In fact, from mid January to mid February, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that 2 million new cases of H1N1 flu were diagnosed. That sounds like a large number, but experts are taking heart in the fact that cumulative estimates of disease are going up much more slowly than before.

Many state and local health departments are now reporting only sporadic cases, while the Deep South and Maine continue to report regional outbreaks of the illness. The H1N1 virus was quick to spread worldwide, leading organizations like the CDC and WHO to move away from keeping counts, and redirect attention toward unique outbreaks.

Since the illness was first seen in April 2009, the CDC estimates…

- 42 million to 86 million H1N1 swine flu cases. Mid-range estimate: 59 million.

- 188,000 to 389,000 H1N1 swine flu hospitalizations. Mid-range estimate: 265,000 hospitalizations.

- 8,520 to 17,620 H1N1 swine flu deaths. Mid-range estimate: 12,000 deaths.

The CDC surveillance data are showing that H1N1 was at its worst in October 2009, and by January 2010 cases had declined to below baseline levels. Incidence dipped further in February.

The worry is that since we know that flu pandemics come in waves, there is every reason to be prepared for a third wave of infections.

This is the reason the CDC is still advising anyone who hasn’t yet been vaccinated to get an H1N1 vaccine. In fact, one possible explanation for a delay in another wave of infections could lie with the fact that as of February 2010, 86 million of us have been vaccinated.

Experts caution that while flu activity might be low, people are still getting sick. And serious cases are still sending patients to the hospital. Patients are still dying as a result of this illness.

Also key, assuming that 59 million Americans have had a natural case of swine flu and another 86 million have been vaccinated, this still leaves nearly half the nation vulnerable to the disease.

“There are still uncertainties surrounding the rest of this flu season,” the CDC warns. “Flu activity — caused either by 2009 H1N1 or seasonal flu viruses — may rise and fall, but is expected to continue for several more weeks.” There have been years when flu season has extended into May.

Continues below…

Warning: H1N1 Flu Hasn’t Gone Away… Continued…

Of course no expert is willing to make any type of forecast beyond this, though everyone’s got an eye on the numbers. The challenge with the flu, any flu, is that it is known for its unpredictability. Experts can make educated guesses, but no one can say more.

The good news is that since its appearance the H1N1 organism hasn’t changed much; the bad news is that there is always the potential the organism will develop into one that is more deadly.

And since H1N1 can spread just like the regular seasonal flu, you can pick up the germ directly from an infected person, or by touching something they just handled and then touching your face, transferring the organism to your own body.

Now more than ever… keeping up those flu precautions (hand washing, covering sneezes and coughs, not touching your face, and staying away from those who are obviously sick) is a smart idea as we move toward the anniversary of H1N1’s appearance.

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But that’s not all they do. A single sneeze brings the flu to conscious awareness, while also raising fears such as dying as the result of a early heart attack, an accident, or being the victim of a fatal crime according to research appearing in the November 2009 issue of Psychological Science.

Subjects who had just been around a sneezing/coughing actor were three times more likely to agree to spend $1.3 billion on developing a flu vaccine instead of spending the money on creating jobs in “green” industries.

“Finding that a simple sneeze can shift feelings on an important decision – how to spend a billion dollars – should really lead people to be careful and think, ‘Is my current feeling going to lead me astray?’” says study author Spike W.S. Lee, a doctoral student in social psychology at the University of Michigan. “We often make judgments without thinking about how we’re feeling.”

Lee and a team out of the University of Michigan created two different field tests to see how a sneeze might affect a subject’s feelings and perceptions.

In the first test, 50 college students completed a single page questionnaire on their risk of certain health outcomes and their general feelings on the U.S. healthcare system. Just before being given the questionnaire, an actor passed by 26 of the study volunteers, sneezing and coughing as he did so.

Those who were exposed to the sneezing/coughing actor responded very differently when asked how likely it was that the average American would contract a serious illness (41.2% vs. 26.7% of the controls), die of a heart attack before 50 (45.4% vs. 32.1% of the controls) or dying because of a crime or accident (41.2% vs. 27.9% of the controls).

Continues below…

Sneezing Worrisome In Many Ways Continued…

The sneeze-exposed group also were more likely to feel that the U.S. health care system was in need of work.

In the second test the University of Michigan researcher recruited 47 people at a Michigan area shopping mall who agreed to be part of a one-minute survey.

