25/11/2019

Top 5 Tips to Prevent a Cold in Winter

If you’ve ever wondered how to prevent a cold, you’ll know there is no simple answer. But there are steps you can take towards cold prevention.

These dark, chilly days seem a long way from the sunshine and fun of a Barracudas camp. We’re literally heading into cold season.

So we’ve looked into five ways to prevent a cold. There are no guarantees they will work – unlike our customer protection plan for our activity camps – but if you try to do each of them, you will increase the chance of a sniffle-free winter.

Sleep well

The better you sleep, the better you feel. So get yourself some quality kip. Hit the hay early now and again on these darker nights. You’ll be better rested and more up for the day ahead.

A consistent eight-hour sleep gives the body the downtime it needs to rest, recuperate and repair, boosting your immune system

Take your vitamin D

The sun on our skin builds up our levels of vitamin D. But winter in the UK isn’t synonymous with sunshine. So where to get that health-boosting vitamin D?

You’ll find it in oily fish such as tuna, mackerel and salmon, as well as in beef, cheese and eggs, and in fortified milks like rice and soya. If none of these are to your taste, consider taking supplements.

When you’re asking yourself how to prevent a cold, this is one of the immunity-boosting tips you should follow.

Fresh air and exercise

OK, so there are only about 15 minutes of daylight in the winter months – but get out and use them. Anything you can do to boost your Vitamin D is a positive, after all.

So go for a walk, go for a jog, take the pooch to the park. Just try to get outside and moving every day. Once it becomes part of your routine, you'll hardly notice that it’s sleety/icy/a complete whiteout/raining horizontally.

First off getting that exercise makes you feel better about yourself plus it has clear benefits for your health, your immune system, and cold prevention. Remember, cold is a crafty customer – protection is needed.

We’ve came up with plenty of winter family days out to keep your family busy and active during winter.

Eat properly

Keep yourself warm from the inside out. Ditch sandwiches at lunchtime and have a healthy, hot soup packed with vegetables.

If you’ve got a cold, the warm liquid helps relive the mucus build up, and if you’re not ill, eating healthily helps build your resistance.

Try drinking ginger or fennel tea, spicing it up with cumin, turmeric, black pepper, cloves and a dash of lemon juice, which all have positive health properties.

Oh, and eat your greens – cabbage, broccoli, kale – they’ll do you all the good your mum insisted they would! 

Now wash your hands

Coughs and sneezes spread diseases. Whether it’s a colleague spluttering over your keyboard or your child sneezing on the kitchen worktop, they’re putting you at the mercy of those bugs and viruses.

But you can fight back – by simply washing your hands regularly. You’re less likely to transfer those invisible nasties to your mouth, nose and into your system if you have clean hands. So use plenty of soap and hot – repeat, hot – water.

And if you see someone about to sneeze, offer them a tissue and tell them to bin it right away. Reusing those tissues means more chance for the nasties to spread!

Also, clean your desk and worktops regularly with antibacterial cleaner to root out those nasty bugs.

We hope you've enjoyed these top tips.