Preventing Sickness
When I was younger, I always assumed short-term sickness is something that just comes and goes. That it's a part of everyday living. That nothing could be done about it. That it's just the way life, the world, and society worked. But does it need to be that way? Each time I fall even mildly sick, it noticeably affects my happiness levels, my mood, my productivity, and my exercise schedule, while also simultaneously interfering with my work output and quality. I have to do silly things like take sick days off of work while I rest in bed for hours on end. Was there a way to optimize my life and do away with this humanly problem?
In 2010, I made up mind that enough was enough. I was getting tired of falling sick randomly and unpredictably so often. Something had to be done. There had to be a long-term sustainable solution. The status quo was unacceptable. After doing some reading and personal experimentation, I devised a plan of attack for myself. I conjectured that several common ailments such as headaches, cold, coughs, sore throats, adhoc fevers, and the flu were all preventable to a high degree. Perhaps not 100%, but I'd be pretty damn happy with 95%.
The people around you are your biggest enemy in this effort. They will tell you otherwise, and that such a fix is not possible unless you go live in the mountains all by yourself. There are still numerous people today who innately believe (i.e. assume) that falling sick is unpreventable. That it's not under your control and that you've just got to put up with it. Like it's a tax you must pay to live on this planet. But following the previously outlined tenets of Locus of Control, you ought to start with the assumption that control of your life and body lies within you and your circle of control, not outside. Within you lies the solution to all your personal problems. Your ego is your savior.
Optimizing for overall happiness doesn't just end with increasing the things that make you happy (like the 4 F's). It also involves reducing the things that make you unhappy, like debt. Falling sick certainly falls under that category as well. After all, who's happy when they're sick? It sucks every single time. Sure you get to take a few days off of work with pay, but is it worth the trouble?
In America, there doesn't seem to be enough emphasis placed on sickness prevention. And my understanding is that it's because the system profits from you falling sick. Every doctor visit, every medicine that is prescribed, every test that you have to undertake — someone profits off that. The doctors, the clinics, the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies, etc. Stop falling sick, and the system all-of-a-sudden reduces its profits.
There are doctors in China who believe that it's their job to keep you healthy. So, any month you're healthy you pay them, and when you're sick you don't have to pay them because they failed at their job. They get rich when you're healthy, not sick. Thank God that's not the system here in America, because I'd have lost so much money over the years by not falling sick!
A few years back, I read about a health experiment where a bunch of researchers and social workers circulated a few hundred free soap bars within a small town and asked the people living there to wash their hands with this antibacterial soap at least 3-4 times a day. In just a few months, the incidence rate of infection and illness in the entire town dropped drastically — more than 75%. Hospitals and clinics in the area went from being overcrowded to nearly empty. All of a sudden everyone in town was washing their hands with this magical soap multiple times a day. The demand for soap skyrocketed. The program was so successful that it was implemented in all the neighboring towns with the same success rate.
That story got me thinking. How could such a simple change to one's personal hygiene have such a drastic effect on the entire community? Therein lies a secret of the human body. Big results are often hidden behind very small changes and minor adjustments to your life. It's the simple difference separating you from living an ordinary life and a kickass one.
Without further ado, here's the full list of the exact changes I implemented in my life over the years to reduce my sickness rate from once every ~3 months to 0 times in the last 7 years (save for that one time in 2011 I got struck with food poisoning for 3 days from eating something bad at work). I'm no doctor, but I don't think you need to be one to understand the basics of how germs breed and spread from one person to another.
- Flu shots every year. Period. If you don't believe in vaccinations,
it's time for you to do some reading. Vaccinations have saved the world,
literally. Multiple times. And will continue to do so for centuries to
come. They are incredibly effective at doing what they're designed
for. Contrary to popular belief, vaccinations aren't a crutch (like
antibiotics are). They actually make your body stronger to fight the
germs off rather than fighting them themselves.
- Don't be overweight. The less resources your body needs to sustain
itself, the more it can allocate to strengthening your immune system and
fighting off foreign invaders when they knock on your door.
- Stop being picky about your food. You should be able to eat any
non-toxic plant or plant byproduct, tasty or not. You want your plate to
look as colorful and as random as mine usually does at work lunches. I
eat equal amounts of the 20 or so veggie things that
our caterers at work bring
in everyday, barring nothing. It tastes better too when it's a
random mish-mash of several delicious and nutritious ingredients.
