Some rules for keeping your hands clean, and your body free from infections, as the cold and flu season is upon us. 80 percent of germs are transferred through touch and that touch between people is almost always by hand.
1. Wash hands with regular soap for at least 20 seconds, giving a thorough scrub between the fingers, on the palms, and the back of the hands. Wash your hands before eating food and as often as possible. Have you thought of the number times in a day you use hands and fingers to brush your hair, pick your teeth, or rub the nose and ears? So wash hands as often as possible; and if soap and water are not available then use alcohol-based disposable hand wipes or gel sanitizers available in most drug stores. Regular washing eliminates most kinds of virus from the hands, including the dreaded H1N1 virus.
2. Sneeze into your elbow and follow the "hands free" rule. Do not cough or sneeze into your hands, and cover you face with the inside of your elbow and forearm instead. Remember to wash your hands if you use them by mistake.
3. Keep away germs by not touching yourself. Avoid putting your fingers in the mouth, or run them through your hair, like pretty Doutzen Kroes here:
Cleaning the inside of your eyes, your nose, or mouth if your hands have not been washed, is a sure fire way of letting in germs to your body. The NYT reports that a recent study at the University of California, Berkeley, found that students touched their eyes, noses and lips 47 times during a three-hour period, once every four minutes!
3. Disposable tissues are better than handkerchiefs. Sneezing or coughing into a handkerchief and keeping it in your pocket or bag also keeps the germs in there, but with a disposable tissue the germs are gotten rid of. Since tissues are made from paper, which we get from trees, some people don't want to harm the environment by using them. But if you have a runny nose, and it's the flu season, avoid using handkerchiefs.
