Swine Flu Tips

We received a call from Grandma Wilkes this morning about the arrival of cousin Emily's new baby boy - yeah!  But also the news that Emily has been diagnosed with swine flu and is isolation in the hospital.  Our prayers will definitely be with them.

We have been a little paranoid around here about swine flu.  Two kids that Tessa knows at school have been diagnosed with it.

We are trying to take some smart precautions around our house and thought I'd share some info I found to be helpful.

We have all started taking Vitamin D.  I have read and heard from several sources that Vitamin D is excellent for boosting the immune system and one of the best things you can do to combat Swine Flu - one of the sources I heard it from was Dr. Oz of Oprah fame

Adults can take up to 2,000 IU a day and children 1,000.  We bought it at Costco, it was on their coupon special and was $10 for 300 of them.

Here are also some other tips.  One of them is to use a neti pot which Tessa has used to help her sinus infections - if you want to see how to use it - check out the post I did on it.

We are definitely taking precautions around here and encourage you to also!!


1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).


2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or slap).


3. Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt). H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.


4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.


5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C. If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.


6. Drink as much of warm liquids as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.