I am sure most of you have heard the saying "keep your hands to yourself". whether it was in a classroom when you were younger, and the teacher was telling you to stop slapping or hurting the person next to you, from your parents, when you were fighting with your sibilings, or whether you were told to stop inappropriately touching the person next to you in public.
The same goes for germs. Another reason that people should keep their hands to themselves is to avoid spreading germs. Imagine this: your best friend is sick with a cough. He/she coughs into his/her hand and then you make a funny joke that merits a high five. You go, "high five!" and you clap hands with your best friend. Guess what. You now have his/her cough germs! yay.... free germs.....it's like you just swiped his/her germ particles. This is when you have to listen to Dora, when she says "Swiper no swiping!" Of course, this is for Swiper's own good, so he won't catch Dora's disease. Or, maybe Swiper is the one with the germs, and his swiping would spread his germs onto Dora!?
lol i'm just kidding about the dora thing. i think im just a bit delirious, with sickness! anyway, let me tell you why we should protect ourselves from germs (if we're healthy) and protect those around us from getting our germs (if we're sick) before i tell you how to do these things =) .
rant starts here. skip this paragraph to get to the how to:
ugh. so i thought i was finally clear of germs at school. i thought i finally made it past one month of sitting in classes with little to no ventilation, surrounded by sick people and their germs. some people are good, and they know to cough into their sleeves or go to the washroom to wash their hands after sneezing or to blow their noses. on the other hand, some people just cough out into the open air, infecting the world around them. i sit infront of this guy who is still sick, after everyone else has healed (probably because he smokes, so his immune system is weaker?) and so everytime he coughs, i can feel his cough cloud hit the back of my head, and the germs nestle in my hair. it's so gross. i have to make a conscious effort not to touch my hair until after i go home and shower. that's how bad it is. and then i have physics with this same guy, who sits beside me. ugh. during our DEAR reading period, he would cough, and then flip the page. I sat on his left side, and so when he turned the page, he was unintentionally directing his cough cloud at me! i gave him a lozenge, but that didn't seem to help, so im hypothesizing that his cough isnt from his throat, probably something a bit more deeper, possibly an infection, or early stage of bronchitis. anyway. so i had a bit of the sniffles and a sore throat. i am not a full fledged sickling yet. my immune system is weak, as i am trying to fight against the progression of the sickness. it does not help that a person who is a full fledged sickling is releasing his germs into the air, and at me (of course, unintentionally. why would he want me to get sick right?). Anyway, i quickly went home and took a nap after drinking lots of honey citron tea and blowing my nose and washing my hands.
Read more for tips on avoiding sickness, and not spreading germs
How to Avoid Getting Sick:
- for those who have important upcoming events (like snowboarding) or presentations, or you just don't want to get sick... here are some of my tips, mixed with the general tips doctors and health care specialists usually give.
1. Wash your hands often. Not so much so that you're OCDing but at least - when you wake up, before and after meals, after sneezing, before and after touching your face, before and after touching someone else's face/hands/whatever other part of them, before and after touching doorknobs, transit poles, publicly shared computers, desks, library books, etc, after using the washroom, and before sleeping.
- if you high five a sick person, simply wash your hands with soap. lather for at least 20 secs, total duration of hand washing should be around 2 mins for absolute cleanliness.
You can calculate the average of how many times you should wash your hands a day by a series of simple addition or multiplication depending on your personal schedule.
2. When you're around people who have sore throats, or coughs, suck on a lozenge. This usually helps to prevent you from getting a sore throat, as the lozenge is antiseptic and usually helps ward off or fight the immediate germs.
3. Avoid walking into "cough clouds" and "sneeze zones". These are places where someone has recently sneezed or coughed into. Although they are invisible to the naked eye, you can just approximate the area. However, if it is inevitable that you must walk through one of these zones, you should hold your breath while doing so, and then wash your face at the nearest available facility.
4. Open the window (if its not too cold) so that clean air can enter the room/building and you will have a higher chance of breathing in clean and uncontaminated air.
5. If you're walking and talking with a sick person, stay downwind of them, so that the wind will blow the germs not at you, but away from you.
-->Ex. the wind is coming from the East, then stand on the Eastmost side to your sick friend, so that the wind hits you first.
6. If you're talking to someone, and the air is still; you don't want to come off as rude, mean or impolite by covering your mouth or scrunching your nose. you can stand at an angle to the person, so that they are not directly speaking mouth to mouth/nose to you (depends on your height). You can pretend that there is a third person there, and make a triangle. Fewer germs will go in your direction. Unless the person gets really excited or they turn with you lol ... You can also take a swig of water, so that you can angle your face away from them for a moment.
7. If you must participate in any physical activities with a sick person, be sure that you wash your hands before and after. This will help them to prevent getting germs that you carry (but you may not have the sickness, just carry the germ from somewhere else) and will also prevent yourself from getting.
