7 ways to avoid getting sick this monsoon

Before the monsoon shower brings you any unpleasant illness, arm yourself against it to make the most out of the lovely rainy weather. As compiled from lifehackery.com and food.ndtv.com, here are a few ways to relish the season without any wanted diseases.

1.  Keep your house clean and pest-free

Monsoon may bring dengue, malaria and other viral infections along with it. Therefore, it is important to keep a very high level of sanitation in your house. “Ensure that there is no water-logging in and around your house that might provide shelter to mosquitoes and bacteria,” says Dr Jatinder Bhatia, lab services and projects chief in North India. Change your bed sheets and bed linens weekly and pack away excess cushions and pillows to avoid damp musty odours.

2. Take a shower after getting soaked in the rain

Diseases develop when your body experiences a sudden change of temperature in the rain. Taking a hot shower right after being drenched in wet clothes stabilises the cold temperature and is the best way to get rid of all the germs that you may have picked up in the rain. Use an antiseptic soap while bathing to kill any possible infection from growing into an illness.

3. Sweat out the symptoms

In order to prevent symptoms from developing into a fully-fledged illness, boost the immunity system of your body by incorporating exercise in your daily schedule. Aerobic exercise speeds up the heart to pump larger quantities of blood, makes you breathe faster to help transfer oxygen from your lungs to your blood and make you sweat once your body heats up. These exercises help increase the number of body’s natural virus-killing cells.

4. Savour hot soup

A bowl of a hot soup is the perfect fix for anyone dreading flu or cold as they help to de-clog your nasal passages by increasing the temperature of your airways. It also promotes increased secretions that aid in getting rid of bacteria and viruses from your system. Add garlic to your soups as it stimulates the immunity system of body and helps in fighting against various diseases and other infections.

5. Drain the illness away

Water keeps your body hydrated and builds up your resistance to fight against infections. Nurtitionist Smruti Gokhale suggests, “Boil your drinking water and put chloride in it (for one litre of water put 3-4 drops of chloride) to kill the harmful micro-organisms and other impurities, which might cause diseases.” Avoid drinking too much coffee as it dehydrates the fluids in your body.

6. Avoid unhealthy food

Fried food such as pakoras and samosas should be absolutely avoided during the rainy season as too much humidity causes digestion to slow down. Limit intake of fish and instead incorporate more green vegetables in your diet. “I would advise everyone to consume only fresh seafood and take extra care to cook it well as monsoon is the breeding season for fish and shrimps,” says Samar Ansari, director of Ans group, who runs his own fishing business in Karachi.

7. Get adequate sleep

Lack of proper sleep will throw your body’s immune system off balance. Sleep deprivation will negatively affect your body’s abilities to fight the diseases that assault it. So make sure to catch a minimum of six hours of sleep to keep your body healthy and able to fight diseases and infections. The immunity system of the body is designed to protect us from colds, flu and other ailments but when it is not functioning properly, it fails to do its job.

By Komal Anwar

Published in The Express Tribune, July 23^rd, 2015.

Like Life & Style on Facebook, follow @ETLifeandStyle on Twitter for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.