- Eat your vitamins, ideally naturally from food and juices, but if not,
then from supplements. Make colorful fruits your best friends. A fruit a
day keeps the.. you get the idea. Without a regular intake of all the
vitamins your body needs, you're essentially toast. If you don't know
what vitamins you're lacking, get a blood
test. Walking
or biking to work gets you
Vitamin D for free. Sunshine is one of the best preventative medicines
out there — make sure you get at least 20-30 minutes of it
everyday.
Getting my fruit on while traveling in Peru back in 2012 - Exercise regularly. This key hack is a critical one that seems missing
in a lot of people I see who fall sick frequently. Exercise is the
ultimate shield against sickness by giving your body the strength and
energy it needs to fight foreign agents. You need, at minimum, 2.5 hours
of exercise every week. I typically get 6-7 hours of exercise per week
which is substantially higher than the recommended average.
- Avoid public transit like the plague (if you can). If you can't right
now, something to think about when you move homes
next. Driving, biking,
and walking to
work are all better than taking crowded trains or buses filled with
disease-carrying hosts. If you must take public transit, watch what you
touch, and watch who you stand or sit beside. If you live in a smoky or
polluted area, it's time to move out as well. Your lungs deserve the
cleanest air they can get.
- Wash your hands at least 3-4 times a day. Ideally with soap. Watch what
you touch. Wash (or sanitize) after you've touched something you probably
shouldn't have. Hand sanitizers are great, but they're no replacement for
good old flowing water + soap. Try to avoid handles and knobs if possible
by opening doors with your shoulder or foot, or tagging along behind
someone. Most pathogens spread when you touch something touched by a sick
person, and then touch your face. We touch our faces hundreds of times a
day so that's probably much harder to stop.
- Don't bite your nails, but cut them regularly. Don't stick your fingers
into your mouth (or someone else's) unless they've just been washed (the
fingers, not the mouth silly!). Don't ever sneeze into your own
hands. Also, the 5-second rule isn't really a thing, so forget it.
- Wash your hands before each meal. Especially important if you eat your
meals with your hands (like me) or eating hand-food like burgers,
sandwiches, pizza, burritos, fries, etc. Use chopsticks to eat instead if
you have trouble keeping your hands clean. They're cheaper than
silverware, take up less space, and easier to clean.
- Shower daily. Ideally with soap. Make sure to get those easy-to-miss
spots and crevices like inside/behind your ears, between your toes and
fingers, bottom of your feet, armpits, belly button, behind your neck,
and upper and lower back.
- Sleep well. Sleep repairs your immune system after a tiring day of
fighting bacteria and other germs. I plan on dedicating an entire post to
the magic of effective sleep. The benefits are too large to mention here.
- When you see people sick around you at work, ask them to go home
(politely).
- Brush your teeth at least once a day; floss at least 3 times a
week. Your mouth is a wonderful place for germs to set up shop. Evict
them like a tough landlord. Don't re-use floss (hopefully that didn't
need saying, but you never know). Brushing at night is more useful than
brushing in the morning. Brushing after breakfast is better than brushing
before.
- Keep your house and surroundings clean. Take out the trash regularly,
especially the compost. Disinfect your floors with a mop if
necessary. Eradicate disease-spreading pests such as flies, rats,
cockroaches, mosquitoes, etc. from your home.
- Limit sharing among household members. Don't share keyboards or
mice. Don't share towels or handkerchiefs without washing them
first. Don't share combs or hairbrushes. Don't share bar soaps, but if
you have to, try switching to liquid bodywash instead. And finally, don't
share toothbrushes (I thought this was a given, but apparently it's
not..)
- Wash your food products from the grocery store before cooking them,
even if they're organic. There's too much residue stuck to them,
typically chemical preservatives, pesticides, and fertilizers. Sometimes
organic food is transported with or placed beside regular non-organic
food, allowing residue to transfer over.
- Don't eat obviously stale food — smell suspicious food before
consumption if you're concerned. If it smells bad, it's probably bad, so
chuck it. Purge your fridge of rotting food every 1-2 weeks. Refrigerate
leftovers sooner rather than later instead of letting it sit on the
counter for hours.
- Wash your clothes and undergarments regularly. Clothes at least once
every 2-3 wears depending on weather, and undergarments once every wear
(maybe except while traveling). Don't procrastinate laundry. Don't pick
up dirty clothes from the laundry bag and wear them. Wash your sheets and
linens at least once every 3-4 weeks. Use separate bins for clean and
dirty clothes to avoid cross-contamination.
