Hand washing and hygiene

Staying healthy has sure changed down through the years. I remember going to the doctor as a kid in the fall and getting a short checkup, a shot of what I remember as B12 and a bottle of antibiotics in case you got sick. It was just a normal fall happening. And many times we'd go to the doctor through the winter for a refill of antibiotics.

We never thought about hand washing to stay healthy. We'd go fishing and put minnows and worms on the hooks and eat a sandwich. We never washed our hands until we got home that evening, and that was after we'd skinned the fish and maybe even milked the cows. Many a day during haying season, we'd leave home in the morning and work until noon. We'd have dinner there by the tractors and then home at dark. We'd wash up then for supper. For soap we'd use Irish Spring when we took our weekly bath or Lava to get the grease off our hands. For just plain hand washing, it probably was Ivory. I can't remember using lye soap.

Things have sure changed. There are those hand sanitizers about everywhere. I think most of them are alcohol based and from what I've read they seem to work. Many times the soaps are germ killing mixes and not just soap. I've always been suspicious of these sanitizers and germ-killing soap mixes. Every time I see one I'm reminded of how one can spray the bugs in the garden, and it will normally kill everything. But when I say everything, this includes both the good beneficial bugs and the bad bugs. So in the end one wins and looses. I truly believe in many instances we have sanitized ourselves into being susceptible to infections and sicknesses which we used to be resistant to.

Last time I went to my family doctor, we talked about getting the flu and how it affected us. He went on to say that the flu normally didn't kill us. But what the flu does is attack our lungs and respiratory system which in turn causes our whole body problems. So if my memory is correct, it is these respiratory problems which end up killing us. I know he is whole heartedly in favor of flu shots.

A friend of mine who has worked in the health care field I'll bet 30 years put a small post on Facebook recently. I can't remember the exact words but it went something like this: "You can't catch a cold by getting cold. You can't catch a cold by getting wet." Back when we were little we were told that if we got wet or cold we'd catch a cold. Not really true. Getting cold may lower ones immunity but that's about all.

I was playing around on DuckDuckGo, which is a search engine, and according to its information one gets a cold or the flu from microscopic particles of a virus that end up in our nose or eyes or mouth or one of your mucus membranes. These particles can be in the air or on surfaces. For instance when one sneezes, as many as 40,000 droplets can be expelled into the air. One source said to stay at least 6 feet away from someone who is sick and sneezing.

The scary part is that these microscopic particles can live for up to two days on a surface like a door knob or a piece of money or a shopping cart or whatever. Money is probably the dirtiest thing one can touch. I got a letter a few days ago from a friend who I know was sick. I was pretty darn careful with that piece of mail.

One is also able to pass on the flu about a day before symptoms show up and then for up to five to seven days after the symptoms first show up. So for a period of six days up to eight or nine days, one can pass on the flu. The contagious period is shorter for colds being about three days or so. The hardest part is that most don't seem to realize they are getting sick until they are really sick and passed on their microscopic particles for a day or two. Some put on the tough, dumb move and take their sickness to work or church or shopping. For Pete's sake, "Stay home."

We all need to realize that in most if not all instances the cold and flu Virus is passed on by human contact or in essence human beings are the carriers. If you lived in the far north away from human contact, you won't get the flu or a cold. You go where people are congregating or getting together in groups most likely someone there will be getting sick or is sick and infecting you and others around you. This is a fact.

One of the best ways of staying healthy is to simply wash your hands. One place said to wash your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds. I was watching TV a couple weeks ago when a consultant who is a physician talked about the correct way to wash one's hands. He said to get some soap on your hands and work them together. Be sure to wash the finger tips. What he said to do was keep rubbing them together while you sing Happy Birthday to yourself two times. Don't hurry through the song but sing it like you do normally. Two times.

Many are wearing masks and I would venture to guess they help. The microscopic pores in the masks need to be super fine to keep the virus out though. I heard someone say that a virus spore or germ was like a 1,000 times smaller than a grain of salt. Pretty darn small. I would almost venture that plastic gloves might be even more beneficial if you continually keep replacing them.

Really nothing new. Wash your hands. If you're sick, stay home or go to the doctor. If you are sick and sneezing, you need to be at home and not sneezing into your elbow. Stay away from crowds. Don't panic but practice good hygiene. If you are older like me, filter those you come in contact with and, if others even have a hint of sickness, avoid them like the plague. Use common sense.