Tips for beating flu season

Are you starting to hear those all-too-familiar coughs and sniffles in the office and at home? Here are a few tips to help you fight the flu and colds this winter season.
Before heading to work, you should ask yourself, “Should I stay or should I go?” When deciding on whether or not you should stay or go, pharmacist Victor Wong recommends the following:
• Stay home when you are sick
• Even if you feel fine, stay away for 24 hours after having a fever
• Left is best (sneeze into left hand or arm to keep right hand clean for hand-shakes)
• Get vaccinated
• Stock up on hand sanitizer
• Keep your distance from colleagues
At home, cleaning out your medicine cabinet can help with effectively treating cold symptoms. Research shows that more than half of all Canadian households do not regularly check expiry dates of medications, and if they do, they do so just before taking the product. Outdated medicine can do more harm than good, and cold and flu products are some of the most frequently cited expired products found in medicine cabinets in Canadian households. Make it a habit of checking expiry dates of all medicine every few months.
Five things everyone should have in their medicine cabinet to get them ready for cold and flu season and minimize the impact if they do get sick include:
1. Pain relievers: To help with aches and pains caused by the flu.
2. Decongestants: To clear nasal passages so you can breathe more comfortably.
3. Throat lozenges: To help soothe a sore throat.
4. Cough suppressant: Suppressants may relieve dry cough or congested cough symptoms.
5. Cool-mist vaporizer: To moisture to the air, this helps ease coughing and congestion.
In addition to being the pharmacist-owner of two Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacies, Victor Wong is a teaching associate at the University of Toronto Faculty of Pharmacy and an assessor at the Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada.