{"id":3526,"date":"2020-03-26T17:22:10","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T16:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/?p=3526"},"modified":"2020-12-09T11:59:46","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T10:59:46","slug":"staying-healthy-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/2020\/03\/26\/staying-healthy-during-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying healthy during COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

As many of us adjust to social distancing and working from home, EDIT Lab postdoc Shannon shares her tips for staying physically and mentally healthy during the COVID-19 outbreak.<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Shannon<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/h3>\n
\n

<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Physical health<\/b><\/h3>\n

Hygiene – Wash your hands! Avoid touching your face! <\/span>COVID-19<\/span><\/a> spreads from person to person through droplets from coughing and sneezing entering the respiratory system. Hygiene is crucial in keeping these droplets off your hands and away from your nose\/mouth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“Hygiene is crucial.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Stay hydrated \u2013 All viruses and bacteria love a dehydrated system. Keep drinking the water and flush the nasties out of your body.<\/span><\/p>\n

Food \u2013 Eat healthy, nutritional food. <\/span>Research<\/span><\/a> has looked into micronutrient intake (vitamins and minerals) and has linked this to the severity of symptoms in certain virus attacks. Have your carbs, your fats, your proteins and, most importantly, your fruit and veggies. Keep up with the vitamin C and keep taking medication or supplements if you usually do.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Remedies \u2013 Personally, I\u2019ve been boiling up some whole chopped ginger and 1-2 lemons (sliced) with some water. You can drink this warm or cold. It may be a wives\u2019 tale, but these are well known home remedies for cold and flu-related viruses, and ginger has been a known anti-inflammatory<\/a> for centuries.<\/p>\n

Keep moving \u2013 There are lots of free online home workouts going around at the moment, for example via Youtube, <\/span>MadFit<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Yoga with Adriene<\/span><\/a>. If you can go for an isolated walk, do so. If you usually work out, keep doing so unless you feel unwell.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keep your house well ventilated \u2013 Viruses and bacteria like stuffy, damp enclosed spaces. Open a window in the house for at least half an hour. If you\u2019re working from home and it\u2019s warm enough, open all the windows when you wake up and set a 30 minute timer. For some fresh air, go for an isolated walk (obviously not with all the windows open!). Even get out on your balcony or garden if you have one.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“Go for an isolated walk.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Disinfect \u2013 Disinfect commonly touched areas daily or every two days: plugs, switches, handles, phones, remotes \u2013 anything that multiple people touch. And then wash your hands with soap.<\/span><\/p>\n

Limit the amount of change \u2013 Don\u2019t implement any crazy lifestyle changes that might knock your body off kilter. For example, don\u2019t implement a rigorous heavy exercise routine if you\u2019re not used to it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Emotional and psychological health<\/b><\/h3>\n

If you are feeling lonely \u2013 Try and find someone to video call. Don\u2019t just text and Whatsapp, looking at someone\u2019s face is much more effective for reducing loneliness (it lights up the <\/span>fusiform face area<\/span><\/a> in the brain I\u2019ll have you know).<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are feeling worried \u2013 Write down your fears and think of the best and worst outcomes, and how you could deal with these should they present. Having a plan always makes uncertainty less scary.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re feeling sad or angry \u2013 Allow yourself some time to express and acknowledge these emotions and think about the root cause of them. Is there anything causing them that can be controlled or managed? Talk to someone, it always helps, even if you think you are being irrational. Others\u2019 perspectives are usually quite soothing and calming, especially if they see you are distressed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“Talk to someone, it always helps.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If your anxiety is on hyperdrive – Cut the caffeine and alcohol (yes, you heard us correctly!). Caffeine is a stimulant and will enhance anxiety. Try herbals teas such as chamomile instead. You also don\u2019t want to wake up wondering whether you have the symptoms of coronavirus or whether it\u2019s just a hangover\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are someone who doesn\u2019t deal with change and disruption too well \u2013 Try and create a new routine and stick to it. Make sure you plan in time for leisure activities. Maybe this is a time to learn a new craft or watch that show that you\u2019ve never had time to before. Try and turn a negative into a positive and do things that make you happy, that you often don\u2019t have time for.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“Try and turn a negative into a positive.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you are working from home \u2013 Where possible try and stick to one area, an area away from the space that you use to relax. Avoid working from your bed, or you might have trouble sleeping or working efficiently as your bed is associated with sleep and rest (hopefully).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Limit screen time \u2013 Finally, I would recommend setting a screen time limit on your phone. I\u2019ve found myself to be obsessively scrolling through social media to quell my anxiety, but to be honest it doesn\u2019t really help too much. Try and be present and carry out activities that are productive, helpful to yourself or others, or actually just enjoyable. There\u2019s a lot of fake news and hype, so stay away from that. Get the knitting needles out or something.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As many of us adjust to social distancing and working from home, EDIT Lab postdoc Shannon shares her tips for staying physically and mentally healthy during the COVID-19 outbreak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":874,"featured_media":3414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[336,335,43,151,91,337],"class_list":["post-3526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wider-world","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-mental-health","tag-physical-health","tag-sleep","tag-socialisation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3526"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3774,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526\/revisions\/3774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}