With temperatures dropping, there is more emphasis on being healthy to better fight off increases in illnesses.

Guthrie County Health Services Director Jotham Arber says that while respiratory illnesses are seeing a spike in cases, there are other illnesses like gastrointestinal illnesses, and some cases of sickness can be caused by environmental factors as well. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio about how individuals can try to stay healthy, not just during the cooler months of the year, but year round.

“We recommend all the time to folks that if you want to live a healthy lifestyle, you need to make sure that you’re living a healthy lifestyle across the board. Which means you’re building your body so that it’s strong, you’re building your mind, you’re interacting with people and you’re doing all the things that we know we need to do. We’re going to our doctor regularly for physicals and we’re doing those things together with other folks in our community.”

Arber shares that other ways to try and stay healthy at this time are to make sure if it is cold out, have a jacket or warm clothing on, and be mindful of areas where dust from harvest may be abundant.