If you are one of the millions suffering from the latest strand of flu virus, you may just as well stay home. According to Northwest Community Hospital as well as press releases from other institutions, you will simply be turned away. That is true even for your children under the age of 18.
Hospitals understand just how easily the virus spreads from person to person or through ventilation systems, and how resistant it is to common medications. They are worried about the havoc the flu virus will wreak on their patients, who are very susceptible to contracting it.
In this age of viruses and flu bugs that mutate and seem invincible to current treatments, it is more important than ever to recognize how big an impact our ventilation systems can have on our home or business. It also serves as a reminder of what steps we should be taking to strengthen our immune system by improving our physical condition.
Maybe the first issue to address is taking care of ourselves so we can build up defenses in order to stay healthy. There are no magic formulas or hidden insider secrets to achieve this. Eating right and exercising thirty minutes every day has proven to cut the chance of getting sick by half, yes half!
It’s harder during the winter – everything is! But it’s not impossible. The body can create as many good habits as bad ones given the chance. Habits are said to become routine if given thirty days of repetition. Experiment with this by waking up at a specific time for the next month, and then see how your body reacts in the following month. You should find you’ve conditioned yourself to awaken at that same time. It’s a strategy that fitness centers have embraced, and the reason why so many offer the first thirty days of membership for free.
If you’ve gotten hooked into a one year gym membership, no matter by what means, put it to good use. According to Health.com, “thirty to sixty minutes (physical activity) a day lowers blood sugar and blood pressure, boosts HDL (good cholesterol) and can reduce the protein that contributes to blood clots”.
As long as we can’t hibernate, we may as well feel better, live longer, and enjoy an overall better quality of life. Making a habit of being active is the cheapest and quickest solution to help prevent illness and disease.
Eating habits can be changed too. Start simple. If you think you need 3 teaspoons of sugar in your coffee, condition yourself to get that spoon out of the bowl after 2. Remove the salt shaker from your table and leave it in the basement or rent a storage locker for it. There’s enough sodium in most foods, anyway. Grab the 1% milk at the grocery store. In a few days, you won’t notice the difference between it and either 2% or whole milk. We’ve all read the benefits of fruits, vegetables, fish, etc. Start believing a lot of this is true.
I’m not your mother so I won’t tell you that you have to do anything. On that note, I’ll end this portion of the lecture.
Next up is advice about properly filtering and venting a home or office. Start by understanding what you are trying to accomplish.
Are you looking for a cleaner home? The first and easiest place is to start with replaceable filters. The one inch filters are designed to be replaced every thirty days, while the five inch filters are designed to be changed every three to six months. A common, replaceable filter is designed to capture airborne particles such as dog hair, dander, dust and other non-living particles present in the indoor air.
If allergies plague your family, there are high level HEPA self-contained filtration systems which are mounted to the home duct work or available as standalone units. These add a higher capture rate for harmful air born particles and are ideal for use in extreme allergy cases or in situations where household members are susceptible to illness from outdoor air which means the house needs to be closed up for most of the year. These systems do put extra pressure on your equipment’s static pressure by restricting airflow. Call me for this type of application. It really needs expert analysis of your current duct system.
Are you looking to take the next step or for additional suggestions to keep your home cleaner and its indoor air safer and healthier? A newer and easily added option is the RGF germicidal lamp. It can be easily added to most HVAC systems and is ideal for killing living bacteria and viruses in the air stream.
The lamps have been tested and recommended for treating even severe viruses like H1N1. Testing has been done in places where bacteria is easily introduced, such as in offices, health care facilities, hotels and even cruise ships. It’s now trusted to be effective in the commercial UV treatment of food. It is also used widely in hospitals and large industrial applications.
Personally, we have seen such positive results that we have no problem allowing people to test drive the equipment in their own place for ninety days.
If you do not notice results, we will take it out and refund your money. That’s how much faith we have in RGF germicidal lamps.
Whether you’re in charge of a household or business, it is important to take time to protect it. By stepping up efforts at the gym, or at the kitchen table – every effort to improve immunity to sickness and disease is worth the effort.
Take some time to investigate what you’re living with on a daily basis, and set up your indoor environment to match your body’s needs. Each case is unique, and that’s why we don’t waste time on magic bullet solutions, but rather want to investigate your situation and your needs.