And I’ve been spending it in the south, no less. Thank the gods I did not have to journey north these past few blizzard-filled days. Today I spent the daylight hours (the bitter few there are..) strolling about a beach town in north Florida. It barely reached 45 degrees the entire time, and I wore a dress.. oops. Much too cold for my blood. (Go ahead northerners, scoff all you want.) Fortunately it would seem the only negative results are being extra tired, and somewhat less likely to wear another dress until spring.
But that brings me to the main point of tonight’s post: I spent at least a fair amount of time during my holidays (btw Merry Christmas everyone, hope you had a good one!) wondering if I will end up with a cold. My poor sister has been blowing her nose almost non-stop since I got home, and my ditzy choice of style today put me at some risk as well. Or did it? What are the ways in which the common cold infiltrates our bodies’ defenses most easily? And how can we best defeat its wily ways? This article does a bang-up job of summarizing some interesting points about the common cold and its evil disposition:
10 Things You Didn't Know About Colds
I personally have to emphasize point number 5. The darling plant known as echinacea is a sickness-busting bombshell in my book. I once diagnosed myself with strep throat. I could see the white junk growing in the back of my throat, felt like crap, sore throat, etc. And I did not go to the doctor. I just ate echinacea until my skin turned green, but I beat that damned strep throat. (Not exactly the most legit example, but it made me a believer, that’s for sure.) I have since been quite careful to keep a bottle of the stuff–which can be found in the supplements isle–in my cabinet for whenever I feel the slightest bit icky. And since I knew my sis was quite likely to share her slimy germs with me for Christmas, I have been downing echinacea regularly this past week as well. I’m most certainly not in the clear yet, but so far so good…
So while this post may not have been the most entertaining, I do hope it has been informative, and maybe I will have a few less sickly readers this winter. Please feel free to share any other tips you may know of!
