Cold and Flu Season is here. What do we do to stay well or speed the healing process if we are sick? Here are some great recommendations from a number of different sources:
- Wash your hands
First, the largest contributor to infection is unwashed hands. Washing your hands with soap every few hours will reduce the chance for pathogens to gain access to your system. As important as washing your hands is making sure they are completely dry. Then, use the disposable towel to open the door out of the washroom. Many ugly microbes lurk on door handles - usually from people who have not properly washed and dried their hands.
- Clean surfaces
Next, disinfect surfaces that are shared by many people. For instance, public telephones bring you within kissing distance of hundreds or even thousands of people. Who knows what their hygiene habits are? In a typical day we may be exposed to germs from as many as 150 countries or more!
- Reduce stress
Reduce stress during this season. Stress decreases the effectiveness of your immune system. Your immune system may begin to overreact or not react in time to stop an infection when you are under stress. The source of the stress really does not matter. For instance, job stress and an injury may seem like entirely different stresses to your mind but they are treated exactly the same way by your body.
What determines if you get sick or not?
To better understand viral infections we need to look a bit deeper into medical research. In the book, The Promise of Sleep, William Dement, MD describes a routine where live rhino viruses are cultured and people are routinely infected. Yet, not all of them get sick. Some people actually feel better after the virus has been introduced. How is that possible? It speaks to the nature of viruses.
Viruses have existed on earth far longer than humans have. We exist in the same time and space constantly. You even have many, many thousands of live rhino viruses in your nose right now! Why aren't they causing an infection? It has to do with an argument that occurred 150 years ago between Louis Pasteur and Antoine Bechamp.
Pasteur and Bechamp were physicians in France. They were keenly aware of the same things you and I experience every year: during the cold and flu season, some people get sick and some people don’t. Pasteur spent his life looking for what makes sick people sick. Bechamp spent his career looking for what keeps healthy people healthy - and how we can be like them! They settled their argument with the discovery that illness visits people with poor habits much more frequently than those who care for their health.
It turns out that microbes prefer to wreak their havoc on people with compromised immune systems. Dr. Dement discovered that simple things will make you vulnerable to infection with a cold or the flu, such as:
- An imbalanced diet
- Alcohol and caffeine consumption
- An argument with someone you love
He noted that the greatest contributor to wellness or illness concerning these infections is the amount of sleep that we get. Just as Pasteur and Bechamp discovered more than a century ago, our health revolves around a healthy lifestyle more than the virulence of a microbe.
Help protect against seasonal illness
The phrase that describes our vulnerability or resistance to disease is "Biological Terrain." The terrain or landscape of our health is made up of our genetics, our environment and, most importantly, our lifestyle. Vigorous application of the 10 Essentials yields the healthiest, most sickness or illness-resistant terrain. Skipping even one of these principles will change your terrain and leave you vulnerable to infection.
- A base of healthy nutrients
Establishing a base of healthy nutrients can provide us with a very resilient terrain. The more dense the base is, the more sickness or illness-resistant our terrain will be. Taking a multiple vitamin and mineral supplement every day is an excellent start. Almost all physicians recommend an Omega-3 supplement as well. If your terrain is being remodeled by stress, you may need Adaptogens to help you cope while remaining sickness or illness-resistant. Indeed, the long-term studies of adaptogens in Russia clearly demonstrated that these plants help your body resist infections and aid in healing.
- Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a favorite for protecting against the common cold. Russell Jaffe, MD, former director of the National Institutes of Health, recommends a loading dose of Vitamin C: one teaspoon of Vitamin C crystals every 15 minutes until you "flush." By this, he means a complete bowel evacuation. After the flush, he recommends a daily serving of Vitamin C (for one month) that is equivalent to 75% of the amount it took you to flush. This should really improve your terrain!
- Echinacea
Echinacea is used in a similar way. Significant medical research from Germany suggests that an hourly dose of Echinacea will help reduce symptoms and shorten the duration of a virus infection. Taking a gram of Echinacea every hour for three days may even reduce chances of an infection that has already begun. Continue taking Echinacea three times daily for up to two weeks afterward to protect against a relapse.
What are the best ways to protect against virus infections from colds and flu? Build up your terrain with the 10 Essentials, and reduce your exposure through hand-washing and other sanitary procedures. If your lifestyle has become so hectic that you become vulnerable, aggressive nutrition can restore balance to your immune system. If you feel a bug coming on, traditional remedies such as Vitamin C and Echinacea may be the final bulwark between you and a serious infection.
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