8. Do not share water or drink from a fountain with/after a sick person. Do not share food with them either, unless you spoon it separately onto a clean plate or other eating ware.
How to Avoid Spreading Your Germs/ Keep Your Germs to Yourself
- to be considerate of others, and to protect the ones you love from your sickness
1. Wash your hands! Before and after sneezing, coughing, face touching, eating, using a public computer, telephone, doorknob, anything other people will use after you. This is like going to a gym, you are supposed to spray clean your fitness mat or fitness/weight training equipment after your own use, as noone after you wants to touch the equipment that has your sweat on it.
2. Use a tissue, and use it properly. Use a tissue to cough/sneeze into if you are not wearing a long sleeve shirt. Actually, it is probably more hygenic to cough/sneeze into a tissue even if you have a long sleeve shirt, as the tissue gets thrown out, whereas the germs stay on your shirt until you wash it. What if someone gives you a hug, and when you wrap your arms around them the germs from your sleeve wipe onto them? That wouldn't be very nice of you, and I'm sure you wouldnt want to get that person sick. ALWAYS DISPOSE OF A TISSUE AFTER USE. The optimal thing to do is to flush it down the toilet, as all sewage waste and water gets treated and disinfected. If a toilet is not available, then throw it out in a garbage can.
3. Blow your nose in the washroom. Noone wants to watch or listen to you blowing out your nose, and inspecting your mucous. So please do this in private. Doing this in a washroom is also best because there is a large supply of toilet paper, with which you can use to blow your nose. You can also wash your hands without contaminating door knobs and other things because you're already in the washroom.
4. If medication to treat symptoms is available, please take it. Cold and sinus relief drugs like Tylenol, or Benilyn are known to work well. For coughs, try a lozenge or Robitussin. The fewer symptoms you have, the less likely you are to spread your germs.
5. If your sickness is really bad and at a highly contagious state, please stay home. You're probably really tired anyway, and taking a nap will let your body rest, and give your immune system more strength to fight your sickness.
6. If you need to exhale deeply for any reason, please do so in a well ventilated area where people are scarce, or do it outside, where there is lots of wind and noone around you to catch your germs.
7. Do your best to get well soon, because you will be putting people around you in less danger of contracting your sickness.
8. Try to refrain from participating in any physical activities. Also, if you must talk to someone, talk to them at an angle, or upwind of them, so the wind will blow your germs away, and not toward the other person.
Thats 8 tips to avoid getting sick for 8 tips to avoid spreading germs! =) hope this helps!
The same goes for germs. Another reason that people should keep their hands to themselves is to avoid spreading germs. Imagine this: your best friend is sick with a cough. He/she coughs into his/her hand and then you make a funny joke that merits a high five. You go, "high five!" and you clap hands with your best friend. Guess what. You now have his/her cough germs! yay.... free germs.....it's like you just swiped his/her germ particles. This is when you have to listen to Dora, when she says "Swiper no swiping!" Of course, this is for Swiper's own good, so he won't catch Dora's disease. Or, maybe Swiper is the one with the germs, and his swiping would spread his germs onto Dora!?
lol i'm just kidding about the dora thing. i think im just a bit delirious, with sickness! anyway, let me tell you why we should protect ourselves from germs (if we're healthy) and protect those around us from getting our germs (if we're sick) before i tell you how to do these things =) .
rant starts here. skip this paragraph to get to the how to:
ugh. so i thought i was finally clear of germs at school. i thought i finally made it past one month of sitting in classes with little to no ventilation, surrounded by sick people and their germs. some people are good, and they know to cough into their sleeves or go to the washroom to wash their hands after sneezing or to blow their noses. on the other hand, some people just cough out into the open air, infecting the world around them. i sit infront of this guy who is still sick, after everyone else has healed (probably because he smokes, so his immune system is weaker?) and so everytime he coughs, i can feel his cough cloud hit the back of my head, and the germs nestle in my hair. it's so gross. i have to make a conscious effort not to touch my hair until after i go home and shower. that's how bad it is. and then i have physics with this same guy, who sits beside me. ugh. during our DEAR reading period, he would cough, and then flip the page. I sat on his left side, and so when he turned the page, he was unintentionally directing his cough cloud at me! i gave him a lozenge, but that didn't seem to help, so im hypothesizing that his cough isnt from his throat, probably something a bit more deeper, possibly an infection, or early stage of bronchitis. anyway. so i had a bit of the sniffles and a sore throat. i am not a full fledged sickling yet. my immune system is weak, as i am trying to fight against the progression of the sickness. it does not help that a person who is a full fledged sickling is releasing his germs into the air, and at me (of course, unintentionally. why would he want me to get sick right?). Anyway, i quickly went home and took a nap after drinking lots of honey citron tea and blowing my nose and washing my hands.