In this case, 23 subjects were exposed to a sneeze and cough just before taking the survey; the remaining 24 were not. When asked whether they’d prefer $1.3 billion be spent on health care or “green” job creation, only 16.7% of the controls wanted money to go flu vaccines, compared to 47.8% of the sneeze/cough exposed volunteers.

“When someone sneezes, you get a little worry response that makes all kinds of things seem more dangerous. Usually, this worry response serves us well. We want to be alerted to risk, and we’re usually less concerned with false positives than with possibly missing a real risk,” points out study co-author Norbert Schwarz, a research professor of psychology and business at the University off Michigan. “We also found that people were unaware that exposure to public symptoms of the flu had influenced their judgments of risk, their views about government spending on flu research or their opinion of the U.S. health care system.”

It’s true that fear spreads faster than any illness, and these two experiments bear this out quite clearly.

If someone (like the media) gets you all worked up and worried, this is sure to set off concerns about all the other things that might kill you. While you might not be able to control this reaction at first, being aware will help you understand what’s going on, and perhaps react more appropriately.

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David Nieman, DrPH, FACSM of the American College of Sports Medicine points out that research has shown those who exercise moderately at least 45 minutes on four or more days of the week take 25-50% less time off work because of sickness.

“This reduction in illness far exceeds anything a drug or pill can offer,” Nieman says. “All is takes is a pair of walking shoes to help prevent becoming one of the thousands predicted to suffer from the common cold this winter.”

He also suggests you exercise before you get your flu shot this season. Research has shown that moderate levels of physical activity actually boost immunity in the long term.

Exercise is known to have two major benefits to the body:

- Builds up the immune system.

- Helps work infections out of the body.

What’s more, being active is something that all of us can do, in addition to good hand washing and avoiding (if you can) those who are obviously sick, to keep from getting a cold in the first place.

Rhinovirus (the common cold) can live on your skin, or any surface, for up to three hours, so disinfecting objects in your home or office that everyone uses is another great preventative step.

But what if you’re already sick? Is it better to skip the workout and head for the couch, or push yourself to go ahead?

Experts say that it depends on the severity of the illness. A head cold with a runny nose and sore throat shouldn’t be a problem when it comes to moderately intense exercises like walking – though you don’t want to overdo.

Anything more rigorous, like running, should be limited until your head clears and you can breathe more easily.

If you’re dealing with anything more serious than a head cold, stay in bed and forget the workouts for now.

Once an illness becomes systemic and goes to your chest, brings on extreme aches and pains or has you running a fever, exercise isn’t a good idea.

Swollen glands are also reason enough to take it easy for the day. If you do go ahead and exercise, don’t expect to be able to perform at your normal level – expect to be wiped out at the end of the session as well.

Once you’re feeling up to doing everyday things again, experts suggest letting a week or two go by before you get back to your workouts. This recuperation stage is important, and has a good deal of impact on how you bounce back.

Continues below…

Exercise Protects Aginst Common Cold Continued…

Push things too soon and you’ll be wiped out and more prone to injury. Wait until you’re ready and you’ll feel good, and make steadier progress over the long haul.

Any illness more serious than a cold calls for your doctor’s okay before you start exercising again. Remember, don’t try to do too much, too soon; and take your time working up to where you were before.

The idea of exercise helping with colds fits in perfectly with the global initiative known as Exercise Is Medicine™ launched in 2007 by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the American Medical Association (AMA).

The program was designed to get American’s to add physical activity and exercise into their daily routine, and calls on doctors to address a patient’s physical activity during every visit.

We are seeing more and more how exercise and being active are important to health, both now and as we age, especially when it comes to the prevention and treatment of some of the most serious chronic diseases and perhaps the more common ones as well.

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If you’ve got a BMI over 30, you’re considered obese, and even though you aren’t sickly, you still may be at increased risk of severe complications (and even death) from the new A (H1N1) swine flu virus according to a report released in early July.

This comes from work on patients in a Michigan hospital during May-June 2009 who were so sick from the flu they were hospitalized and put on ventilators.

Three of the ten died, and two of those deaths were otherwise healthy patients considered severely obese, with BMIs of over 40.

The study wasn’t designed to see if obesity was linked to A (H1N1), but it was a surprise that seven out of the ten patients admitted to the University of Michigan Medical Center were extremely obese. Nine out of the ten fell into the obese category.

