MUSICIANS: Avoiding Germs & Illness

I have several large pumps of hand sanitizer in my home studio, and at my pianos. This is very important to me since I cannot always get up in between students. The average kid encounters billions upon trillions of germs daily. These germs have the lifespan of spreading to as many as 10+ people in hours. Bacteria double at an astronomical pace, and are living and growing.
 
As a musician, health is very important. We use our hands and often our mouths to operate our instruments, which leaves us vulnerable to invaders of the bacterial kind. Here are a few healthy tips to remember as a musician.
 

1. Never put your mouth on an instrument that isn’t yours, or hasn’t been extensively cleaned. Bad bacteria enter our body easiest through our orifices, and our mouth is a very common way to come into contact with nasty germs.
2. Wash your hands routinely. Before and after practice. The more often you clean your hands properly (Rinse, Lather, Scrub, Rinse, Dry) the less likely you will be to have bacteria lingering on your skin, or the debris on your skin.
3. Reduce hand shaking to a minimum. When you shake hands, you can gather more bacteria than you can when kissing a person. The surface space of the skin touching other skin is vast.  Keep wipes or sanitizer handy if you are the Concert Master or the Soloist in particular.
4. Don’t share food and beverages! I can’t emphasize this enough because this is exactly how I ended up with mono for six months in high school – sharing drinks with my friends. All musicians should keep a water bottle handy and full always. Make sure it has a cap or lid to keep harmful bacteria off the mouthpiece as much as possible.
5. Clean your instrument, cleaning rods/rags, case & lining weekly. Fabrics and materials can swarm with germs, and a regular weekly cleaning can keep them sanitary.
6. If you are on the go, invest in wipes or sanitizer. Be cautious of cheap hand sanitizers though. These can strip the good bacteria from your body. My personal favorite is Thieves Waterless Hand Sanitizer by Young Living. Use my member number 10456767 if you decide to make a purchase. It’s a club membership company, like Costco or Sam’s club, and if you don’t have a membership then you must be invited by someone with a membership, or you’ll be randomly assigned to a team leader (Basically a support contact). You can e-mail me directly for more info on this.
7. Don’t attend practice or lessons if you or someone close to you (in the vicinity or in your daily life) is even potentially ill. Seriously. Don’t. If you’re using your hands or mouth on your instrument, you could be doubling the spread of illness – particularly if you blow through your instrument. Make sure the people closest to you in lessons or performances aren’t ill as well. Protect yourself with supplements and extra hand washing if you are uncertain. Good immune boosters are:
   1. Elderberry
   2. Ginger
   3. Myrrh
   4. Oregano
   5. Vitamin C & D
   6. Echinacea
   7. Probiotics
   8. Ginseng
   9. Rosemary
   10. Thyme
   11. Cinnamon
   12. Eucalyptus
   13. Clove
   14. Inner Defense by Young Living
   15. Life 9 by Young Living
   16. Tons of water
8. Wipe everything down that you can. Germs LOVE to stick to surfaces you’d rather they not. The counter may have caught wind when someone (or you) blew their nose.  Door handles, music covers (non-paper), trash bins, counters, metronomes, tuners, batons, pens, pencils, erasers, or basically anything you can. Don’t be afraid to even get walls and windows. As little things like brushing up against them, or a breeze can transfer germs.
9. Avoid being in the crowd or get a flu shot. Mingling is an important part of life as a musician, and it often involves close contact, brushing up against people, using things they’ve used, etc. You can fight this with a flu shot, or even suggestion number 7 of fortifying your immune system with support from dietary additions and/or supplements.