It's that time of year again! Cold and flu season is creeping in on us and now we have to think about the best ways to avoid getting sick.
We all know the drill - coworker gets sick, coworker sits next to you and gets you sick, or someone out shopping sneezes in your general direction and you get sick, and then you have to sit next to another coworker and they get sick and by the time you're starting to feel better everyone else at the office is sick.
So what's really the best way to avoid getting sick? Is simply 'washing your hands' going to save you? Or should we be using some backup?
Uhhh according to a new study, you actually might want to stock up on the hand sanitizer this season.
To get right to the point, a study in the journal Pediatrics has suggested that hand sanitizer is better at warding off germs that your regular 'ole soap and water.
The study was done on children age 3 and under across 24 daycare centers, and since we all know that children are pretty full of germs, I have to think there's some validity here!
Basically, if hand sanitizer can protect children from getting sick, just imagine how well it works for adults, who are often a lot less germy.
But before you go and remove all the soap from your house and replace it with hand sanitizer, let's not get too crazy. Robert Glatter, M.D.,, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, Northwell Health, says it's still very important to practice the usual soap and water for your health, but that you just need to learn to wash your hands the right way!
When your hands are visibly dirty, this is NOT the time for hand sanitizer and definitely when you will want to get to that sink and scrub! But if you just noticed that you haven't washed your hands in a couple of hours and have been surrounded by other people or been walking around the office, some hand sanitizer might come in handy.
Stay healthy out there, people!
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