Don't Get Sick: How to Bounce Back Quickly from Colds and Other Icky Contagious Things

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Mind Body Space podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Juna Bobby MD. Today we're diving into something super practical: how to stay healthy when everyone around you is sick. And this episode goes out to my friend and awesome author Bianca Turesky. Check out her incredible book series, The Time Traveling Fashionistas. And this is an official invitation to Bianca. She's going to be on my podcast soon to talk about how to get the most out of journaling. I know I need that. So Bianca and I were having coffee yesterday at Burdick's in Harvard Square. If you haven't been there, just make sure to ask for that extra shot of steamed chocolate in whatever you're getting. And I don't even think they charge for it. It's awesome. So Bianca was telling me she's been under the weather, and I started telling her about the routine that I developed over this fall to just keep myself healthy. And in this episode, I talked to my intern, Christina Nelson. She's a psychology and marketing major at Barnard. And she had also gotten sick, so she was really curious about how to stay well. Don't worry about remembering everything I say. There's an awesome download that we prepared for you at mindbodyspace.com/dontgetsic. Hey Christina, how are you? I'm well, how are you? I'm good. I'm so excited to have you here today. How are you feeling now? Because I know you were sick for a while.

Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better, but I was sick for like a few weeks and it took a long time to get rid of.

I'm back in classes and you should see me every time someone coughs. I'm just like, I move 6 feet away. You know, I was so sick in the fall because I'm not used to being around all of you, germy college and grad students and everybody.

Yeah.

The density of population in Cambridge is so much more than it was when I was back in Larchmont and I'm being exposed to all kinds of germs. I had the funniest email, you know, sometimes when people hit reply to an email from a professor on Canvas and they don't realize it's going to the whole entire class.

Yeah.

So somebody hit reply and it said, oh, I'm feeling better now, professor. I'll be in class. I was in the Amazon and it turns out it was just bacteria and not a virus and I don't have COVID. So I'll see you in class even though I'm still sick. And I was like, no, please.

That's so scary.

I know. Like what kind of bug are you bringing back, right?

Yeah, that's really scary.

Yeah. Sick for months. I, I have not gotten sick, knock on wood, and I wanted to share some tips with you on how to stay healthy.

Yeah, no, that would be great. It's so hard being in school, like so many classes a day and everyone is sniffling and coughing. You're just like really hoping that it's not you next. So yeah, these tips would be great to receive.

Yes. So aside from wearing a mask, of course, if you like to do that, I haven't wanted to really wear a mask. There's a lot of little things you can do to prevent, or if you start to get sick, you know, when you just feel kind of off, Yeah. That's when you wanna start all of these little routines. Okay.

So, mm-hmm.

Obviously in general, the minute you start getting sick, what you wanna do is remember this one very important rule. It is to decrease the viral or bacterial load. That just means that you don't want bugs festering on you. And mm-hmm. That is obviously washing hands, washing your face. So how do germs get into your body? Mostly through orifices, which is a fancy word for saying openings. And openings are generally your eyes. We're just going to deal with the face on our body. Nose and mouth, generally. Okay, so you want to rinse everything. And saline, which is a word for salt water, that is your best friend. Saline salt water is the most amazing thing you can do. So In general, if you're in the flu season and everybody's sick around you, I would probably start gargling with warm salt water.

Okay.

A teaspoon of table salt. And I would use the kind that has iodine in it. You know about iodine, right? So sometimes we don't get enough iodine in our diet, and that's why the iodized salts— table salts, some of them will say iodized and others— am I saying that right? Anyway, iodinated, and others will have no iodine. They wanna use iodine in case you're not getting enough in your diet. And so you could gargle your throat with warm salt water, not too hot. Mm-hmm. Um, and just, it should be like room temperature, a little warmer, and gargle like way down in your throat.

Okay.

Okay. So that's, and you're getting rid of germs. You're trying to keep germs from getting down into your respiratory system or into your gut. Then of course, oral hygiene, really important with salt water. Brush your teeth, make sure you floss, and I love Waterpik.

Mm-hmm.

