort of. archery only, so nobody knows...AWESOME!

and i got invited to a culling hunting in texas...all the exotics, and help clean up a few rampaging boars. 5 days. i may have to teach a girl to bowhunt. ooookkkkkaaay!

well i actually heard this on local news....................


swine flu parties. everyone who wants to get swine flu goes to a party to get infected????WTF????


i can see how a hurricane party may be beneficial...............but a swine flu party? get real. this was on fox10news phoenix.

Theory is, get H1N1 now and acquire antibodies while the flu is still relatively benign. No idea if makes sense.

An Oregon school is already closed with 69 of 210 kids showing flu like symptoms. I think daily life is going to be one big swine flu party soon.

Actually hand washing is one of the most effective means of avoiding the little nasty. But it is also airborne when people sneeze. So if you can avoid being gobbed on that will help also.

Vash, I've got great news for you: I checked your profile and it says you were born in '66... most likely you won't get laid out by H1N1 since you were around in '76 when H1N1's cousin made the rounds... especially if you "caught" that one, because it would give you some fairly substantial immunity toward the new one.

I was born in '51, and my doc (an internist) told me not to bother with the H1N1 shot... says I should just get the regular flu shot around the end of October.

But, you could get the regular flu... it's a virus, not a bacteria, but you can still take all the usual handwashing and don't-touch-your-face precautions. Maybe getting the shot for that now would be a good idea for you with this trip you have planned.

However, in the end, that pesky virus can find its way inside you, no matter what you do... at that point, just see a doc and get diagnosed and Tamiflu'd. :D

From Wiki: Influenza spreads between humans through coughing or sneezing and people touching something with the virus on it and then touching their own nose or mouth.

Recommendations to prevent spread of the virus among humans include using standard infection control against influenza. This includes frequent washing of hands with soap and water or with alcohol-based hand sanitizers, especially after being out in public. Chance of transmission is also reduced by disinfecting household surfaces, which can be done effectively with a diluted chlorine bleach solution.

Experts agree that hand-washing can help prevent viral infections, including ordinary influenza and the swine flu virus. Also avoiding touching eyes, nose and mouth with hands prevents flu. Influenza can spread in coughs or sneezes, but an increasing body of evidence shows small droplets containing the virus can linger on tabletops, telephones and other surfaces and be transferred via the fingers to the mouth, nose or eyes. Alcohol-based gel or foam hand sanitizers work well to destroy viruses and bacteria. Anyone with flu-like symptoms such as a sudden fever, cough or muscle aches should stay away from work or public transportation and should contact a doctor for advice.

Social distancing is another tactic. It means staying away from other people who might be infected and can include avoiding large gatherings, spreading out a little at work, or perhaps staying home and lying low if an infection is spreading in a community. Public health and other responsible authorities have action plans which may request or require social distancing actions depending on the severity of the outbreak.

John Man - your post is better than a weeks worth of "News at 10".

My question is - do these flu shots give you future immunity against similar strains in the future? I find the older I get, the less often I get sick and with less severity. Do flu shots prevent this on going process?

Other than that - for the common cold and most winter ailments - I think fish oil works wonders.

A couple of weeks ago I heard that H1N1 spreads mainly by touching something that was touched by an infected person....
OK.
I then started thinking about, and actually watching and taking notice of, just how many different things we (I) touch in a given day.
Think about it... door handles, condiment bottles on tables in restaurants, bank ink pens, restroom doors, stall doors, and the list went on and on. I was a hand washer before but I've started washing my hands more than ever, carry hand sanitizer in the car, shy away from anyone sneezing or coughing (try doing that covering football games!) and using paper towels/napkins to pick up the aforementioned condiment bottles....
I feel like I'm developing a phobia over "germs." Sort of.
At times I'm feeling like Howard Hughes without all the cash!

As far as I know, you can get flu virus all over your hands and it makes no difference. It is then touching your hands to your eyes or mouth that gets the virus into you. So, worth paying attention to how often you do the hand to face thing. Also note intermediate objects like chewing a pen or smoking a cigarette.

I don't know (re: your first question)... ask your doc, or PM one of our Pelican docs.

Re: your second question, as far as I know, a flu shot ramps up your antibodies to fight a particular strain, or strains... whichever it was "designed" for, but the following year or any ensuing year, if a different strain comes along and you don't get the shot that was cooked up for it, you won't have the antibodies to fight it.

That reminds me what I heard or read once about cold viruses; I think there are 100-200 different ones. Imagine each one has an ID number, and once you've had one, your body can ramp up and fight it off quickly if you ever come in contact with it again... it's like you "have its number." Theoretically, if you could catch them all in the first 30 years of your life, you'd never really suffer from a cold again.

If all that is erroneous, any docs here please set me straight.

Ginger helps energy/immume system. Garlic thins the blood(it was used as a topical antibiotic i've heard). Vitamin C, and B12.
Catch the flue and be immunized for the next one. There is little anyone can do to avoid all germs.

Get a flu shot. Pretty simple. It's not a live virus shot so contrary to popular opinion you can't catch the flu from it.

I can't be arsed, if i get the flue, i'll get it.
I'm not even going for shots.

Sweat lodge.

ok, who is pretending to be charles??

we know this was not him b/c [1] he stopped posting due to ex-wife issues, and [2] this is much too cogent to be the real charles

well, technically, yes

BUT the catch is the word 'similar' -- these viruses are highly mutable, so in practice they are rarely sufficiently similar

more or less true; that is offerred as one reason for the fact that the elderly have much lower rates of 'colds' than do younger people - not perfect tho

garlic is known to act as an antibiotic (bacteria) so it can help with a 20 infection - no idea re viruses

generally, getting regular light exercise will promote immune defenses; hard exercise can reduce it -- and light vs. hard varies among individuals.

Stop worrying about it. Ever notice that hypochondriacs are always sick?