I will emphasize two main ideas. First: Beware of media hype and scare tactics. Second: Your best defense against the Swine flu (and any flu) is to BE HEALTHY and live a healthy life! Practice preventative medicine with yourself and your family NOW! This will either prevent you from getting sick with colds and flus or speed up your recovery.
Vaccines are only part of the disease prevention scenario. Your personal health status and stress load are HUGE factors in your suceptibility to diseases and your ability to recover. Vaccines also have their limitations. Flu viruses are notorious for mutating. This means that by the time a vaccine for one strain is made, distributed and available to you, that virus has probably changed enough to sneak by your immune system and get you sick! So don’t rely on a vaccine to protect you from any flu or any other disease. And don’t panic if a vaccine is not available. Your health and lifestyle are more important.
Concentrate on helping your body stay strong and healthy. Help your immune system with good nutrition, plenty of fun exercise, and good stress management. Have a holistic doctor on your health care team. I teach my patients how to optimize their health and know their vulnerabilities. I teach home treatments for many ailments. I help my patients create natural medicine home first aid kits. Then, when they do get sick or injured, I can start treating them at home even before they can get to my office.
Remember the following common sense advice:
- WASH your hands before preparing food and before eating food. WASH your hands after using the bathroom. Teach your children to do the same. Hands that come in contact with coughing, sneezing, runny noses and diarrhea spread infectious diseases.
- Stop eating sugary foods especially when you are run down and/or sick. Candy, desserts and sweetened foods load down your immune system and make it easier to get sick.
- REST and sleep when you are sick. Stay off computers, phones and any electronic devices. Read (light not academic), listen to soothing music and REST. Your body is working to heal. Don’t give it extra work to do!
- Give yourself TIME to heal. Rushing your recovery often leads to relapse.
Dr. Wendy Van Dilla practices holistic medicine in Los Alamos and Santa Fe, New Mexico. For further information, please go to her website www.drwendy.info or call (505) 986-1370.