- Shut open wounds at the first instant possible with band aids. Wash
wounds regularly, at least every few days, and replace with brand new
band aid.
- When someone at home gets sick, try to isolate/quarantine them to a single room and bathroom if possible. Swap out all their sheets and linens once they've fully recovered.
Big list, but that's it! Let me know how it works out for you. I'm still trying to learn and get better every year, so I'd love to incorporate feedback into my everyday practices. This list has been carefully nurtured by me over the years so if you follow it to the dot, you're likely to reduce your probability of falling sick to less than 5%. It's not entirely scientific, but it's based on a basic fundamental understanding of how germs largely breed and spread in a normal city/urban environment. But miss even one of these points and the list immediately becomes less effective. The system only works if the suggestions are all followed together in unison, like a big orchestra.
Last month, San Francisco / Bay Area apparently had two strains of the flu within the same season. This was not a concept I was familiar with. I had always thought/assumed that local flu strains only mutated year-over-year. Turns out I was wrong. One by one, every one of us at work who had only had the free flu shot at work many months back began to capitulate and fall sick. As people started to disappear from the office, I sat back smugly thinking I was immune because I had gotten the shot. I assumed the others hadn't, or were somehow weaker than me. But alas, I too started to feel the symptoms eventually. The only person who didn't get sick in our team area was the person who had procrastinated his flu shot and had just gotten one a couple weeks prior (which worked out to his advantage in this case).
That morning when I woke up feeling tired, sweaty, and with a deep voice, I sensed the impending disaster. I knew what I was up against — I had seen and felt this pattern all too often in the past. But this time I knew what to do. I fired the sirens and promptly initiated my emergency anti-sickness protocol. I wasn't ready to give up my amazing 7-year streak just yet. Preventing sickness is the ideal case, but failing that, you should at least try to fight it off as a last resort before falling prey to the virus. When you feel as though you're just about to fall sick, acting swiftly and doing the right things can sometimes reverse the sickness. If you're lucky, you can make your body fight the invaders effectively. Here's the protocol I followed on that ill-fated day last month:
- First things first, I called in sick at work that very morning. I
wasn't actually sick just yet, but I was getting pretty darn
close. My home is a much more sanitary environment than the office, so I
knew if I wanted to have any hope of recovering by the end of the day, it
had to be done from home. I also didn't want to become contagious in case
I did fall sick.
- I kept drinking and sipping an excess of water the entire day. Water is
the magic potion to all poison.
- I had a light lunch that day so as to reserve body resources for
fighting rather than digesting.
- I took a short 30-minute nap in the afternoon 20 minutes after
lunch. You don't want your pre-sick day to get too long, otherwise you
risk tiring yourself out.
- I did some easy coding work on the computer so as to keep my mind
active. You don't want to sleep in all day unless you're already sick.
- Once I started feeling slightly better, I engaged in some light
exercise by going for an uphill walk in the afternoon, taking in some
much-needed fresh air. This got my spirits up and my body alert. It also
got my heart moving and blood flowing. I did a few dumbbell lifts as well
for good measure.
- Most important of all, I took no meds that day. It was important that my body knew how to fight off foreign bodies on its own, without external help. Those battle skills will hopefully come in handy the next time they're needed.
I crossed my fingers and went to bed early that night. The next day, I woke up feeling fantastic! I had successfully warded off what felt like the beginning stages of a flu. I didn't have to take another sick day off from work, and I was active and productive at my desk all day that day, my life having returned to 100% normal.
Perhaps it is a bit daring to assume you can play God and control the fate of your own body. And perhaps it is. But as a species, that's exactly what we've been doing for centuries with medicine and science. I like to think of myself as living proof that the right habits and the necessary changes to everyday activities can reduce your incidence rate of sickness to nearly 0%. It may not be good enough to prevent cancer, but if you can go without falling sick for years on end, you get to enjoy the compounded benefits of a happy, healthy life. As a bonus side effect, you're also helping make sure you don't get people around you sick by acting as a host or carrier.
So why not give it a try? What's to lose after all? At worst, you continue falling sick at the same rate as you do now. At best, you'll never fall sick for years on end, and then get to write a blog post about how you've never fallen sick in almost 7 years.
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