Since there are no known cures for colds and flu, prevention must be your goal. A proactive approach to warding off colds and flu is apt to make your whole life healthier!

#1 Wash Your Hands. Most cold and flu viruses are spread by direct contact. Someone who has the flu sneezes onto their hand, and then touches the telephone, the keyboard, a kitchen glass. The germs can live for hours -- in some cases weeks -- only to be picked up by the next person who touches the same object. So wash your hands often.

#2 Take your Vitamins. In addition to your daily multi-vitamin..vitamin C, antioxidants, echinacea, zinc, and garlic are all helpful supplements to help build immunity. Taking extra of these when you feel the beginnings of a cold will help build your immune system so that your body can fight it!

#3 Reduce Stress. Reducing stress through yoga, mediation, prayer, recreation, or other relaxing activities does wonders for your immune system. Cortisol, a hormone released into your blood when you are stressed, has immune suppressing properties. Your body is better able to resist infection when you have less cortisol in your system and you are more relaxed!

#4 Drink Plenty of Fluids. Water flushes your system, washing out toxins as it re-hydrates you. How can you tell if you're getting enough liquid? If the color of your urine runs close to clear, you're getting enough. If it's deep yellow, you need more fluids..so drink up!! Avoid drinks that contain caffeine and alcohol as they can dehydrate you.

#5 Take a Sauna. Researchers aren't clear about the exact role saunas play in prevention, but one 1989 German study found that people who steamed twice a week got half as many colds as those who didn't. One theory: When you take a sauna you inhale air hotter than 90 degrees, a temperature too hot for cold and flu viruses to survive. .

#6 Do Aerobic Exercise Regularly Aerobic exercise speeds up the heart to pump larger quantities of blood; makes you breathe faster to help transfer oxygen from your lungs to your blood; and makes you sweat once your body heats up. Exercise helps increase the production of your body's natural virus-killing cells.

#7 Eat Foods Containing Phytochemicals "Phyto" means plants, and the natural chemicals in plants give the vitamins in food a supercharged boost. So put away the vitamin pill, and eat dark green, red, and yellow vegetables and fruits.

#8 Don't Smoke Statistics show that heavy smokers get more severe and more frequent colds. Even being around smoke can profoundly zap the immune system. Smoke dries out your nasal passages and paralyzes cilia. These are the delicate hairs that line the mucous membranes in your nose and lungs, and with their wavy movements, sweep cold and flu viruses out of the nasal passages. Experts contend that one cigarette can paralyze cilia for as long as 30 to 40 minutes.

#9 Cut Alcohol Consumption Heavy alcohol use destroys the liver, the body's primary filtering system, which means that germs of all kinds won't leave your body as fast. This will make you more prone to infections as well as secondary complications. Alcohol also dehydrates the body -- it actually takes more fluids from your system than it puts in.

#10 See a Chiropractor Your immune system, along with every other organ system in your body, is ultimately controlled by your nervous system. Because chiropractic care enhances the ability of the nervous system to communicate properly, it also enhances your body's immune function and thus its ability to fight off infection.