How to Stay Healthy During the Winter

Rebecca Fox: As sure as after holiday sales many people will experience some kind of health concerns this winter whether it’s a cold, flu, weight gain or seasonal depression there are some effective strategies you can use to help keep healthy this winter. Here to talk about these strategies is family practice physician Dr. Thaddeus Bell and Dr. Bell thank you very much for being here. Dr. Thaddeus Bell: Thank you. Rebecca Fox: So many of the health concerns I just listed always seem inevitable so what can I do to reduce my risk say getting the cold or of the flu? Dr. Thaddeus Bell: Well, I think that if you want to decrease your risk for getting the flu you should get the flu shot. I’m really impress with the number of people who do not get the flu shot if you have a chronic illness, if you’re elderly, if you know young children should get the flu shot, health care professionals should get the flu shot. So I think that men and women in medicine have not promoted immunizations against the flu like we should have. We are at a age in which we can inoculate you and keep you from getting something. We get still that to is not use like it’s supposed to be used. So I would say that I encourage people to get the flu shot. There’s still a lot of misinformation, people think that the flu shot will give you the flu that’s not true. The flu shot will make you sick and there’s a possibility but I can tell you I give flu shot every year hundreds of tons and that rarely really happens and I think that people should give the flu shot. Now the flu shot will not keep you from getting a cold. You need to understand that because the flu and a cold are two different things. A cold is caused by several different viruses. The flu shot that they give you is made up usually of two or three viruses. So we’ll not keep you from getting a cold. To keep from getting a cold you generally have to take care of yourself. You have to wear the proper type of clothing. I found that people who are in their bad physical shape get colds often. One of the things that will enhance a cold is smoking. People who smoke a lot they are more susceptible to developing a cold, Bronchitis or something of that sort. If you have any chronic medical problem that’s not on the good control you’re subject to get a cold and the other viral condition similar to a cold. The other thing that I need to make people aware of is that I know people like to take a lot of vitamin C, thinking that it will prevent a cold but the current medical literature does not support that. So taking vitamin C, according o the current medical literature, does not help you keep you from catching a cold. Rebecca Fox: Well, you surprise me on that one and at hand —yes we have you did surprise me. What about hand washing, I’ve always heard — Dr. Thaddeus Bell: Well, hand washing is always a good thing, you know if you are in an area and there is someone who is coughing, blowing their nose and then touching the door knob, touching the computer then certainly you need to be aware of that and you need to try to spray around if those people are sneezing and they don’t put anything over their mouth whenever they sneeze. There are little droplets they just spray out all over the place and of course you could inhale those kinds of things and that will make you catch a cold. But the other thing I want to make people aware of is that a cold and a flu and the flu are two entirely different things. They don’t even feel the same way. So it’s very, very important for people to take that out of the consideration but just the general hygiene kinds of things that you want to ordinarily be to protect yourself. You want to wash your hands if you are in a room with someone who has a cold and they’re touching everything. You want to make sure you wash your hands before you put your hands close to your mouth. Rebecca Fox: One topic that I don’t think anybody likes to talk about is that seasonal weight gain. How do you encourage your patients to exercises when it’s either too cold or there’s a lack of lighter just a variety of factors? Dr. Thaddeus Bell: Well first of all, I think that people need to be aware that they can control their weigh during the holiday season. You have to want to do it. The other things are I would encourage people to eat more slowly. At anytime you pick up something ask yourself do you really need to eat that. Go to some tips, the other thing is to make people aware of that, you know there are fitness centers that are open throughout the holidays and then you could take advantage of that or for the person who can’t go to the fitness center. If you are going to over eat then the next day you have to remember that you’re going to have to spend a little bit more time walking, doing some type of exercise to burn up the calories that you consumed that day. Now I know that very well may seem to be very, very tried and very, very simple but frankly awareness, your awareness. If you eat that pecan pie, it taste good but then it has a lot of calories in it the you go and help to be aware that the next day in order to counteract that pecan pie, you’re going to have to walk a little bit fast and a little bit longer. Rebecca Fox: Dr. Bell, thank you so much for this information. We appreciate it very much. And you can hear much more from Dr. Bell on variety of topics at ICYou.com. For ICYou on topic, I’m Rebecca Fox.