4 Easy Ways to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19 [Tips from a Carnegie Mellon Psychology Professor]

Being quarantined at home is the best way to avoid being infected with COVID-19. It is also a great contributor to the mitigation of the spread of the virus.

However, life under quarantine has its own price to pay. Almost the entire world is all stressed out just to guarantee protection from the pandemic.

Carnegie Mellon University psychology professor Sheldon Cohen cautioned quarantine life's side effects could ironically make one more vulnerable to get infected by COVID-19 when he goes out. He added, he suspects this since he has studied other respiratory illnesses such as flu and cold for more than three decades.

Reportedly paying volunteers an amount of $1,000 maximum for the risk, Cohen's laboratory has exposed healthy individuals to illness by "spraying viruses" into their nose to find out how they react, respond and survive.

As a result, about one-third of the volunteers got sick.

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Tips from an Expert

COVID-19 chooses no gender, age, and location. As we all know, the pandemic has affected the whole world. 

Because of this, health experts and agencies have imposed guidelines and directives to lessen and prevent the fast spread of the virus. Cohen, through his research, has these four ways to recommend.

1. Workout Regularly and Have Enough Sleep

While locked down, be sure to exercise at least two times each week and sleep at least up to seven hours each night.

According to the study, the subjects of Cohen who worked out less than those mentioned earlier were 1.8 times more likely to experience colds when exposed to such viruses.

For sleep, those who slept less than seven hours in the study were 2.84 times more likely to have a cold compared to those who have an average of eight hours or more every night.

2. Take Your Daily Dose of Vitamin C

Anyone looking up prevention of cold, the study indicates, has undoubtedly come across the physicians' recommendation of zinc and Vitamin C.

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Also, based on Cohen's research, zinc does not stop illness in an individual. However, Vitamin C is a contributor. Cohen found that if an individual ingests Vitamin C that's less than 85mg each day, they were double as possible to develop a cold. 

Essentially, the Food and Drug Administration or FDA recommends a 90mg dosage each day, and thus, there is a need for one to make sure he is getting his baseline daily.

3. Proper Stress Management

Millions of people across the nation have lost their job because of the pandemic. Indeed, joblessness is among the life stressors that could cause disorder in a person's human system.

Relatively, Cohen, in his research, found that respondents who managed the most stress are 2.16 times more likely to develop colds compared to those reported to have the smallest amount of stress in life.

Study results presented, workout, and meditation both have been tried, tested, and proven to lessen the levels of cortisol in the blood. 

Additionally, Cohen also recommended a 20-minute 'nature pill' such as walking outdoors or gardening. This regular activity is enough to cut cortisol levels, and the benefits to develop for up to 60 minutes.

4. Be in Constant Communication with Loved Ones

As it is simple to view relationships as great contributors to tension or stress, the reality is that fulfilling social responsibilities is favorable.

For a parent, husband or wife, volunteer, and neighbor, among others, such categories of social rules can be a stabilizer, presented to boost his immune system.

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