“What this suggests is that there can be severe complications associated with this virus infection, especially in severely obese patients,” explains Dr. Tim Uyeki, an expert on viruses from the CDC and a co-author of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. “And five of these patients had… evidence of blood clots in the lungs. This has not been previously known to occur in patients with severe influenza virus infections.”

While complications like blood clots in the lungs and kidney failure had been seen in swine flu cases before, the numbers here were startling.

There were six out of ten who experienced kidney failure along with five who developed blood clots in the lungs.

Only three of the ten patients had another health problem. None of the surviving patients have fully recovered according to researchers.

The good news out of the report is that doctors can safely double the dose of oseltamivir, the antiviral drug known as Tamiflu, that’s been shown to be effective against this organism.

While research cannot conclude from these observations that obesity is a risk factor for A (H1M1), or complications from the illness. It’s always possible that the patients had some undiagnosed condition complicated by the flu.

Overweight people also have a higher risk of asthma and other health problems that might make them more susceptible to this particular virus.

The CDC has the number of U.S. swine flu (lab tested and confirmed) cases at over 37,000, but they admit this doesn’t represent the actual number of cases across the country.

Experts believe that as many as one million Americans may have been infected with the A (H1N1) virus, suffered a mild to moderate illness and recovered unharmed.

To date A (H1N1) has spread to 70 countries around the world, with the United States reporting the largest number of cases.

Barely three months after its first appearance In March 2009, A (H1N1) was declared a pandemic (a mark of the virus’ ability to spread, not its seriousness) by the World Health Organization in June.

At present A (H1N1) flu is spreading steadily in the Southern Hemisphere, right along with seasonal flu.

Though the virus is not as deadly as past examples, and has not mutated into a more virulent form, experts are still wary, still studying and learning all they can.

Researchers have noticed some differences between the A (H1N1) swine flu and the seasonal variety.

- Spreads in the summer months

- Affects mainly older children and young adults

- Affects the body differently – replicates in the lungs and digestive tract

Continues below…

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Obesity May Be A Risk For Severe A (H1N1) Flu Continued…

While the report can support no hard-and-fast conclusion on obesity and swine flu, it does paint an interesting picture of the patient most likely to be severely ill.

It also adds to a pattern doctor’s are seeing in hospitals around the world – a BMI greater than 40 (considered morbidly obese) puts patients at risk for respiratory complications that are very hard to treat.

You can reduce your risks of complications by living a healthy lifestyle – eat healthy, exercise often, don’t smoke, and if you drink do so in moderation.

Anyone who’s overweight or obese and worried about the effects of the flu on their health can look at A (H1N1) as yet another reason to take control of their weight, their health and their life.

To your good health,

Kirsten Whittaker
Daily Health Bulletin Editor

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Each February experts make a decision about what type of flu vaccine to produce for the upcoming season and as you might imagine, this year’s outbreak of A (H1N1) and the production of a swine flu vaccination has disrupted that schedule a bit.

And while seasonal flu vaccine is still being made, it’s hard for the current vaccine producing system to shift gears fast enough, and the technology being used isn’t as modern as we might like.

While the first trial vaccines are expected within a few weeks, it may not be until the end of this year that a fully tested swine flu vaccine is ready according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

An already difficult vaccine production process is made worse by the swine flu viruses being used to develop the vaccine.

It seems they’re only offering half as much “yield” in egg-based production (most of today’s vaccine is made this way) as what manufacturer’s get when creating vaccine for the seasonal flu virus.

U.S. health officials are said to be considering a swine flu immunization program that involves an astonishing 600 million doses. Who will administer the vaccine, and how side effects will be tracked has yet to be determined.

The good news is that swine flu, known officially as A (H1N1), remains a relatively mild illness and the vast majority of patients continue to recover quickly.

The virus is still susceptible to antiviral drugs, including Tamiflu, which makes these medicines ideal as a treatment option for infected patients.

On the down side, research does suggest that A (H1N1) causes more lung damage than the seasonal flu strain.

It’s also important to know that this A (H1N1) strain is able to take the life of the young and previously healthy.

In fact, almost half of those who’ve died worldwide have been just that. By contrast, the seasonal flu is usually most deadly to the very young or the very old.