So Waterpiks are great for getting in between your teeth and it's just, it kind of gets sloppy, but it's, you feel so good after using it. Yeah. And then sometimes, you know, during flu season, I'll even put a little bit of salt or a little bit of mouthwash, like germ-killing mouthwash and dilute it in my Waterpik. Right. To get it in between my teeth.

Oh, great.

Then with your nose, It's called Dr. Neal's saline wash. I think people who have sinus infections a lot definitely know who he is. Mm-hmm. He has all these salt washes. I don't love the neti pot. I think neti pots, you have to be extremely, uh, meticulous about keeping it clean. Your nose is literally connected to your brain. So at the top of your nose, in between your eyes, there's this little bony process called the cribriform plate. And the cribriform plate is where your olfactory bulb or your cranial nerve that is responsible for smell sits right on top of there. So your nose is like a gateway to your brain.

Wow.

I mean, don't worry, it's well protected, but okay. You know, when you have like infections in your nose, you should see your doctor.

But it makes a lot of sense.

Anyway, I don't love the neti pot for that reason, unless you really know how to take care of it and you know how to keep it super clean. I would rather use just sterile saline bottles of, uh, Dr. Neal's. I like his stuff. So you just kind of like rinse it up your nose. I don't do it all the time. I only do it when I feel like I'm gonna get sick or if I'm congested. So the reason you wanna do this, every time I go to my ENT doctor, Dr. Aviv, who I love and I talk about him a lot, he talks about how much mucus your body produces.

Wow.

And did you fact check? What is it?

"The average person produces 1 to 2 liters of mucus per day." Exactly, yes. That's crazy.

Think about that. How many cups in a liter?

4.2 cups in a liter.

Yeah, so your body makes like 1 to 2 liters of mucus a day and your job is— So you wanna keep that out of your throat and out of your gut because it will irritate the lining of your stomach. That's why sometimes you'll get nauseous if you have a lot of mucus and postnasal drips. So you wanna keep that out. So do the nasal rinse. Once, twice, 3 times a day. And it's really important to keep everything moist. So take steam showers or drinking lots of hot cups of tea. You'll feel that steam up your nose and in your throat. Yeah. It's very soothing. But the whole idea is to keep everything moving, everything rinsed. And now the last thing, but actually I start with this first, is your eyes. If you go to CVS or any drugstore, you'll see like a saline eye rinse. It usually says eye wash. You don't wanna use contact lens wash or anything like that. It just says eye wash. You rinse your eyes with the saline rinse. And just kind of let it drip, like very low flow so you don't damage your eyes or anything like that. Just very gentle flow. You could do that even if you wake up with sticky eyes sometimes, you know, you feel like you might start getting pink eye. You can actually stop that from getting worse by using this. Amazing. Wow.

I've never thought of using eyewash. I didn't know that that was a preventative measure for illness. I thought it was for a response to getting chemicals in your eyes.

Excellent point. Yes, it's true. Nobody really thinks about that, but think about having all those germs in there, and you're just like rinsing and decreasing that load, the viral load or a bacterial load. Now, I also found an amazing product. It's called Avenova, A-V-E-N-O-V-A. It has these beautiful cotton scrubby things. Once you get used to using it, it takes a little practice, but you kind of wrap the cotton around your finger, you spray it with the Avenova, and then you scrub your eyelids. So have you ever gotten styes or anything?

Yeah, I have before.

People get chalazions. It's like when your, your little glands that make the lubricants of your eye, which is extremely complicated. There's like 3 different types of lubricants that your eye produces biologically.

Wow.

So when those little areas get plugged up, that's when you get the chalazion, but you can prevent it actually. And sometimes chalazions get so bad that you have to get it surgically lanced.

Wow.

So the Avanova is great just to scrub your eyelids. It just disinfects it and it just makes it really nice and squeaky clean. And if you feel like you're getting a stye or something like that, put a warm compress on. Take a face towel, wet it, and put it in your microwave for like 10 seconds, 20 seconds, depending on what the power is. Just make sure it's not gonna scald you. Always check like your inner wrist to make sure you're not scalding your eyes, cuz that's the last thing you want. And then that can be amazing. So that's the last tip for your face. Your eyes, nose, all of that is to take a warm face towel, either run it under hot water or just like put it in the microwave for like 10, 15 seconds and then just soak your whole face. Really drain any of the sinuses which we have in our forehead, under our eyes, paranasals and maxillary sinuses here. So if you do all that, then you rinse and you blow your nose very, very gently. And a lot of people blow their nose extremely hard so you can damage yourself. So you really want to gently blow and one nostril at a time.

