How to Stay Healthy When Living with a Sick Relative

Sick Relative

Who wants to wake up in the morning with a 102-degree fever, nausea, and body ache? Literally, nobody. Can you stop your relative from arriving at your home? No, you cannot. This becomes more obvious when your relative is sick, and you are continuously around him/her. In this situation, it becomes your responsibility to take care of yourself and your family. 

How will you do that? How will you take care of yourself? How will you care for yourself without letting your relative feeling shy that he/she is ill? No matter who the relative is, it is your headache to take care of yourself and your family. 

In this article, we will describe some ways you can apply to ensure that you and your family live a safe and healthy life even if you are surrounded by someone sick. It is not the same that if someone falls ill inside your home, your whole family will have to fall sick. In this COVID-19 situation, it is easy to fall prey to this virus while touching your family members or your relatives. A study shows that, on average, a small kid catches colds six to eight times a year, and an adult on average catches a cold four to five times a year. 

How to prevent yourself from falling sick this frequently? Here are some tricks. You can follow these basic precautions to stay safe and healthy.  

If you are watching that the relative who is arriving at your home is sick and needs to be treated by a doctor, then make sure that you keep a finite distance from them. The finite distance can be anything but not less than 2 feet. Social gatherings and close physical contacts play a major role in spreading germs and viruses. 

What you can do is to give a separate room to your relative and try to avoid being too close to them. In this COVID-19 situation, Social Distancing is the prime need of an hour to keep yourself safe and healthy. It keeps you safe from viruses and keeps your family members from any attack of viruses or germs. 

  • Wash your hands

wash your hand

Washing hands frequently after an hour is the most important thing you can do to keep yourself safe from outside germs. You do not need to do very much for this; you just need a simple soap or any antibacterial soap which you can use with water to wash your hand. If you regularly perform this activity, there is a chance of falling sick though any contagious disease will automatically reduce exponentially. Use Fogger Machines where ever possible.

How long should we rub our hands while washing it with soap? This is a very famous and popular question asked by many people. See, according to scientific studies, it takes almost 20 seconds to kill all the germs and viruses from hands, so basically, you have to wash and rub your hands for 20 seconds. If you are using any regular soap, then you can increase the number of seconds to 30. 

If your relatives are sick and touching your home’s things here and there, then washing hands regularly can help you prevent yourself from germs and viruses. You can also use hand sanitizer if you do not have a sink and if you do not have anything present, then simply wash hands with plain water. 

1. Never touch your mouth, face, and ears

Avoid touching your face, mouth, nose, and ears with your hands. Almost 90 percent of the diseases are only spread when we touch our faces with our hands. It is a bad habit, and we have to remove it from our daily life activity. 

This is a common habit of most people; they tear their nails with their mouths, scrub their ears, touch their nose, touch their lips, and many more. Avoid such activities; these activities also mark a bad impression of yours in front of other people, which decreases your personality. To avoid these activities, tie a hand note to your wrist and write “Stop Touching” on it. This is not an experimental based trick, but it is a personally tested trick. You can try this trick; it will surely help you. 

2. Use Disinfect in your home

Disinfect in your home

If your relative is touching the households in your home and is sick, then the first thing you should do is use disinfectant in your home. Try sanitising every surface of your home. It is a clinically tested fact that any bacteria and virus can stay up to 24 hours on the surface. 

The common surface where there is a high attack is an armrest, counter surfaces, telephone, computer keyboards, door handles, the armrest of chairs, and any more things. Disinfect these surfaces and also make sure that you are living in complete hygiene. 

Do you know the fact that viruses can survive up to 48 hours on irregular surfaces like your mobile screen and your clothes? You better sanitize your mobile next time before using it. 

3. Advise your visitor to cough into his own elbow

If your relative is having a cold or cough then advise him/her to cough into his/her own elbow or otherwise cough into a tissue and throw the tissue away in the dustbin. Air bone diseases are more readily spread than any other sort of disease. Your relatives can be contagious to your family and even to yourself. If you cough into sleeves then your relative will also get encouraged to do the same.

This practice is one of the best methods to stop the spread of any sort of air-bone disease. 

  • Give proper medication

medication

The foremost thing you can do to make sure that your family doesn’t fall sick is to give proper medication to your sick relative. In this way, the probability of you falling ill reduces by a major percentage. 

If you cannot consult a doctor or if there is an emergency, then give paracetamol. This antibiotic will help for a short time period. But, you cannot rely completely on this medicine. Consult a doctor as soon as possible, and never become careless when someone is suffering from any illness because he/she can make your whole family ill. 

  • Wear Mask 

Masks can block your nasal passage for germs and viruses by wearing a mask. Mask can help you in a situation where there is difficulty in maintaining social distancing. Inside your home, if someone is sick, it is a good option to wear a protective mask to cover your face and keep you and your family safe from air-borne disease. 

How to Stay Healthy?

Nobody wants to fall ill and wake up with a 102-degree fever. You have to follow some precautions if you do not want to fall sick. Here are the following ways which can help you to stay healthy. 

1. Wear more socks in winters

Did you know the fact that when your feet get cold, your entire body gets chilled, even your nose and mouth? Your body is fighting with your internal mechanism and protecting you from losing heat by redirecting blood to your vital organs. This is bad because now you have low immune power to protect your nose from the viruses. So, wear more socks, keep yourself warm and allow the body to function in its way.

2. More Honey

honey

Supplements are just a word created by marketers to make money. There is no such sort of superfood available. You only need honey to build your immune system. This is the closest and more feasible alternative to other expensive food supplements. It not only controls your cough better than any other medicine, but it also has antibacterial properties that will boost your immune system. 

There are specifically made honey called medical graded honey that helps to heal wounds. So, instead of white or brown sugar to flow some honey into your tea, this will have more health benefits. 

3. Consume Fewer Supplements

Fewer Supplements

You don’t need supplements to keep yourself healthy. It has never been proven that vitamins will help you not to fall sick. All these supplements are created by marketers to create a hype that will encourage you that I have to take this, else I will fall ill. What you are doing is flushing all your money into the toilet, literally because you pee them out. So, better do not waste your money on supplements. 

4. More Exercise: 

The more you will burn calories, the more healthy you will be. Burning calories allows you and your body to rejuvenate and consume all the stored energy. It will improve your white blood cell, which will improve your immune system. Exercising will also help you to release the stress-fighting hormone. If you are exercising regularly, then the probability of you falling sick reduces. It not only stops stress hormones but also releases good happy hormones which will build a strong vibe inside you. 

5. Less Stress: 

The more you let stress out of your body, the more you will feel healthy. Stress can take all your good out from your body, and you will only be left with a bad vibe inside. Do not store bad vibes inside you, try to let go of things and see you will feel good. When you are stressed, your body increases a hormone Cortisol which will make you unhealthy. 

6. Avoid Alcohols: 

Even though alcohols keep you warm during winters, it reduces your body temperature, which readily affects your immune system. So, avoid the consumption of alcohol as far as you can. If you are in the habit of consuming alcohol, then it would be a good option to slowly reduce the content. It is just a myth that drinking alcohol kills germs; on the flip side, it adversely affects our immune system. 

7. Stay Hydrated:

Stay Hydrated

If you are not drinking water regularly, then you are more likely to be a victim of a weak immune system. Drink water regularly as it will boost your immune system. 

So, now you are aware of how to keep yourself healthy if you are surrounded by someone sick at your home. Follow these tricks and methods and see you will be safe even if germs surround you. Keep yourself and your family safe. Staying safe and healthy is the only need of the hour. In this COVID-19 situation, these tricks are the best which you can follow. 

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