In a piece on the A (H1N1) flu appearing in the journal Nature, University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist Yoshihiro Kawaoka and colleagues took virus samples from patients infected with the A (H1N1) swine flu and looked at how they affected different animals.

In mice, ferrets and monkeys, the A (H1N1) swine flu virus brought on lung conditions that were more severe than seen in the seasonal flu. Researchers think this might explain why A (H1N1) has caused some serious cases of pneumonia in those who were otherwise healthy.

The A (H1N1) swine flu arrived in the U.S. in the middle of April, and estimates have about one million Americans being infected though there are far fewer “confirmed” cases.

There continue to be deaths from the illness.

The Wisconsin researchers also found that A (H1N1) is closely related to the viruses that were behind the devastating 1918-1919 Spanish flu pandemic. In fact, antibodies taken from those born before 1920 recognize the current swine flu virus, not so for those born after 1920.

What worries health officials today is that the virus we know now might mutate into a more virulent and dangerous illness.

Continues below…

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Swine Flu Vaccine Taking Longer Than Expected Continued…

While we continue to wait for a vaccine to arrive, it’s important to look back at the last large-scale government-backed swine flu vaccination campaign in 1976. In hindsight a program that earned mixed reviews.

It was an incredible mobilization of the nations health care system, though a miserable failure after a paralyzing nerve disorder known as Guillain-Barre syndrome struck 500 (and killed 30) of those who’d been vaccinated.

It wasn’t until December 1976 that federal officials canceled the program, though not before 40 million Americans were inoculated against a pandemic that in the end never materialized.

Perhaps the lessons learned from this, as well as the WHO decree that before a country can start a large-scale swine flu vaccination program the vaccines used need to be checked for safety by regulators, will help future efforts improve on past ones.

To your good health,

Kirsten Whittaker
Daily Health Bulletin Editor

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So far the illness has struck more than a million in the U.S. alone, yet scientists are still learning some very basic things about this organism, unknown in humans until April 2009 in Mexico.

It seems that this newest flu virus affects the lungs and stomach, while seasonal flu viruses tend to leave these organs untouched. The intriguing research reports appear in the July 2, 2009 online edition of Science.

In experiments with ferrets (because flu effects them in the same way as humans), teams in the U.S. and the Netherlands found that the new strain of flu virus replicated more extensively in the respiratory tract. The seasonal flu virus remained mostly in the animals’ nasal cavities. The A (H1N1) virus also found its way into the ferret’s intestinal tract, again unlike its seasonal counterpart.

When it comes to the new virus’ ability to spread, the research teams differ.

The Dutch scientists found that swine flu is just as easy to transmit as the regular flu, while the U.S. team found A (H1N1) less likely to be spread when compared to seasonal flu. They believe that the respiratory droplets don’t seem to transmit A (H1N1) viruses as well as they do the regular flu virus.

“Findings from the study demonstrate that, in ferrets, the novel 2009 H1N1 influenza virus leads to increased morbidity and increased respiratory disease when compared to contemporary seasonal human influenza viruses,” explains researcher Terrence M. Tumpey, a senior microbiologist in the influenza branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But just because this flu might not be as easily spread does not mean that H1N1 can’t cause trouble, serious trouble, once in the human body.

Health officials are convinced they will be able to create a vaccine for A (H1N1)… but the challenge is vaccine making isn’t an exact science or a quick process. As it is scientists take a calculated risk every year in choosing which strains of flu virus to protect against.

These latest findings are helpful according to U.S. researchers as they suggest to authorities what the appropriate public health response might be.

Only two weeks ago, U.S. health officials mentioned that they were thinking about a swine flu immunization campaign that might involve an amazing 600 million doses of the vaccine.

Seasonal flu, by contrast, calls for the administration of about 115 million vaccinations per year; childhood vaccines total 150 million doses annually.

Still to be worked out is finding the health care professionals to administer all those shots, and a way to keep track of side effects from the vaccinations.

“One thing we know for sure about influenza viruses is that they are unpredictable,” Tumpey cautioned. “The characteristics that the virus is displaying today might not hold true in the upcoming months.”

So what can you do to protect yourself and your family until a vaccine is ready?

Continues below…

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So What Makes Swine Flu Different From The Seasonal Variety? Continued…

Here are five common sense suggestions from the experts.

