Stay Heathy this Fall with these tips…

Back to school bugs have already hit our house hard this year so as the official start of cold and flu season approaches, I figure it’s time to start talking about ways you can help your body stay healthy.

I’m going to skip over the typical hygiene habits; hand washing, not touching your face, wiping down surfaces, etc. and focus on some things you might not readily think about that help keep you protected.

First up, hydration. As temperature start to cool down, we tend to think less about drinking water and staying hydrated. Dehydration can slow down body processes and over tax your systems making you more prone to infection.  Blood is mostly made up of water and the more hydrated you are the easier it is for your body to deliver nutrients where they’re needed and its a key component of lymphatic fluid which helps fight infection and remove toxins including bacteria and viruses.  So if big 32 oz Nalgene containers of water aren’t as easy to get down when it’s not hot, try some different strategies.  Start your day with a 16 oz glass of water with lemon (pre-coffee), add several cups of herbal tea to your day, make sure you have water at or before all of your meals and keep a smaller bottle with you at all times.

Exercise is important to stay healthy!  Preventatively, people who exercise 30 - 60 minutes a day most days of the week have a 46% reduction in the number of days of illness each year compared to those who don’t. And yes, light exercise is good even when you’ve been exposed to an illness.  The physical activity can help flush bacteria out of the lungs and airways and exercise increases the movement of blood and lymph and can increase antibodies and white blood cell count.  Aerobic exercise like walking and cycling are good as long as you don’t have a fever, but make sure not to overdo it.  Save strength training and other heavy exercise for when you are feeling healthy again.

What you eat and drink can make a huge difference in how your body fights infection.  Bright colored fruits and veggies are loaded with immune boosting vitamin C, but did you know that lots of the B vitamins have energy and immune boosting properties as well?  They help make red blood cells, white blood cells and T cells and can even help destroy free radicals.  B vitamins can be found in small amounts in your fruits and veggies, but are much higher in fish, meat, eggs and dairy.  Trying to avoid the fat and cholesterol of most meat, but want more benefit - try incorporating more fish, bone broth and a small amount of organ meats.  Vitamin D too can help with immunity and elicit anti-viral responses in your cells.  And although your body can produce it, we don’t get as much help from the sun in the winter… mushrooms are a good source as well as oily fish, egg yolks and liver.  Vitamin D has been brought in the spotlight over the past decade as being more essential to many body processes than the medical community previously realized, and is the vitamin that has the highest level of deficiency out of any vitamin in the US population. As far as supplementation, B, and C vitamins are water soluble vitamins so your body gets rid of anything you consume that it doesn’t use each day so its a good idea to have your levels of all three vitamins checked first before starting and make sure you aren’t waisting money and literally flushing those supplements down the drain.

Now, what not to put in…. There’s 2 biggies and they are hard to avoid.  Just like we humans love it, sugar is a favorite food source for bacteria, viruses and pathogens.  Glucose is actually their only source of energy, so eating foods that are already broken down into simple sugar when you are sick can make you feel worse and make it harder for your body to fight the infection.  And, even eating sugar when you are healthy isn’t the greatest idea as it suppresses your immune system and can make you more likely to get sick if you are exposed.

Lastly, alcohol puts the brakes on your body’s immune system quite literally.  Your body sees alcohol as a toxin (that’s why it affects us in so many ways) and stops all other immune responses, as well as breakdown and absorption of other foods until it has processed and removed it.  So, keep your drinking to a minimum this fall and if you know you’ve been exposed to an infection, stop altogether until you are 100% sure you are in the clear.  And if you do get sick, as much as a shot of hard liquor might numb your sore throat temporarily, it’s not worth it in the long run since while your body is getting rid of the alcohol, those germs have more time and fuel to proliferate making you worse in the long run.

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