THE DOS AND DON'TS OF COLD AND FLU SEASON

Do
Do: get vaccinated
The flu vaccine is your best defense against a feverish week in bed, says Allison McGeer, a microbiologist and director of infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. If the strain you've been exposed to is similar to the one you've been vaccinated with, your chances of fighting off the flu are between 70 and 90 per cent.

Do: Up your vitamin D intake
Lack of vitamin D may be responsible for more than just the winter blues. A U.S. study found that preteens through to adults with lower vitamin D levels were 40 per cent more likely to catch a cold or flu. 

Do: get your eight hours
A 2009 U.S. study found that people who regularly slept fewer than seven hours were almost three times as likely to catch a cold than those who got eight hours or more of sleep.

Do: Stay home if you’re sniffy
While those first tremors of a cold or flu—the fuzzy headache, the itchy throat—may not be severe enough to make taking a sick day seem reasonable, this is the time to stay in bed and rest. A cold is mos contagious for the first three days you have it, and flu for up to seven. 

Don’t
Don’t: Forget to wash your hands
Even doctors neglect to do this: two recent audits found that health-care professionals in Winnipeg and British Columbia fell short on regularly washing their hands thoroughly. For the rest of us, a quick primer: spend at least 20 seconds per wash, using soap and water. If you don’t have any, use alcohol-based sanitizer. 

Don’t: Believe the hype
Forget the orange juice—there’s no scientific evidence to support our long-held belief in vitamin C’s cold-busting proper-ties, McGeer says. While studies show it may slightly reduce the duration of your cold if you already have it, it can’t keep you from catching a bug. 

Don’t: Forget your slippers
Here’s one age-old cliché that has some credence. British researchers found that study participants with water-cooled feet were twice as likely to suffer from cold symptoms as those with dry feet. It’s not that chilly feet attract colds; rather, they constrict blood vessels in your nose, which, in turn, compromises the immune response.