Your defenses: Avoid germs as best as you can, and make your body less friendly to unwelcome viruses.

Take Your Best Shot
If you haven’t had a flu shot this season, talk with your doctor about it.

Make the Most of Washing
You’ve probably heard that washing your hands frequently is one of the most important steps you can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others. But in order to be effective, it needs to be thorough. Some hints to help:

• Wet your hands with clean (and preferably warm) running water.
• Apply soap, and rub hands together to make a lather.
• Scrub all hand surfaces for a total of 20 seconds (the time it takes to sing "Happy Birthday" twice through).
• Rinse well under running water.
• Dry completely.
• If soap and water are not available, apply an alcohol–based sanitizing product to the palm of one hand. Rub your hands together, covering all hand surfaces, until dry.

Limit Germ Opportunities
Unless you live alone on a tropical island, you’re going to come into contact with cold and flu bugs. But you can limit those meetings:

• Carry a personal pen in your purse or pocket. The pens you share at stores, restaurants, and banks have passed through the hands of dozens of people and could be harboring viruses.
• Clean surfaces such as kitchen countertops, dinner tables, bathrooms, light switches, telephone receivers, and doorknobs regularly with a disinfectant.
• Keep your fingers away from your nose, mouth, eyes, and ears to avoid inviting in any viruses you may have picked up on your hands.

Studies have found these places to be hot spots for germs, so wash up after contact and disinfect where you can.

• Outdoors/in public: Playground equipment, escalator handrails, shopping-cart handle, picnic table, portable toilet
• Workplace: Phone receiver, desktop, keyboard, elevator button, toilet seat
• At home: Dishrag, kitchen sink, toilet bowl, garbage can, refrigerator, bathroom doorknob

It’s a good idea to make a sick-day plan before you even get sick.

Ask your health care provider what medicine to take and how to eat.

Stock a small supply of sick-day nourishment, such as non-diet soft drinks, broth, applesauce, and regular gelatin.

Have appropriate over-the-counter cold medicines on hand. Check labels on liquids to make sure sugar isn’t one of the top 3 ingredients. Solid formulas—tablets and capsules—generally don’t contain enough sugar to have an effect on blood sugar levels. You could also ask your doctor or pharmacist to recommend a sugar-free product.

Despite lots of wishful thinking, there’s no cure for a cold or the flu. So rest and relax while your body repairs itself, and follow instructions from your doctor. Here are some strategies that could help speed recovery:

Stay Fueled
If you can, stick to your normal meal plan and drink lots of calorie-free beverages. If food isn’t going down so well, stick with choices such as regular (non-diet) gelatin, crackers, soups, and applesauce. In some cases, you may need to stick with liquid or almost-liquid carbs—aim for 50 g of carbohydrates every 3 to 4 hours.

Try regular (non-diet) soft drinks, juice, frozen juice bars, sherbet, pudding, and broth.

Manage Your Meds
No matter how bad you may feel, make sure to take your diabetes medication, unless your doctor has told you otherwise. Taking your meds will help control your blood sugar, which in turn can speed you on the road to recovery.