As students all know, flu season is upon us and there are many ways to avoid getting sick. Here are the top ten tips that will help Smoky keep a safe and clean community.

1. From a Chinese medicine perspective a person gets more lazy in the winter than in the other seasons. That is why it is important to get 8-10 hours of sleep around this time.
2. Try to avoid unhealthy foods that would have wheat and dairy products because “comfort food” can suppress the immune system. Also the more students eat healthy food the better your immune system will be build to fight off germs.
3. For students who drink tea, they should try to avoid it. Drinking tea and breathing in steam stimulates the cilia (the hair follicles in the nose) to move out germs more efficiently.
4. Get proteins to make your immune system stronger.
5. Make sure you are washing your hands every 30-45 minutes and being aware of your surroundings. Germs can come from anywhere.
6. Sanitize your office space and make sure you are cleaning your bed sheets and pillow covers.
7. Make sure you breath out, for example, when you are walking past another person who is sneezing or coughing, try to gently and slowly breath out until you are 10 feet away from them.
8. Make sure you bring your own pen to places so you do not have to use the banks pens, or the restaurants pen to sign.
9. Pamper your nose by making sure you rinse it everyday. You can even buy nasal saline irrigation at the drugstore like NeilMed Sinus Rinse.
10. Drink a lot of water so you can keep the toxins flush that come into the lymph system.

“Covering your cough so you’re not coughing on your hand and spreading the germs with your hands. Hand washing is the best way to prevent getting sick. Taking care of yourself like making sure you are getting enough water and getting enough rest during cold and flu season because our immune systems fluctuate all the time,” Nurse Jennifer Stone said. “So certain cells in your immune systems will be high which means your immune system is doing really well, but if you do things like let yourself get really stressed out and you’re not eating right, and not sleeping enough then your immune system drops. When that happens you are much more vulnerable to cold and flu germs that are around us all the time but if your immune system is working really well than you probably can fight that off,”said Nurse Jennifer Stone.