How To Stay Healthy This Holiday Season

Holiday and flu season are unfortunately always at the same time of year. Between the weather changing, contained work environments, and non-stop holiday traveling, it’s almost impossible not to find yourself with a scratchy throat, and runny nose. Nothing can be more disappointing during the holidays than trying to enjoy quality time with your loved ones and battling incessant cold symptoms at the same time. Preventative measures and care for yourself is the best bet to avoid getting sick altogether. While up-keeping a sanitary and healthy bubble around yourself may be tedious, it’s one of the best ways to prevent a sniffly Christmas for yourself. 

Travelling is one of the top ways that sickness can be easily spread. You’re surrounded by a bunch of strangers constantly, your touching door handles, seats, and a bunch of other things that have been touched by thousands of other individuals and then inadvertently putting all those germs onto yourself through touch. Luckily, the solutions are quite simple, it’s just a matter of keeping up with them. Washing your hands constantly is the number one best way to prevent the spread of germs and any foreign bacteria that you don’t want infiltrating your body. 

Embed from Getty Images

“Our hands are the interface between ourselves and the rest of the world. In other words, our hands touch all these surfaces that are full of germs, and then we touch our own face and mucosal surfaces — such as our mouth, nose, eyes — way more than you would even notice. Most people touch their face many times in any given minute, and that can transmit illness. I can’t stress the importance of hand hygiene enough. It’s probably the biggest thing you can do to help prevent illness,” says Gina Suh, a specialist in infectious diseases at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. 

If you don’t have constant access to a sink and soap, carry hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes with you at all times. It’s important to note that while sanitation products definitely help prevent the spreading of germs, it’s not nearly as effective as hand-washing, so try to keep up with that as often as possible. Sanitizing wipes are also great to keep on you especially in situations where you’re using public transportation or are in an airport/plane setting. Use the wipes to sanitize your seat, armrests, hands, any door handles before touching them, etc. While this may seem excessive to you or get you some dirty looks from judgmental strangers, at least you’ll remain healthy and sanitized. 

Embed from Getty Images

The next best thing you can do for yourself is to manage your stress. The holiday’s can be one of the most stressful times depending on how you view it. Stress itself can’t make you sick, per say, however, it’s the way that stress can affect your body that can cause you to become more susceptible to illness. Stress can cause a loss of appetite, or an overindulgence of food and drinks that aren’t good for you and have a high fat/sugar content. While indulging is obviously encouraged, make sure you’re balancing it out. Many people forget to eat fruits and vegetables when they’re surrounded by delicious holiday desserts, however, fruit and veggies have high vitamin contents which help boost your immune system. 

In addition to making sure you’re incorporating healthy foods into your holiday diet, the number one thing you can be putting into your body that will help fight off unwanted sickness is water. Hydration is always important, especially when your travelling during the holiday seasons. Plane travel in particular can actually cause you to dehydrate at a quicker rate, so make sure you always have a water bottle of some sort on you at all times. The best way to ensure this is to buy yourself a big 32 ounce or more reusable water bottle. There’s plenty on the market that range in prices so you don’t have to spend a lot to ensure that you’ll be consistently hydrated this holiday season. 

“People are more dehydrated over the holidays. Couple that with an airplane’s dehydrating conditions, and you’re looking at a parched body. You don’t necessarily need to chug gallons of water, but you should be more mindful of your intake. I don’t think you should overdo it, because then that could be problematic. I think that the problem is people fall behind in their hydration. They forget about it. So try to maintain normal or slightly above-normal levels of hydration,”  Suh says.

Finally, make sure you’re getting plenty of sleep both before, during, and after all your holiday travels. Jet lag can be the silent killer when it comes to leaving your body susceptible to getting sick. So make sure you’re getting you’re full eight hours of sleep, drinking enough water, and washing your hands every step of the way to ensure that you have both a happy and healthy holiday season.