1. Wash your hands as much as possible - use the warmest water you can, lather up with soap and rub your fingers, palms, and even under your nails and up your wrists for two choruses of “Happy Birthday”. If you’re without soap and water, hand sanitizers serve very well.

2. Cover up when you cough or sneeze - using your shoulder, or the crook of your elbow to capture the droplets that are sent into the air and contain the infectious organisms. Wash your hands right away.

3. If you’re sick, stay home – if you develop aches, fatigue, fever, coughing or sneezing – don’t push yourself… stay home. Call your doctor for advice or an appointment, especially if you have an underlying health condition.

4. Don’t touch your face – it’s such a natural impulse, but it’s also a direct route to the bloodstream for unwanted germs, flu viruses included. Keep your hands away from those mucous membranes – eyes, nose and mouth – as much as possible.

5. Stay away from sick people – not easy, if you’re a parent (or spouse) of someone struggling with A (H1N1) flu… or the coworker of someone who refuses to call in sick. Limit time with this person as much as possible. Up your hand washing after whatever contact you have. Use a face mask if you must be very close or the patient is coughing or sneezing quite a bit.

If you do come down with A (H1N1) the good news is that the illness is generally mild you’re your recovery will likely be fairly quick. And though the virus is spreading around the world, it has shown no signs, as yet, of mutating to a more dangerous form.

Your best bet in the face of the unpredictableness of swine flu illness is to stay informed, keep up your hand washing and follow all other infection control procedures faithfully, even when it seems the worst has passed.

To your good health,

Kirsten Whittaker
Daily Health Bulletin Editor

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The name change is an effort to limit the confusion over any connection to pigs or pig products. Besides the unfortunate name, swine flu has no connection to pigs other than having some swine flu genetic sequences.

As of 12 May 2009, 30 countries have reported 5,251 cases of influenza A(H1N1). Mexico reports 2,059 lab confirmed human cases of infection, including 56 deaths. The United States reports 2,600 laboratory confirmed human cases, with three deaths. Canada reports 330 laboratory confirmed human cases and one death. Costa Rica reports eight laboratory confirmed human cases and one death.

Not surprisingly mixed messages on the risks of travel using mass transit have only added to the confusion and fear.

Still the World Health Organization continues to make no restriction on travel of any kind, or suggest the closing of borders.

Interesting that Continental Airlines, the largest U.S. air carrier to Mexico, is cutting back flights by 40%, but will still serve all 29 Mexican destinations.

The good news seems to be that the strain, while spreading widely. may not be as severe as first feared. Experts already know that this flu does not contain some of the genes that made the 1918 Spanish flu so deadly.

However, in 1918 the first wave of sickness was relatively mild, the second was the dangerous, deadly one. No one can say that won’t happen this time as well.

Experts are convinced they will be able to create a vaccine for A(H1N1) and work is already underway.

The trouble is, vaccine making and distributing isn’t an exact science or a quick process, not to mention the calculated risk scientists take every year in choosing which strains of flu to protect against.

The earliest we’re likely to see any type of A(H1N1) vaccine is four to six months, this fall perhaps.

In the meantime, what can you do to keep yourself healthy?

Here are some common sense suggestions from the experts.

1. Wash your hands as much as possible.

This is the best thing you can do to stay healthy. Wash your hands with soap and water frequently, as the A(H1N1) flu is spread by the droplets from coughing or sneezing that are released into the air. When these get on your hands, everything you touch becomes a potential source of infection.

How you wash is key – most of us aren’t washing well enough or long enough – you’ll need to use the warmest water you can, lather up with soap and rub you fingers, palms, and even under your nails and up to your wrists for two choruses of “Happy Birthday”.

If you’re without soap and water, hand sanitizers serve very well and come in a variety of sizes.

When you wash is also super important.

Be sure to wash up before you eat or prepare food for others, after using the bathroom, or after using a tissue or your hands to cover up a sneeze or cough.

The virus droplets don’t seem to float in the air, but rather settle on objects you touch everyday smooth objects more than rough or porous ones.

It’s the common things we all handle like coins and bills, hand rails, door knobs and other household objects, as well as those essentials around the office like pens, staplers and phones that can harbor all manner of germs.

When taking care of someone who is ill, it’s a good idea to wash your hands more often, especially after direct contact with them or things they’ve used, including laundry.

