Eat more fruits and vegetables

Fibre has many health benefits, including lowering the risk of some health issues. Eat more of vitamin C rich fruits such as orange, lemon or cauliflower. Eating healthy, nutritious foods is essential to living a healthy life, and it is crucial in wintertime. Eat a lot of vegetables – kales or brussels sprouts for example. These veggies are full of fibre, antioxidants and are exceptionally nutritious.

Drink more water

Staying hydrated during the winter days is a great way to boost your immune system and avoid getting sick. On a cold winter night, it is nice to have your favourite green tea, but don’t forget to drink at least 2 litres of water every day. Drink a glass of water every hour to maintain your energy levels and brain functions – and to avoid getting sick.

Work out

Regular physical exercise can improve your health in general and can affect your mood positively. Working out also reduces the risks of heart disease, stress, and respiratory infections. Get active for at least 30 minutes every day, and your body will thank you!

Get vaccinated

To protect against seasonal flu, the best thing you can do is to get vaccinated. Flu vaccines help the immune system producing antibodies that protect against the flu. The vaccine can prevent up to 60% of flu infections, so getting the flu shot and living a healthy life will save you from getting sick.

Practice good hygiene

Wash your hands often! Or carry around a pocket-sized hand sanitizer to clean your hands anywhere you are. Viruses can enter our system through our nose, mouth or even eyes. Don’t touch your face with your hands unless they are clean! Washing your hands regularly throughout the day, especially if you use public transport, or have physical contact with other people, can help to protect against viral infections.

Clean up

Other than our hands, viruses can also survive on other surfaces like metal, plastic or paper. During the day, we touch many objects, and our mobile phones, computer keyboards, and money are constantly in our hands. No wonder that these everyday items host many viruses and bacteria. Disinfect your desk and regularly used items with alcohol-based cleaning products to lower the risk of infections.

Keep the air clean

We all like to arrive at our warm home after a long day of work. Especially in winter, we can’t wait to finally get home and warm up our cold bodies. However, we often forget about changing the air in the house. Open the windows as soon as you arrive home, to clean the air! Common colds and the flu are respiratory infections. This means that they travel through the air that we breathe. Let fresh air in to reduce the risk of germs staying inside. 

Don’t get too close

During the flu season it is a good idea to stay two arms’ length away from each other. As viruses can travel through the air, they can be inhaled easily from a sick person’s exhale. If you use public transport, try to keep your distance from others. If you work in an office with many others, make sure to let fresh air in at least two or three times a day. When someone from your household got sick, try to avoid physical contact with them and boost your immune system with some vitamins and a lot of water.

by Kitti Bába

Scientists say that while aspirin, paracetamol and ibuprofen make the person taking them feel better by lowering their temperature, they may also make the bug easier to spread. As a result, more people will catch it. Rather than taking pills to lower their temperature, people with flu should stay at home, get plenty of rest and have some hearty soup.

This is based on the principle that the high temperature of a fever helps the immune system to fight the virus. Without it, the amount of the flu virus in coughs and sneezesincreases, making it easier for the bug to spread.

Lead researcher, David Earn, said: “When they have flu, people often take medication that reduces their fever. People often take – or give their kids – fever-reducing drugs so they can go to work or school. They may think the risk of infecting others is lower because the fever is lower. In fact, the opposite may be true: the ill people may give off more virus because fever has been reduced.”

temperature- testhőmérséklet, hőmérséklet
bug- bogár, itt: “baci”
to spread- terjeszteni
to catch an illness- elkapnibetegséget
rather than- inkább, mint
principle- elv
fever- láz
cough- köhögés
sneeze- tüsszentés
to increase- növekedni, növelni
medication- gyógyszer
fever-reducing– lázcsillapító
risk- veszély
opposite- éppellenkezőleg