When you get a cold, all you want is sugar and comfort food. Healthy eating becomes a thing of the past. A cold or flu is debilitating and can affect your work performance and mood. It is best to do everything you can to avoid falling ill.
From Covid-19 we all know the best way to avoid picking up bugs and viruses. Washing hands to keep them clean. Sneezing and coughing into a hanky to avoid contaminating people around us. Wearing a mask in public transport and busy public areas. This education will prove useful for all flu seasons ahead.
There are early signs that your immune cells are in battle
Feeling tired or lethargic, a hangover type feeling between eyes or behind nose area, can’t get warm but no-one else around you is complaining of feeling cold, a raw feel or slight tickle to the back of the throat. Then the signs kick in more forcefully. A few sneezes, feeling very cold and a headache.
PROTECTION – act early enough
I use this every Winter when I feel the first sign of being attacked. A propolis spray that you can spray to the back of your throat. Propolis is the active compound in honey that has anti-bacterial properties. Use this on flights and at busy conferences and meetings, amongst large gathering of people in enclosed environment where bugs and viruses can prosper.
Bring your body temperature up. Take a hot shower, wrap up with multiple layers. Bacteria and viruses do not like heat. Take a sauna and sweat.
Suck some immuno-boosting lozenges (manuka lozenges and echinacea aniseed lozenges) which also help to keep the throat lubricated. However, they contain sugar but also the active compounds. You can also add lemon juice (Vit C) and powder Vitamin C (250mg x 4 times a day) to warm water and sip at your desk.
Another key protective nutrient is GARLIC and it can be taken naturally in food or as capsules. Garlic has anti-bacterial and some anti-viral properties. If you are under pressure at work or stressed, dose yourself with this daily to help support your immunity. Garlic helps to keep blood thin and is best avoided in supplemental form if taking blood-thinning medications.
Vitamin D plays a protective role for our immune system. It is a fat-soluble vitamin and you will have stores in your fat cells if you enjoyed good sun this year. I recommend starting the D-Lux spray in October and continuing until May, pausing it if taking a Winter sun holidays. If you have had good levels of sun over the Summer, start on the low 1000iu dose, and in January, if the Winter begins to bite, increase to a higher dose. One spray as you get up every morning. I keep it on my bedside locker. Sold in Health stores and Pharmacies.
Eat well. Check out my recipes and other blogs in eating healthy on my site.
Fresh Air. Take exercise and get the immune cells circulating and on alert. Exercise boosts immunity. Wrap up well if it is cold. If you get wet, take a hot shower immediately when you get home. Keep you home and office air clean and avoid over-heating rooms. The body burns more kcalories in a cooler environment and immune cells stay more alert.
Actions to take if the cold virus has entered the body
Staying at home and working from home will protect others. It also allows you to stay in and stay warm.
Vitamin C taken in 250mg doses every 2 to 3 hours bolsters up antioxidant protection in the bloodstream and tissue fluids. Take to a max of 3000mg (3g) per day and for about 2 days. If it hasn’t helped by then, it’s too late and high does are unlikely to help.
Zinc, 9 – 10mg per day for adults, a capsule/tablet after rising in the morning to boost your immune cells. Again just take for 2 to 3 days. Do not take long term as zinc and copper work together and taking just one can upset the balance of the other.
Bring your body temperature up. Take a very hot shower and allow the water to beat down on the back of your neck and I also try to tolerate it on my face and it helps free up any stuffy sinus or nose. Drink hot drinks to warm internally, add lemon and honey and cloves. Triple layer up with clothing, neck, chest area, kidney area and feet, especially if getting fresh air. Avoid stuffy rooms. Sweat it out in a sauna – bacteria hate heat. Infrared saunas may be even better again.
Take a WHEY Protein shake before bed – 10g Pulsin Whey powder in 1oog kefir milk with water. Whey provides the 3 amino acids that make glutathione, the liver’s main protector. A strong liver is immune protective.
Probiotic foods such as live yogurt and kefir milk can help to bolster gut microbes who support gut immune cells.
Sleep well. When we are down in sleep, our immunity is under threat.
Avoid stress. When stress hormones are high, immunity is naturally shot down or off high alert.
This Winter, protect yourself. See if you can get through it without a cold or flu by taking the measures outlines above. Slainte.
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