The XSport Life

Top 4 Habits to Help You Steer Clear of Winter Colds

You hear the coughing and sneezing all around you… between work, home and the gym, is there any way to avoid being exposed to those germs that cause colds and flu?

Maybe – try these four habits to help you escape the winter cold, because no one wants to get bogged down by illness when they’re working on keeping a healthy lifestyle!

1. Hand washing and surface wiping. It’s been well-researched and the findings are pretty consistent: up to 80% of infectious illness are shared through touch. Cold and flu viruses are airborne at first, but usually land somewhere: a doorknob, a shopping cart, a yoga mat or a dumbbell. If you’re the next person who touches the object that was coughed on, the cold germs can be transmitted to you – but washing your hands frequently, and wiping down often-used hard objects, can offset a majority of those cold germs.


2. Getting more sleep. A little more shuteye appears to be good for so many things, from concentration to weight management, and now several studies have shown that less sleep is associated with being more prone to illness. One study looked specifically at a rhinovirus (major cause of the common cold) and found that people who slept less than 7 hours a night were about three times more likely to develop a cold than people who slept 8 or more hours. Go to be early and grab that extra hour, especially in cold season.


3. Getting more vitamin D. Both the sunshine variety of natural vitamin D, as well as the supplemented kind that can come from salmon, dairy food, fortified orange juice or vitamin pills, have been shown to be of help. In the winter, our vitamin D levels tend to go down – likely due to lack of sunshine. A deficiency isn’t good for the immune system, so you might want to check with your doc and make sure you’re getting enough.


4. Getting steamed up. Research has shown that steam (from a sauna, spa or even room humidifier) can prevent the catching of colds… and it may be up to 50% fewer colds, plus reduced symptoms, according to one German study. This makes sense because cold and flu viruses don’t live on in hot air over about 80 degrees.
   
   If you’d like to give this tip a try, we have a new preventive offering you can take advantage of at XSport Self Spa, called the Hydropod. This is a full-body individual steam room offers you several benefits through the process of hydrofusion. Our guests lay inside the capsule for 20-30 minute sessions, where they experience the purifying effects of warm, wet heat reaching up to 118 degrees, which hydrates, soothes and detoxifies from head to toe. These steamy sessions could be just the ticket to help you avoid a winter cold this season. Call the spa or click here to take a peek or schedule a session!