Wash your hands.

May 3, 2009
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

I know this sounds silly, but it is far more effective at preventing flu than having a dose-pack of Tamiflu in the medicine chest. Take it from a doctor, mother and reporter who covered SARS as well as bird flu where they were most virulent.

In 2003, as SARS was spreading across Asia, I was posted in Beijing. Many families fled. My children’s school — the International School of Beijing — was one of the very few in the city to stay open... the school instituted strict policies — the ones that schools promote all the time but never really enforce. For parents, the first was: Don’t send your child to school sick. For students, it was: Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly during the day — before meals, after recess. No one got SARS. But more than that, the stomach bugs and common colds that are the bane of elementary schools all over the world disappeared as well.

...Masks, the symbol of protection, are only rarely useful. And enjoy being outside; it’s not where you will get the flu.

Here's the rest of the article, in the NYTimes.

I'm a big hand-washer. I live in a city where I'm always in contact with other people and things they have touched. I'm always touching my eyes, nose & mouth, and rather than give up bad habits, I'll wash a little extra.

A couple of years ago, I was impressed with an article that mentioned that in some crappy little village in India where the poorest didn't even have soap or a clean rag to dry their hands on, they still managed to cut disease by a significant percentage simply by running water over their hands "before meals and after defecation." So I always try at least to show my hands a little water when necessary.

So if you're prone to infection, if you want to avoid flu and colds year 'round - or keep from spreading them yourself - soap & water. I'm tellin' ya.

My dad, a research physician, has been telling me about this study. Now it's out and in the news: 'low levels of vitamin D [are] "always significantly associated" with a higher risk of death' and 'people with higher vitamin D levels tended to be healthier and more fit.' According to dad, nobody gets all the Vitamin D they need from sunlight - even people in Hawaii were tested and found deficient! What age to start taking it? "Oh, 11 or 12." How much? This article is more conservative, but I'm sticking with dad: "The studies suggest 500 mg/day, but the researchers themselves are taking 1000 mg!"

I am so moved and impressed with all the suggestions people have put up at my request and in response to wild_irises's query (regarding a teen) on how to be genuinely helpful to the seriously or chronically ill. Laurie Marks, who's not even on LJ, still came and pitched in with special advice on taking care of the caregiver in a longterm chronic illness, which is very useful and insightful (and makes me wish I had been able to do more for her & Deb when I was living in Boston. . .).

Thank you all for your generosity. May you rejoice in giving the help when you can, and in getting it when you need it.

Know someone who's in the hospital or going through a long illness? We all want to help, but we often feel like helpless dorks when faced with such trauma. I'm impressed with vylar_kaftan's suggestions here.

Do you have any others to add?

Boy, howdy! Captive in the Mammogram Waiting Room of Eternal Rest, I read this week's entire Tuesday NYTimes "Science Times" section - and there's something for everyone:

• Smoking can make you bald!
• Walruses are incredibly cool!
• Boil broccoli; steam carrots (or is it the other way 'round?)
• Mozart's music may heal tissues & reduce pain
• Hookahs are actually as bad ("Each puff has as much as 100 times the smoke as a puff from a cigarette...And smokers are also inhaling fumes from the charcoal.") for you as cigarettes. . .
• . . . which are incredibly addictive; willpower alone can't do it if your genes are against you there.
• Your genes may also determine how badly you crave sweet things
which brings us to my fascinating favorite:
• Stressed-out by low-status primates crave sweet and/or fatty food more - as the article says, "The female monkeys weren’t dieters who tasted one forbidden food and then couldn’t stop themselves from binging. They were not rebelling against the thin mandate from tyrannical fashion magazines. They weren’t choosing junk food because they couldn’t find healthier fare . . .They get some sort of comfort that is particularly appealing to the subordinate monkeys. One possibility is that the fatty foods help block the monkeys’ stress responses . . . Another possible explanation. . . is that the snacks activated the reward pathways in the brain."

Wow. So go read up on all this; you may have to Log In to the NYTimes Online, but (a) it's free and (b) it is then Yours Forever!

I'll be thinking of those monkeys for a long time.