Read more for tips on avoiding sickness, and not spreading germs
How to Avoid Getting Sick:
- for those who have important upcoming events (like snowboarding) or presentations, or you just don't want to get sick... here are some of my tips, mixed with the general tips doctors and health care specialists usually give.
1. Wash your hands often. Not so much so that you're OCDing but at least - when you wake up, before and after meals, after sneezing, before and after touching your face, before and after touching someone else's face/hands/whatever other part of them, before and after touching doorknobs, transit poles, publicly shared computers, desks, library books, etc, after using the washroom, and before sleeping.
- if you high five a sick person, simply wash your hands with soap. lather for at least 20 secs, total duration of hand washing should be around 2 mins for absolute cleanliness.
You can calculate the average of how many times you should wash your hands a day by a series of simple addition or multiplication depending on your personal schedule.
2. When you're around people who have sore throats, or coughs, suck on a lozenge. This usually helps to prevent you from getting a sore throat, as the lozenge is antiseptic and usually helps ward off or fight the immediate germs.
3. Avoid walking into "cough clouds" and "sneeze zones". These are places where someone has recently sneezed or coughed into. Although they are invisible to the naked eye, you can just approximate the area. However, if it is inevitable that you must walk through one of these zones, you should hold your breath while doing so, and then wash your face at the nearest available facility.
4. Open the window (if its not too cold) so that clean air can enter the room/building and you will have a higher chance of breathing in clean and uncontaminated air.
5. If you're walking and talking with a sick person, stay downwind of them, so that the wind will blow the germs not at you, but away from you.
-->Ex. the wind is coming from the East, then stand on the Eastmost side to your sick friend, so that the wind hits you first.
6. If you're talking to someone, and the air is still; you don't want to come off as rude, mean or impolite by covering your mouth or scrunching your nose. you can stand at an angle to the person, so that they are not directly speaking mouth to mouth/nose to you (depends on your height). You can pretend that there is a third person there, and make a triangle. Fewer germs will go in your direction. Unless the person gets really excited or they turn with you lol ... You can also take a swig of water, so that you can angle your face away from them for a moment.
7. If you must participate in any physical activities with a sick person, be sure that you wash your hands before and after. This will help them to prevent getting germs that you carry (but you may not have the sickness, just carry the germ from somewhere else) and will also prevent yourself from getting.
8. Do not share water or drink from a fountain with/after a sick person. Do not share food with them either, unless you spoon it separately onto a clean plate or other eating ware.
How to Avoid Spreading Your Germs/ Keep Your Germs to Yourself
- to be considerate of others, and to protect the ones you love from your sickness
1. Wash your hands! Before and after sneezing, coughing, face touching, eating, using a public computer, telephone, doorknob, anything other people will use after you. This is like going to a gym, you are supposed to spray clean your fitness mat or fitness/weight training equipment after your own use, as noone after you wants to touch the equipment that has your sweat on it.
2. Use a tissue, and use it properly. Use a tissue to cough/sneeze into if you are not wearing a long sleeve shirt. Actually, it is probably more hygenic to cough/sneeze into a tissue even if you have a long sleeve shirt, as the tissue gets thrown out, whereas the germs stay on your shirt until you wash it. What if someone gives you a hug, and when you wrap your arms around them the germs from your sleeve wipe onto them? That wouldn't be very nice of you, and I'm sure you wouldnt want to get that person sick. ALWAYS DISPOSE OF A TISSUE AFTER USE. The optimal thing to do is to flush it down the toilet, as all sewage waste and water gets treated and disinfected. If a toilet is not available, then throw it out in a garbage can.
3. Blow your nose in the washroom. Noone wants to watch or listen to you blowing out your nose, and inspecting your mucous. So please do this in private. Doing this in a washroom is also best because there is a large supply of toilet paper, with which you can use to blow your nose. You can also wash your hands without contaminating door knobs and other things because you're already in the washroom.
4. If medication to treat symptoms is available, please take it. Cold and sinus relief drugs like Tylenol, or Benilyn are known to work well. For coughs, try a lozenge or Robitussin. The fewer symptoms you have, the less likely you are to spread your germs.
5. If your sickness is really bad and at a highly contagious state, please stay home. You're probably really tired anyway, and taking a nap will let your body rest, and give your immune system more strength to fight your sickness.
6. If you need to exhale deeply for any reason, please do so in a well ventilated area where people are scarce, or do it outside, where there is lots of wind and noone around you to catch your germs.
7. Do your best to get well soon, because you will be putting people around you in less danger of contracting your sickness.
8. Try to refrain from participating in any physical activities. Also, if you must talk to someone, talk to them at an angle, or upwind of them, so the wind will blow your germs away, and not toward the other person.
Thats 8 tips to avoid getting sick for 8 tips to avoid spreading germs! =) hope this helps!
Haha I am taking that - that's the "pei pa koa" I was talking about (in another post)! =) it works well, just as you said. thanks for the comment!
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