FRIDAY, Dec. 19 (HealthDayNews) -- Rubbing elbows with so many people while you shop and socialize during the holiday season increases your risk of catching a cold.

Dr. Mark Mengel, chairman of community and family medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, offers strategies to help you fend off the cold bugs:

  • You should wash your hands after every time you shake hands with someone. In general, wash your hands frequently. Running lots of water over your hands dilutes any cold virus and sends it down the drain.
  • Don't touch your nose and eyes. Those are the places that cold germs enter your body.
  • Make sure you get eight to 10 hours of sleep a night. If you become fatigued from lack of sleep, your body will have a tougher time protecting itself against cold bugs.
  • If you smoke, quit. Smoking destroys the cilia -- tiny, hair-like fibers inside the nose and lung tube cells -- that keep mucus from clogging the lining of the nose and lungs.
  • Beware double dippers at holiday buffets. Someone who dips a carrot stick or other snack into the dip multiple times, while taking bites in between, may be contaminating the dip with his or her cold germs.

More information

Here's where you can learn more about cold prevention.



--Robert Preidt



SOURCE: Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center, news release, December 2003

Last Updated: Dec-19-2003