Wow.

So there you get the eye wash, the nasal wash, and you gargle your throat to keep all of that stuff out. I would do it in that order: eyes, nose, and then throat. Wow.

That's great. Because usually when I feel myself getting sick, I know it's coming and I'm like, okay, I'll get the stuff to help me when I am sick. But I haven't thought about these preventative measures right before.

Oh my gosh. That's such an interesting point.

Yeah.

So you get prepared, but you don't really think about actually doing anything until you're sick.

Right. I like buy Mucinex for when the symptoms kick in. So it's great to know these things. Yeah. Thank you.

And then also avoid toxins. So we talk about, you know, I'm a lifestyle medicine specialist and we talk about the 6 pillars, which I have an acronym for. It's RELAX. So RELAX stands for 2 Rs. The first R is Relaxation response, which you can just get by taking a deep breath or meditating or going for a walk. All of those things, it's opposite the stress response. Then restful sleep, of course. Then eating clean, loving relationships, and just getting the support you need. And A is for avoiding toxins, and E is for exercise. So when you're getting sick You wanna avoid toxins. And what do I mean by toxins? Alcohol, for sure. Alcohol releases histamines. Did you ever drink alcohol and all of a sudden feel stuffed up?

I don't think that's happened to me.

Oh, you're lucky. Well, that happens to me sometimes. I, I sound like I have a cold after I drink a beer or something.

Oh, wow.

And it's like histamine release. That's so interesting. Yes. You wanna avoid toxin, meaning alcohol, drugs. Of course, smoke, that will definitely mess up your cilia, which is the tiny little microscopic hairs that move germs out of your throat and your nose and all of that. So you wanna avoid all that. What else? Oh, eating clean. In particular, you wanna eat a ton of oranges and clementines. Mm-hmm. These fruits, obviously there's a vitamin C load and it also has fiber, so that's gonna help a lot. And navel oranges are so awesome right now, right? Mm-hmm. The fiber in the oranges, not just the orange juice, but in the oranges will help you stay regular. And unless you have some special problem with oranges, it's like amazing for colds and winter season. And then I always stock up on Emergen-C, you know, those little packets?

Yeah.

But I'll get the immune version, which has the zinc, vitamin C and D, and then they have another one that has antioxidants, vitamin B, and electrolytes. And I'll alternate that. Like day one, take one, the second day, take the other one. You don't wanna overlap.

Yeah.

Um, so drink lots of fluids, as you know, herbal teas, green juices, watermelon juice, hydrate yourself, hot showers, steam rooms. And then last but not least, a Vicks humidifier. It's a warm mist humidifier. It's a plastic tub. It's as simple as you can get. I think it's like $25 or $30. And it is miraculous. So in the winter, it will also keep your skin hydrated.

Mm-hmm.

Because everybody gets really dry skin. But the warm mist is amazing. And the reason I recommend this one instead of all those beautiful fancy humidifiers, which I've tried every one, is that this is so much easier to clean. The, the whole like process of cleaning and making sure that mold is not building up. I just get so paranoid with those. Yeah. I get this simple product and it works.

Great.

And also if you're having a sore throat, make sure you see a doctor because you wanna make sure you don't have strep. If you have strep, you want to take antibiotics for it if you don't normally clear it. Sometimes you will clear it on your own. That's one of those things you can get complications from if you don't treat it.

Yeah.

You wanna know if you have a flu, sometimes you can shorten that. They can give you medication for that. And the same for COVID.

Mm-hmm.

So you might wanna get tested for all 3 things.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. This is great information. Thank you so much. I really hope I can integrate it into my busy life. It's so hard being in school and being stressed and overwhelmed and also trying to take care of yourself. It's a difficult balance. So I'll try to integrate as much as I can.

