If you have a cold, look after yourself at home: rest, drink plenty of fluids, eat healthily, take over-the-counter painkillers to reduce fever or discomfort. Decongestants relieve a blocked nose.
Symptoms of a common cold include a sore throat, a blocked or runny nose, sneezing, a cough. More severe symptoms include a high temperature, headache and aching muscles.
Sleeping with your smartphone covered and charging underneath your pillow could be hazardous, creating a fire risk.
A cold is a common mild viral infection and there’s usually no need to see your GP: it should clear within a week or two. Contact your GP if your symptoms persist for more than 3 weeks or get suddenly worse.
Stopping smoking reduces the chances of the children in your house suffering from bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma attacks, meningitis and ear infections.
The average smoker has 13 cigarettes a day, which is 364 cigarettes a month. This costs £141 a month, which is £1,696 a year.
To help get a good night’s sleep, set yourself a time each night at which you’ll turn off all your electronics. Let your friends know you’ll be unavailable after this time.
Nighttime exposure to the blue light emitted from screens – such as your TV, computer and ‘phone – disrupts our sleep hormones, reducing sleep duration and disrupting sleep.
If you smoke 1-4 cigarettes a day, you are 5 times more likely to die from lung cancer than a non-smoker.
Lung cancer risk increases with smoking duration and amount; duration has the most effect: smoking one pack of cigarettes a day for 40 years is more hazardous than smoking two packs a day for 20 years.