Natural Resilience Against Colds and Flus: Lifestyle Habits that puts you at risk and how to fix them.
Evading this season’s colds, coughs and flu can feel like an uphill battle through a treacherous warzone. As you forge through uncharted territory, you remain constantly vulnerable to an enemy ambush closing in on you. The same can be said of your body during winter, when it must regularly defend against viruses and bacteria. Poor battle tactics, such as inadequate immune defences, can increase the chance of viruses and bacteria leading to an infection. Fortunately, arming yourself with tools that enhance your immune response can turn the tables on the enemy and mount a counterattack that could win the war, allowing you to conquer any bugs that may come your way.
The Nitty Gritty of the Warzone
Your immune system has evolved to identify and destroy pathogens, viruses and bacteria, before they win the war. It does so by drawing on two lines of immune defence.
The innate immune response is activated when a pathogen you are exposed to invades your body, immediately setting into motion the production and release of immune cells that hunt down and destroy the attacker. Conversely, the adaptive immune response plays a slow and measured strategy, using other types of specialised immune cells (known as B cells and T cells) to learn about the threat and adjust it’s defences accordingly for a targeted approach.1
When these two lines of defence are in peak form, your immune system does a solid job of protecting you against pathogenic threats. However, an inadequate immune response increases the likelihood of pathogens overcoming your immune defences, leading to infection. In these instances, enhancing your immune system’s function using natural medicines can help build resistance against viral and bacterial pathogens and prevent the onset of infection.
Your Tactical Advantage
To help your army of immune cells protect you from infection, you need to create the right conditions for them to effectively defend you. In other words, just as unfavourable conditions (e.g. harsh weather) affect a soldier’s efforts in battle, the following conditions make it more difficult for your immune soldiers to defend your body:
Poor gut health;
Low nutrient levels;
Poor sleep quality;
Chronic stress; and
Not enough exercise.
Read on to learn more about how these five areas can make or break your ability to triumph over illness this winter.
1. Engage your Gut Bacteria
It might surprise you to learn that the gut is the key to your immune health. Within your gut, your resident bacteria (and other microscopic organisms), known as your microbiome, directly interact with your immune army, (a large proportion of which is housed in the gut). This affects your overall immune response against infection.
Put simply, a healthy microbiome full of beneficial bacteria helps to build immune function, whilst a compromised microbiome can hinder your immune army’s response against infection.
Unfortunately, many things can reduce your levels of good bacteria. One of these is a lack of fiber and the second common example is antibiotics, which is often what you are prescribed when infection keeps getting the better of you. Repeat courses of antibiotics may cause a loss of beneficial bacteria every time you get sick, making you more susceptible to future infections.
If this pattern sounds familiar to you, consider seeking out the care of a naturopathic practitioner who can assess and address the health of your gut bacteria. Your Practitioner can also prescribe specific probiotic strains (types) that have been shown to boost immunity and reduce the risk of catching a cold, such as Lactobacillus rhamnosus , Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus paracasei To learn more about the benefits of specific probiotic strains, and why it’s important to choose the right strain for your particular needs, click here.
2. Stock up on Nutritional Ammunition
Your immune system’s ability to protect you also depends upon on your nutritional health. Several nutrients, including zinc and vitamin C, are involved in keeping your immune cells in good shape, as they help your body to create them on a daily basis. As such, without enough of these nutrients to create your immune army, your chance of getting sick is higher (2).
If you’re usually on the losing end of colds and flu, and haven’t considered topping up your nutritional stores, there’s a fair chance that supplementing zinc and vitamin C can increase your resistance to infection and support faster recovery, buying back your time and health over winter. To read about what type of vitamin C you should use and how much I wrote about this in a previous article here.
3. Maximise Your Sleep Quality
You’ve probably experienced the difference between a restful and sleepless night, and you know which you would prefer, right? Your immune system feels the same, especially when it’s faced with the threat of illness. Put simply, sleep is the body’s time to rest and regenerate itself, so it can create enough immune cells to defend you from illness. Plan early nights in and make a ritual out of it, read that book you have been meaning to read, or have a relaxing bath prior to bed. To learn more about how to encourage a restful nights sleep read this article here.
4. Keep an Eye on Your Stress
High and prolonged levels of stress take a toll on the immune system, weakening your defenses and making you more susceptible to sickness. Managing stress helps more than just immune function; it also improves the overall health of your body. This is why having a few stress-busting strategies built into your daily routine can fortify your health and keep infection from taking hold. One great one is movement, and as you will read below exercise also boosts our immunity so you can double your immune boosting benefits.
5. Stay immune Fit with Exercise
Exercise helps you to build strong muscles and allows you to extend the limits of what you’re physically capable of. Similarly, exercise also strengthens your immune system, making it more powerful and effective in its response to nasty infections. Even just 30 minutes of walking has been shown to boost the quantity of immune cells in the body, which is why regular exercise is a key weapon in beating back illness (3).
Winter is Coming
To prepare your immune army for cold and flu season, focus on these five areas and even better go and see a health Practitioner to equip yourself with the best strategy to shut down infection before it becomes a battle. By taking professional advice on board and focusing on these five areas (for at least four weeks before winter hits), you will be setting yourself up to triumph against illness, so you can spend more time appreciating the magic of winter.
References
1 Ralston SH, Penman ID, Strachan MW, Hobson RP. Davidson’s principles and practice of medicine. 23rd ed. Edinburgh (UK): Elsevier/Churchill Livingstone; 2018. p. 61-90.
2 Maggini S, Pierre A, Calder PC. Immune function and micronutrient requirements change over the life course. Nutrients. 2018 Oct 17;10(10). doi: 10.3390/nu10101531.
3 Nieman DC, Henson DA, Austin MD, Brown VA. Immune response to a 30-minute walk. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2005 Jan;37(1):57-62. PMID: 15632669.