2. Cover up when you cough or sneeze.

By using your shoulder, or the crook of your elbow to capture the droplets that come form a cough or sneeze you contain the infectious droplets. Wash your hands right away.

A surgical face mask can be an option that helps to keep your respiratory droplets to yourself. Still this isn’t a better option than washing your hands, and used improperly can do you more harm than good. Masks must be used according to the instructions and only for the length of time suggested by the manufacturer.

Face masks can be helpful if you are caring for another person who is ill.

3. If you’re sick, stay home.

Sure it’s hard to give in to feeling sick, especially in our got-to-be-everywhere, do-everything world, but this is exactly what experts suggest you do.

If you start developing flu-like symptoms – aches, fatigue, fever, coughing or sneezing – don’t push yourself to go to work.

Don’t try to tough it out either, as there are some treatments that can shorten the length and severity of your illness.

Call your doctor for advice or an appointment, especially if you’ve traveled to Mexico recently or have an underlying health condition.

You’ll also want to wash you hands often, dispose of tissues right away, and sleep alone.

Once you recover, air out your sleeping space and change your bedding, washing sheets, towels and pajamas in the hottest water possible.

4. Don’t touch your face.

This is the survival tip that’s the hardest to do as it’s such a natural impulse. Sometimes being aware of a need not to touch makes it even more difficult. Still, it’s super important to try to keep your hands away from these mucous membranes – eyes, nose and mouth – all direct routes to the bloodstream.

When you bring germs to your face you bypass the natural protective barrier, this route inside is direct and undefended.

While it’s not easy, by keeping your hands away from your face, you do yourself a big favor. By keeping your hands super clean, you’re likely to deliver as little infectious material as possible to this area when you do give into the impulse (or need) to touch your face.

Continues below…

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Do you buy over the counter drugs?

Stop right now and don’t waste any more money.

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Charles Silverman N.D. Certified Naturopathic and Herbalist Doctor has taken his 18 years research and experience and condensed it into a home remedy encyclopeida of the most powerful, and more importantly proven, home remedies.

You can eliminate the Flu virus, boost your immune system, and recover faster from colds using these doctor-approved home remedies…

As well as sleep better, look younger and treat any skin problem with your own skin care home remedies and recipes.

Click through now to discover the “hidden” kitchen cupboard cures – proven by clinical trials…

Swine Flu Survival Tips You Need To Know continued…

5. Stay away from sick people.

Also, not easy to do, especially if you’re a parent (or spouse) of someone struggling with A(H1N1) flu, or you have a coworker who simply refuses to call in sick, even when they are.

Limit your time with this person as much as possible. Up your hand washing after whatever contact you do have. Use a face mask if you must be very close or the person is coughing or sneezing quite a bit.

Of course, common sense should tell you not to drink from this person’s cups, share utensils or use the phone of anyone with flu-like symptoms, a cough, fever or sneezing.

Encourage co-workers to go home (or stay home) if they aren’t feeling well. Remember that you can be contagious for a day before you feel ill… and up to seven days once the coughing, sneezing, fever and feeling miserable come on.

With such a rapidly changing situation, your best defense against A(H1N1) flu is to say informed – using Word Health Organization or Centers for Disease Control resources.

Of course it’s scary to think that a microscopic organism can move at will across the world and send so many of us healthy, far-more-advanced creatures to our beds. It’s hard to imagine something so small can really be that powerful. But it can.

To your good health,

Kirsten Whittaker
Daily Health Bulletin Editor

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It’s often been thought that lack of sleep increases your chances of coming down with a cold, but until now there hasn’t been any scientific evidence to back up the claim.

Sleep needs vary greatly from person to person and change dramatically as we get older.

Newborns, though sleep deprived parents might disagree, sleep an average of 16 to 18 hours a day (just unfortunately not all at once!), preschoolers between 10 to 12 hours a night.

School-aged children and teens need 9 (or more) hours of sleep a night.

By the time we reach adulthood our sleep needs have fallen to 7 to 8 hours, and continue to decrease as we age.

The research appears in a January 2009 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, and finds that those who sleep less than 7 hours a night are three times more likely to catch a cold as those who sleep at least 8 (or more) hours a night.

The study involved 153 healthy subjects, aged 21-55, with each participant keeping track of their sleeping habits for two weeks.

The men and women also wrote down how well they slept, if they felt rested, and the length of time they’d slept. Average scores were calculated for the testing period.

