Stay Out of the Doctor’s Office and Save Your Sick Days for Vacation!     by David Schiman 

Fall is often a time when we are more prone to seasonal allergies, colds and flus.  But with some simple techniques and mindfulness, we can avoid getting sick.

So, although there are many ways you might end up with a weakened immune system, the more common contributing factors are:

  1. Vitamin D deficiency (supplement with Vitamin D3, which can be found at Weaver’s Way, Whole Foods, GNC, online, etc.) Or better, yet, spend 20 minutes in the sunlight everyday!
  2. Eating too much sugar and too many grains
  3. Not getting enough rest or sleep
  4. Inadequate exercise
  5. Using inadequate strategies to address emotional stressors in your life
  6. Any combination of the above
If you do catch a cold, these simple steps will help you recover faster!
  1. Use a Neti pot to irrigate your nose and sinuses and flush out mucus  (here’s how….it really works!!)  Make sure to use distilled water!
  2. Avoid dairy products and grains until your cold is cleared up.  Milk, Cheese, yogurt all create mucus in the body and will exacerbate cold symptoms.
  3. Eat warming foods, especially root vegetables like carrots, ginger, sweet potatoes, yams, burdock root.  These will help your body to “warm up” and push out the cold.  They are in season and will help recovery.  Eat chicken soup, too!  Chicken fat has anti-biotic properties.
  4. Drink warm tea and lots of water
  5. Increase Vitamin D3 level (supplement or sunshine!)
  6. Use Cold Snap, Yin Qiao, or a similar Chinese herbal product to fight off the cold
  7. And finally, go ahead and exercise!!  (Read more below)

Go head and exercise, even if you DO have a cold!  This great article from Dr. Mercola summarizes two studies that say exercising won’t hurt you if you’ve got a cold and will probably make you feel better!  Read it here….   and this article is more proof …click here.

For more ways to stay healthy and fight colds and flus, check out Carol Haslam’s article in the patch:

An Ounce of Prevention