Wouldn’t it be nice to avoid the hassle and inconvenience of ever having to have to deal with colds or flus?
Most uncomplicated colds can last between eight and nine days, but about 25% last two weeks or more, and 5% to 10% can last up to three weeks. So when you have a cold you feel miserable and you’re clearly not functioning at your best. More than this, you may have to take off work or cancel important appointments, thus making you feel pretty miserable.
So what’s the key to optimize your immune system to help protect against these infections? I’m going to share with you some of the key secrets and how you can do that.
Probably one of the most important and one of the reasons why we have such an increase in these upper respiratory infections in the fall and winter, is because the sun exposure is really minimized. For most of us the sun’s incidence of the rays coming through the atmosphere is on such an angle that even if you were to go out without any clothes on for the entire day on a sunny day, you wouldn’t get any significant ultraviolet radiation to increase your vitamin D level. So essentially it’s physically impossible to get it from the Sun during the winter, for most of us.
That’s probably one of the major reason why there’s this massive increase in these infections during winter.
One of the ways that you can compensate for that, because really vitamin D is just a massively important tool to help minimize your risk of these infections, try to get as much sun exposure that you can get during summer, but at the same time without getting sun burns. Sun exposure is the ideal way to get that vitamin.
Another key approach is to limit the sugar in your diet, because sugar can absolutely wreak havoc in your immune system. About a hundred years ago the average amount of sugar, and specifically fructose which seems to be one of the most pernicious sugar that Americans have in there diet, was only about 15 grams and that was primarily from organic fresh fruits. What happened in the last century is that the average person in the United States is now consuming 75 grams of fructose a day, that’s a whooping 500% five times more than we were 100 years ago!
So when you have fructose levels at this high level, it can actually devastate your health and your natural immune response. Another way that sugar impacts your health is that about 80% of our immune response is a result of the functioning of our gut, and sugar is actually a fertilizer for these very dangerous pathogenic bacteria, yeast, fungi and viruses that can really set up your system to be assaulted by these respiratory viruses.Thus, it’s really crucial to minimize your sugar intake and to also increase the fertilizer for the good bacteria, the probiotics, and one of the way you can do it is making sure you have plenty of good healthy fresh vegetables. The fiber and vegetables actually it’s a prebiotic, it serves as nutrient fertilizer and growth material substrate for the good bacteria, probably one of the major reasons when vegetables are so beneficial for you, because of their influence on you gut flora.
Now, another incredibly important key point that many people don’t necessarily fully appreciate is your sleep. Ideally we should have about seven to eight hours of night sleep. If you’re getting less than six hours, the evidence is very clear, you’re going to have an affected immune system, an if you are working night shifts that’s another devastating assault for your immune system.
Exercise is another tool that you can yield to build it up, but you have to be a little bit cautious with exercise because it is a stressor. So if you are under emotional stress, insomnia, or if you are on a poor diet and your exercise at the same time, you can actually trigger an infection making things worse. One of the reason that exercise works is that it increases your internal body temperature, very similarly to the way that our body does when we get a fever and we use fevers as defense mechanism against these viruses and infections, because they’re a little more susceptible to higher temperatures in our own body cells.
One of the most important factors is stress. That’s inevitable and unavoidable for most of us during day by day life, and absolutely having a profound influence in our health. Using helping habits like prayer, meditation or psychology energy can be a useful way to address these.
If you’re following these lifestyle tips the likelihood of you becoming sick is very low. Anything’s possible, but you’re essentially going to eliminate most of these infections.
This is a long-term process and not everyone of us are able to implement these changes immediately, and even if we are, life is a journey and it can throw us some curve-balls and our sleep patterns might be off, or we might decide to eat some products containing lots of sugar or bring on whatever bad eating habits, and such a combination can get us sick quickly.
So what do you use if you’re sick? Fortunately there are some useful supplement approaches that can be very beneficial to help your body reinforce its ability to fight infection, and one of them is vitamin C.
Vitamin C a very potent antioxidant. Try to use a organic natural one, such as acerola, because it has micronutrients that can facilitate the improvement of your immune response. And don’t forget to respect the dosages.
Another useful supplement is oregano oil. A potent antimicrobial agent like propolis, which is a bee resin and one of the most broad spectrum at microbial compounds in the world. It’s really been shown to be a great aid in the immune response so it’s very helpful.
Olive leaf extract. Ancient Egyptians and Mediterranean cultures used it for a variety of health remedies. Widely known as a natural non-toxic immune system builder.
Zinc can be particularly useful. You have to be a bit careful about picking the specific types of zinc.
Another supplement that can be used pro-actively to build up your immune system is mushrooms. There’s over 300 different species of mushrooms that are now thought to have potential for promoting human health.
The evidence continues to emerge confirming how mushrooms and their proteins, their minerals and their fiber actually promote your overall health. Some other compounds that are found in mushrooms are now believed to help and they do this in a number of ways. By promoting a normal cellular function, they protect against environmental stressors and they support your body’s normal detoxification process, they promote optimal digestion and they support healthy gut flora which is we’re about 80% of your immune response lies.
Remember, the basic process is going to be following positive lifestyle changes, because is the key, the foundation and the building blocks to supporting your immune system. That will not only set you up to protect you against developing these infection in the future, but these same principles will build up your body strength. It will protect you against all the chronic degenerative diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and other common health diseases. You’ll be able to live longer, healthier and live a more enjoyable higher-quality file.
Keep yourself healthy and support your immune system because the key here is to take control of your health.