According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), influenza season lasts from November through March in the United States.  As we hit flu season, more "minute clinics" are popping up all over the place, from grocery stores to drive-through clinics.  Though many of us would like to believe we are invincible and invulnerable to disease, and another odd lump of people enjoy their noses dribbling out a diatribe of mucus and wallowing in their germ infested beds all day, for the rest of us, fending off illnesses is a constant battle.

There is no fail-safe method to undertake to ward off disease.  What do the doctors say?  James Boyle, administrator at the Student Health Clinic on campus, preaches of the longstanding tradition of washing your hands.  Attending a college with 26,000 or more students stirs a qualm of worry in my stomach, as it has always been difficult for me to keep the colds, flus, and 24-hour viruses away.  It especially concerns me now that I've moved from a small town, where you could always finger who had given you the cold; to a populated city where, no matter where you hide, unhygienic people with their explosive coughs are always around the corner.

I am a fan of western medicine. After all, who couldn't be after seeing the miracles on TV? Obviously everything on TV is correct.  Despite this, I am not an avid user of prescription drugs or over-the-counter remedies.  So what are my plans to stay healthy while the flu plays freeze tag across my friends' status updates on Facebook?  Orange juice, lots and lots of orange juice.  Does it really matter that drinking orange juice, in reality, won't do all that much more than drinking water?  No, it comes down to the battle of mind over matter.  I am choosing to believe that by drinking a glass of orange juice daily, I will ward off any oncoming disease.  Is this naive of me?  I obviously know that it doesn't change much. How powerful is the mind?

My hope is that by believing I won't get sick, I will naturally change my behaviors to more emphatically anti-germ mannerisms, from washing my hands to avoiding sick people.  If my mentality is strong enough, I will survive this winter unscathed, but the chance of my falling ill is just the same as yours.  So we can take our western medicine and mystical Chinese herbal remedies, but as the saying goes: go to the doctors and get better in a week; stay at home and ride it out, get better in seven days. I wish you all the best of luck in staying healthy as the disease-ridden body count grows daily.