At the end of the 14 days, the subjects were quarantined, exposed to the most common cold causing virus and monitored for five days for signs of a cold.

What turned out to be most predictive of the cold was the amount of sleep the subjects got at night. Subjects who spent 92% of their time in bed asleep were five times more likely to get the cold than those who spent 98% of their time in bed asleep.

Surprisingly, the feeling of being rested wasn’t a factor in whether the subjects ended up with the cold, and this suggests to the research team that sleep may indeed play a causal role in how susceptible you are to a cold. Poorer sleep, and shorter sleep periods seem to lower resistance to this all too common illness.

What’s more, deprive yourself of sleep and you’ll suffer in terms of:

- Performance – sleep helps you think clearly, react quickly and create memory pathways in the brain needed for learning and remembering. Research bears this out.

- Mood – sleep helps you keep irritability and depression in check, for young kids and teens lack of sleep makes mood control all the harder.

- Health - lack of regular sleep ups your risk of having high blood pressure, heart disease and other medical conditions. Plus, during sleep the body produces valuable hormones that are needed to help in growth, energy use and fighting infections.

Another important factor in determining your own particular sleep pattern is your “biological clock”, a bundle of brain cells that respond to light from the eyes and help you wake up.

This clock causes us to naturally feel drowsy from midnight to 7:00 am, and again in the mid afternoon between 1:00 and 4:00 pm.

To help yourself get the best, most restorative sleep possible, you should eat a healthy, balanced diet, get regular exercise and practice good sleep habits. By doing all you can to ensure your body gets the rest it needs, you’ll amaze yourself (and everyone you know) by how few colds you end up getting.

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A Good Night’s Sleep Might Just Prevent That Cold… continued

Tips for getting a good nights sleep:

- Go to bed and get up at a regular bedtime every day, even on weekends or when you’re on vacation. This helps to regulate your internal body clock and educate it when it should be sleeping and when it needs to be awake.

- Avoid caffeine, nicotine, chocolate, sugar and alcohol as much as possible, especially in the hours leading up to bedtime.

- Resist the temptation, no matter how tired you are, to take long naps during the day. Having a rest or a 10 minute ‘power’ nap is ok, but make sure you don’t oversleep.

- Don’t eat large meals in the 3 hours before your established bedtime, and try to limit your fluids from late afternoon to avoid nighttime trips to the bathroom if this is an issue for you.

- Don’t watch the news, or engage in any stimulating or stressful activity within an hour of your bedtime.

- Use relaxation techniques like deep breathing, progressive relaxation or guided imagery to quiet your mind.

- Wind down with a warm shower or bath, or with a warm, non-caffeinated beverage while listening to relaxing music.So, if you’re in danger of catching a the bug, rember this simple  treatment for colds and make sure that you’re getting enough sleep.

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Researchers at Cardiff University’s Common Cold Centre, the world’s only facility focused on researching and testing new treatments for cold and flu, have just published the results of the first-of-its-kind study on warm drinks and colds in the latest issue of the journal Rhinology.

“It is surprising that this is the first scientific research on the benefit of a hot drink for treating cold and flu symptoms,” confirms centre director Professor Ron Eccles.

Much of what we know about the common cold, and the more serious and lasting flu come from twenty years of work by the team at the Common Cold Centre.

Scientists now recognizes that colds are brought on by as many as 200 different viruses, and the means they use to invade our bodies.

But while we understand more, we’re still no closer to a cure – finding or developing one medication to vanquish all those different viruses is next to impossible.

Although more common in the colder months, summer colds; colds while on vacation or after traveling by air have often become complaints for many of us.

Without a cure in sight, ways to treat cold symptoms are the focus of much attention.

The time honored remedy of a hot drink studied in this latest work was an apple and blackcurrant combination served at both room temperature and heated to 70ºC, as Mom always suggested. The subjects were 30 volunteers with colds – 21 women, 9 men.

The heated low calorie, low sugar (but still sweet) fruit drink offered immediate and sustained relief from symptoms of runny nose, coughing, sneezing, sore throat, chills and fatigue.

Coughing, sore throat, chills and fatigue responded at once to the soothing warmed drink, while it took about 15 minutes for volunteers to report relief of runny nose and sneezing.

The same drink at room temperature provided relief of fewer symptoms namely runny nose, coughing and sneezing.

