Another winter is upon us. We look towards this weather with hope to have more indoor fun and avoid getting sick. Weather change is at time that seems to bring a lot of sickness and people have all sorts of health related problems. Today we will discuss the issue of winter and how to avoid getting sick, so we could stay healthy and enjoy the season. With start of the season the people mostly develop skin related issues and respiratory or breathing problems.
Why do we get sick more often in winter time? It is simply because we are more close to each other and in confined spaces with mostly close doors and so chances of virus and other offending agents to transfer easily from one person to other are more. Other reasons could to attributable to lower temperature causing our defenses to go down a bit and that the germs spread relatively easy during those times.
During these days we have observed that there is an increase in viral illness including flu, and that certain disease tend to get worse during these times. The viral illnesses that are so frequent during winter times are mostly common cold and flu and other viruses.
Although common cold and flu may start like the same but sure enough they are not the same. Common cold is milder form of illness, is usually with runny or stuffy nose and coughing and sore throat. Flu is more of the sudden illness with fever body aches fatigue and general misery. Besides the upper respiratory illness patients can develop pneumonia easy and sinus infections.
At the same times patients who have ongoing illnesses are prone to either develop these viral infections more easily or their own disease get worse if get aggravated in these times. Those diseases include asthma, chronic bronchitis, people on chemo therapy, renal failure and diabetics with bad sugar control.
People who have these kinds of illnesses need to take extra precautions and act early if they see any sign of any disease, as their disease put them at risk of having severe or protracted course of sickness.
Because of changing weather and temperature going down the water intake in people tend to go down. Although they don’t become dehydrated but their water reserves are less and any level of fever may push them closure to dehydration.
Now let me summarize a few tips for avoiding those bugs both viral and bacterial so we can enjoy our winter
- Universal precautions
- Staying away from sick people
- Keep yourself well hydrated
- Balanced meal including vegetables and fruits
- Vitamin C supplementations.
- Stay well rested and sleep adequately
- Keep yourself in shape and exercise
- Avoid smoking cigarettes
If you get sick some of the same precautions need to be used as treatment options, like staying away from others, taking rest, drinking plenty of fluids, eating healthy and only see the doctor when you don’t get better or have other symptoms that need to be checked out.
Avoid aspirin and aspirin like medicine to treat fever in children as it may result in damage to liver.
When to See a Doctor
- High fever that is not relieved despite using medicine
- Cough that is not better
- Increased difficulty breathing
- Any rash on the body
- Getting overly sleepy or tired
- Face pain or neck pain
Our biggest help is to have proper vaccination and controlling our long term illness, out of control diabetics or asthma can cause pneumonia easily or a sinus infection. So controlling asthma and other long term illness actually makes perfect sense. Similarly keeping ourselves hydrated is better than taking medicine after getting sick.
Lastly use of vitamins and minerals can save us from illnesses by making us strong immunologically. So citrus fruits and dry fruits in moderate quantity with plenty of water is a very good way to stay healthy
I am hopeful that we all will have good winter time and we will stay away from being sick.
I can be reached at erdoc@shifa.com.pk.