By now, we have all familiarized ourselves with two effective ways to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus: washing your hands thoroughly and avoiding high-risk points like your eyes, nose, and mouth.
Washing with soap and water for a minimum of 20 seconds helps eliminate what may be already on your hands. If you don’t wash your hands, the virus can be transferred to the respiratory system by touching your face.
In addition to the above precautions, here are some important steps you can take to try to ensure you stay feeling well in both body and environment.
Eat Right
Fruits and vegetables should be your best friend right now! Choosing prebiotic and probiotic foods will help your body produce healthy gut flora for better digestion and regularity. Eating foods rich in micronutrients (particularly Vitamin A, C and E) and zinc will also help keep the immune system functioning properly.
Get Proper Rest
Did you know sleep is crucial in fighting off infectious diseases? It can also help quicken the recovery process if you were to become infected. Your immune system releases proteins, known as cytokines, while you sleep. Cytokines must increase while you are sick to fight infections and inflammation.
During periods of inadequate sleeping, those antibodies are reduced in the body. Make sure to get your required sleep to keep your immune system prepared to face an attack.
Exercise Regularly
A healthy immune system often relies on a healthy amount of exercise. When you move your body, it allows bacteria to be flushed from your lungs and airways. Antibodies and white blood cells circulate more rapidly during times of exercise and could potentially cause a faster discovery of the bacteria. Additionally, the brief rise in temperature during a workout could help kill bacteria (similar to the effect of having a fever). Maybe give some of these a try.
Stay Hydrated
Ensuring your body is properly hydrated is good for more than just battling dehydration symptoms. Hydration helps the mucus membrane and reduces irritation from coughing, sneezing, and breathing. Help your body flush out toxins and perform at peak shape by drinking lots of water throughout the day. Learn how you can get your vitamins while staying hydrated.
Use Proper Hygiene
Washing your hands is key, but there are other hygiene measures to employ. Make sure to shower regularly and scrub your skin, as the virus could be on other parts of the body. Wash your clothes often to keep them clean as well. Sneeze and cough into your elbow to avoid air droplets containing the virus to spread more easily.
Utilize Social Distancing
Avoid large gatherings and crowds during this period of time. If you do have to leave your home for work, grocery shopping, or a doctor’s appointment, please maintain a safe distance of six feet from other people. Social distancing allows us to “flatten the curve” and cut down on potential exposure.
How To Make Hand Sanitizer At Home
It’s no secret the spread of COVID-19 has caused a serious strain on the availability of hand sanitizer. Fortunately, there are safe and effective ways to make your own with just a few simple ingredients. Before you stress about those empty shelves, see below for our method of making your own personal-use hand sanitizer for times of need.
Important Safety Tips
As a reminder, washing your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds is the most effective way to rid your hands of germs. Hand sanitizer is primarily meant to be to be used when you do not have access to soap and water.
Make sure you are following the recipe exactly. Improper balances could result in injury. All tools used to make the sanitizer must be properly sanitized or you risk contaminating the gel.
Hand sanitizer requires a minimum of 60% alcohol to be effective.
How to Make Hand Sanitizer Gelly
You need three ingredients to make your hand sanitizer. These items are found at your local store or through online ordering.
- Lily’s 99% Aloe Vera Gelly
- Isopropyl or Rubbing Alcohol (99% Alcohol Volume)
- Tea Tree Oil or Lavender Oil
The isopropyl or rubbing alcohol will be one of the key ingredients. The 99% alcohol ensures germs and viruses are killed when applied to your hands. Aloe vera gel is an emollient that keeps your hands moisturized in order for the alcohol not to dry out your skin. Essential oils (ie. tea tree, lavender, etc.) provide a nice bit of fragrance and potential anti-microbial benefits to the sanitizer.
To create the mixture, grab these items out of your cupboard.
- Mixing bowl
- Whisk
- Liquid Measuring Cup
- Funnel
- Bottle (To place mixture into when done)
Please make sure all items used to create the gel are sanitized. Contaminating your mixture will render it ineffective.
7 Simple Steps
- Take your liquid measuring cup and pour a 3/4 cup of 99% Isopropyl Alcohol into your mixing bowl.
- Measure 1/4 cup of 99% Aloe Gelly and combine with the alcohol in the mixing bowl.
- Whisk the alcohol-aloe mixture for at least a minute, making sure to combine the gelly and alcohol thoroughly.
- Add a few drops of your tea tree or lavender essential oil to the mixture.
- Take your funnel, place it into your bottle, then pour the sanitizer inside.
- Make sure to label your bottle as hand sanitizer so no one mistakes it as something else.
- Let your bottles rest for 72 hours
After you are finished creating the sanitizer, it is important to let the bottles rest. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends you “place the bottles in quarantine for 72 hours before use. This allows time for any spores present in the alcohol or the new/reused bottles to be destroyed.”
At-Home Health
Once your bottles have rested for 72 hours, you are free to use your new hand sanitizer!
Lily of the Desert is the #1 seller of aloe vera products in the natural products industry. All of our products feature Aloesorb™, our patent-pending nutrient delivery system that provides support to the naturally-derived benefits of aloe vera.
Use our 99% Aloe Vera Gelly for your next batch of homemade hand sanitizer and take care of yourself over the coming weeks!
