Boost Your Immunity During Cold & Flu Season
Catching an occasional cold or flu is inevitable. But do you sometimes feel like you catch everything that goes around the office or the family? Or maybe you feel a bit paranoid about not catching a cold or a flu because it goes straight to your lungs every time and you end up with bronchitis…or worse? Or maybe you’ve come to terms with your chronic nasal congestion, and you just make sure to carry a tissue everywhere you go…
If any of that sounds or feels familiar, you deserve to get through cold and flu season without it being a constant struggle.
But to strengthen your immune system, you need a plan.
What Causes an Imbalanced Immune System?
Both an overactive and an underactive immune system can lead to an imbalanced immune system response during the cold and flu season. But what kinds of things can lead to an imbalanced immune system?
The most common contributors to an imbalanced immune system include the following:
- Environment
- High psychological stress
- Inadequate sleep or rest
- High simple carbohydrate diet
- Low level infections
Environment
Your environment is one of the most common causes of susceptibility to cold and flu. If your immediate environment subjects you to things that stimulate your immune system on a regular basis, you’ll be more likely to respond to viruses your exposed to.
An environment full of allergens such as animal dander, dust, pollen… etc can be constantly aggravating. Simple practices such as keeping the areas of your house you spend the most time in clean, can make a huge difference. Dust baseboards, windows, blinds and under your bed. If you have carpet in your bedroom, consider getting it deep cleaned once to twice a year.
The air filter in your A/C or furnace should be replaced every couple of months that it’s running. Additionally, you can consider putting an air filter in your bedroom to help filter out any dust or dander in that area.
If you live in a moist or damp environment, mold accumulation can also make people susceptible to illness. Getting your house checked for mold or testing yourself for mold can help you identify this as a cause.
Sleep and Stress
Sleep is incredibly important. At least 7-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night is helpful for helping to strengthen and balance your immune system. This can be hard if you are feeling sick or you have children that are sick or up multiple times a night. But practicing healthy sleep habits can go a long way.
Simple steps to help with sleep include not using electronics such as computers and phones 30 min before bed, turning lights down low, removing ambient light in your bedroom, using blackout curtains, or playing soft or calming music at night while you sleep.
Stress, especially long term ongoing stress, can also make you more susceptible to cold and flu. When stress is high, getting enough sleep, reducing work load, or making sure you are exercising or eating healthy foods can be helpful in managing symptoms.
Diet and Lifestyle
A typical American diet with high carbohydrates and processed foods can lead to conditions such as leaky gut which can make you more susceptible to cold and flu. Filling your diet with anti-inflammatory foods, colorful vegetables and mineral filled broths can be helpful in improving immunity.
Leaky gut is a condition where the barrier of your intestines is compromised, and it creates gaps between cells where it’s normally tight. It allows larger proteins and molecules to pass through the tissues and into the bloodstream. Normally they are broken down into smaller pieces. The immune system attacks these larger proteins. But the problem is that when your body is focused on fighting food every day, it has fewer resources to fight off foreign invaders when it needs to.
Low Level Infections
Healthy sinus and nasal passageways can clear mucus and trapped particles out of the body with ease. When mucus builds up during acute respiratory infections, it becomes difficult to clear and creates a moist environment that encourages fungal and bacterial overgrowth.
This can cause sinus tissue to become irritated and inflamed. Treating the underlying bacterial and fungal overgrowth is important. Otherwise the immune system will continue to wage a daily battle that will only make it weaker over time.
If you’re ready to take control of your health, let our team at Aria Integrative Medicine help you identify the root cause of what’s driving your seasonal immune imbalances. Schedule a free phone consult today, and we’ll help you discover how we can help you feel better.