Yeah. Yeah. So it sounds like a lot, right? But I promise you, just get the stuff. The idea is to catch it the minute you start feeling kind of weird. And if you think about how much time you're gonna save, do all that and you get that sleep when you're just starting to get sick. That's the key. And that will save you so much time.

Yeah. Being sick wastes a lot of time. These are great tips to keep in mind because I'm in midterms right now and I feel like this time when I need to be the most focused is when I always get sick and it's so frustrating.

Oh yeah. That has to do with the stress response, right?

Mm-hmm.

So sometimes, you know, stress is not always bad, but when we're getting stressed out over exams and we were anxious, then what goes first for you?

My daily routines, like exercising, and usually I don't eat as well when I'm stressed and studying, things like that.

And sleep maybe?

Oh, definitely sleep.

Yeah. So exactly like when you're stressed out, all those things that keep you well, keep your immune system well boosted, start to drop them one by one, right? Yeah. Stop exercising. Some people will overexercise. That could also mess with your immune system. I'll eat, definitely eat more comfort foods or like sugary things when I'm stressed out.

Yeah.

Than lacking sleep. That's the biggest thing. So when you know you're gonna get into midterms, I would start to do the gargles. Okay. Then try to take those mini naps if you can, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, or 90-minute cycles of napping. And then make sure you take that deep breath throughout the day. So let's just take a deep breath together. Inhale. And exhale. How'd that feel?

I felt good. Yeah. I don't think I've done that all day.

It's so crazy, right? Yeah.

Just, just taking a second to recenter. Doesn't take a lot of time. It's nothing fancy.

Nice. Yeah. And especially if you can try to release your muscles on the exhale, even that's just like, we call it a mini. So I learned this at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Harvard Medical School, that relaxing of your muscles, that will decrease your stress response, the toxic kind of stress that, that adds up. Again, not all stress is bad. So if you take those deep breaths every single hour or every time you go to reach for your phone, those moments add up. That breath adds up. Your nervous system starts to habitualize. Being able to tap into your parasympathetic rest and digest system. Okay? So just think about it as it all adds up. So we can habitually take those deep breaths. Remind yourself, and I, I like to say to my students, especially during times when it's busy for exams and things like that, you can say just for one breath on the inhale, try it just for one breath. And on the exhale, Nothing to do.

Nothing to do.

Do nothing for one breath.

Yeah.

Lower that stress level in your brain.

So even sitting in lecture, I can just do that.

Great. Yeah, because you can remind yourself, like, you don't have to meditate for 30 minutes or an hour. You can just say for one breath, you can forget about everything. And those add up.

This is great. This reminds me so much of my Zen plush that we've been working on. The goal of that product is to just take deep breaths for a few seconds and trigger that relaxation response. It doesn't take a lot of time. It's nothing crazy fancy, but it triggers that response in such a simple way. It's so cool.

Oh my gosh, thanks for mentioning that. And of course, I have our newest batch here. A shameless plug for my Zen plush. Anyways, so yeah, we created this doll and this product so that kids kids could learn how to have a positive stress response. So when you feel stressed out, you can just automatically and habitually take that deep breath. And that's what we're trying to teach kids at a very young age so that as they grow, it's natural for them. You know, they might not even have to remind themselves. They could just— the minute something stresses them out, yeah, that can change your whole life. And I'm not being dramatic.

Yeah, that reflex can bring you back down. And prevent a lot of things, a lot of illness, a lot of stress, a lot of discomfort. That's great.

Yeah, and we're passionate about this. And of course, thanks for working with me on it because I know you're passionate about this too.

I sure am. Yeah, thank you so much for all this great information. I know it was a lot, so I put it all into a download.

Go to mindbodyspace.com/dontgetsick, and the link is in our bio below. And follow us on @myzenplush on Instagram. And you can check out our website for the plush dolls, myzenplush.com. We have dolls ready to ship out within the week or two. Very exciting.

You can start instilling that reflex of relaxation into your kids from an early age. And it's great for college kids too, not only to teach yourself how to start that relaxation reflex, but it's just a really cute plushie.

Thank you so much, Christina.

Thank you. So nice to talk to you about this.

Yes. And if you have any questions you want us to answer, you can email us. Just sign up at mindbodyspace.com.