The hot fruity drink produced no objective measurements in terms of nasal airflow, but it did cause a big improvement in subjective measurements of this airflow. This opens the door to concerns about the placebo effect – the psychological effect of just being treated bringing an improvement in symptoms without any medication haven been given.

In the case of the Common Cold Centre study, it could be the taste, smell and temperature of the drink that are responsible for the improvement in cold symptoms.

And though common cold medications take up a good amount of space on store shelves, alternative treatments like zinc and Echinacea are popular choices for stopping a cold from “emerging”, or once one has started, shortening the duration of the symptoms.

Menthol and garlic have also been shown to be helpful, as has ascorbate (from vitamin C) and the garlic component Allicin (found only in garlic powder or fresh garlic).

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Hot Drinks Really Do Help Colds And Flu… continued

So now you have the scientific evidence to back up the urge for that warm, soothing drink to help ease your cold or flu symptoms.

To avoid the cold virus in the first place, you might consider practicing good hand washing (especially before eating), eating a healthy, balanced diet and getting the rest you need, especially if you feel cold symptoms coming on.

Avoiding large crowds and managing stress are also very beneficial to stop a cold developing and staying healthy through both summer or winter.

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“The risk of contracting a contagious illness is heightened when we travel within any enclosed space, especially during the winter months, when most of the respiratory viruses thrive.”

In fact, you may have seen the New England Journal of Medicine stories over the last few years on airline passengers who spread some pretty serious illnesses to fellow passengers.

The closed, compact space of an airplane cabin appears to be an excellent breeding ground for some pretty impressive germs.

Germs like E. coli, salmonella, coliform, rotavirus, cold virus and the highly publicized form of staph known as MRSA.

And while all of these can be picked up from any public place, not just the airport, the busier the location, the more likely many germs are also present.

Of course there are times when it isn’t practical to avoid the germ factories we’ve come to know airplanes to be, or stay away from the crowds at stores or theaters.

So if you are travelling, or going to another of these crowded places, what can you do to stay healthy?

Here are five smart tips right from the experts…

1) Sit toward the front of the plane. “Pick a seat near the front, since ventilation systems on most commercial aircraft provide better air flow in the front of the aircraft,” Dr. Gendreau advises. If you can afford it, first class or business class is the healthier option, as passengers aren’t packed together as tightly as on other parts of the aircraft.

2) Don’t drink airplane made coffee or tea, as the water used to make these drinks, though heated, comes from water tanks that even the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) admits aren’t the cleanest. What’s more, the water needs to be kept at a roiling boil for a full minute to kill dangerous pathogens and this doesn’t happen when these beverages are prepared on a plane.

3) Sanitize your hands after leaving an airplane restroom (this goes for airport restrooms too) as the facilities on a plane are “among the germiest that you’ll encounter almost anywhere,” according to Charles Gerba, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona. Known as “Dr. Germ”, he notes that E. coli is always found on surfaces in airplane restrooms.

Washing with the water in the restroom isn’t much help due to those germ filled water tanks, and the door handle you’ll use on the way out is full of microscopic organisms that come from all those pairs of hands, washed and unwashed. A dose of hand sanitizer once you return to your seat is the best protection.

4) Sanitize, or wash, your hands after using an airport escalator (or any escalator for that matter) as tests have shown that these handrails are full of germs. To get an idea… spend five minutes counting the number of people who use that escalator, multiply by 12 and you’ll have the number per hour. Every one of them is potentially carrying, and leaving, germs on the handrail just waiting to be picked up by you. Once you get off the escalator, as soon as you have an opportunity sanitize or wash your hands.

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Five Tips To Avoid Germs When You Travel Or Shop continued

5) Sanitize, or wash, your hands after using an airport ATM (or any busy ATM), as these keypads are covered with germs — the busier the place, the more germs are probably on the machine. The smart move is to sanitize your hands after using one.

If you touch a potentially infected object and then rub your eye, nose or mouth, you’ve just given bacteria a free ride into your body.

The best advice for staying germ (and hopefully illness) free as your travel or shop at busy malls is a sensible regimen of hand washing.

This means soaping your hands well, scrubbing rigorously for at least 17 seconds, rinsing your hands under running hot water, pointing fingers downward and then drying using a clean paper towel.  This will dramatically reduce the risk of catching or spreading germs.

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