How to stay healthy during cold and flu season

When it comes to keeping my family healthy, I will do just about anything.  All I need to do is ask my children how many kids were absent in their classes, and my palms start to sweat and I consider putting hand sanitizer up my nose, although I do not ever in a million years actually do it wouldn’t recommended it.  (Dangerous, actually.)  But the thought crosses my mind because in my family, if someone goes down, we all go down.  Life as we know it ceases, and every parent out there reading this is nodding their heads simultaneously because they know exactly what I’m talking about.

Therefore, I proudly admit that I subscribe to any crazy home remedy, old wives tale, or even email forward that proclaims that it can keep us from getting sick.

Literally, if someone told me that holding a barbeque pork rind between my toes on my left foot while drinking a glass of water with dog food in it, I would do it.  I get that crazy during cold and flu season, and even crazier when I hear things like,“Mom, we had eight kids out today!” Or, “Mom, our teacher left early because she was barfing!”

My head starts to spin, and in a zombie-like trance, I head straight for the pork rinds, because the thought of rescheduling a halted life due to a fever or a few hours hovering the toilet is too much to handle.

The internet, bless it, is full of as many wacky remedies as all of your great aunts and uncles gathered in a room, sharing their wisdom.  And because I care about each and ever reader out there, I thought I would share a few of the oddities that may or may not keep us healthy…

Place an onion cut in half in every room.  From countless emails, this little dandy is supposed to absorb all of the viruses floating around your house, and somebody’s hairdresser in Arizona just swears by it.  Does it work?  Not sure.  Does it make me have a taste for onion rings?  Probably.

Chew a piece of raw garlic every three to four hours.  It’s no surprise that garlic is the flavor of choice, as we’ve heard this many times especially in the form of Grandma’s Chicken Soup.  My grandma, however, doesn’t put garlic in her soup because she doesn’t like it.  My family loves it, but not enough to actually munch on a raw clove.  My breath stinks just thinking about it.

Don’t let your feet get cold.  I generally dislike being cold, so this tactic I kind of like.  The theory goes that chilly tootsies make your nose more susceptible to germs.  I’m not going to try to understand—I’ll just put on some slippers and call it a day.

Other great ideas during my research:  Some people actually consume non-food items to stay healthy or get healthy.  I think it’s not the best idea.  Especially since I also read that something like drinking hot coffee can help keep you from getting sick by washing nasty germs into your stomach which doesn’t matter much to me because all I heard was a good reason to drink coffee.

Another couple of tips:  Open restroom doors with a paper towel instead of your hand.  Read menus by holding them by the top instead of the more popular bottom.  Take deep breaths every day.  Keep your fingernails short.  Kiss on the lips.  Eat your boogers (I am not making this up, and beg of you to not try this at home.)

But mostly, wash your hands.  Stay home if you’re hacking and sneezing all over the place.  And stock up on pork rinds.

Endnote: I realize I have completely jinxed my family in the writing of this article.