That was the title of an email I received today from our local medicaid insurance company. As a doctor, I get all sorts of info on what the insurance companies and Big Pharma think is best for us. When I saw the first part of the title I thought "YES! Yes it DOES start with you!" But then the rest of the title talked about what they felt was the proper step to "protect yourself and those you love".
The seasonal flu is a respiratory illness caused by a virus and lowering your overall risk factors is your BEST prevention against it.
Below are 5 things you can do to help keep yourself healthy this year.
1. Lower your sugar intake. Viruses (and bacteria) thrive on sugar. it is estimated that 80% of all viruses bind to the sugars that are on the outside or your cells. When they do this, they are able to break through the cell wall and infect the cells. Once inside the cell, the virus reproduces, causing the cell to rupture and spewing gout all the newly created little viruses to go and further infect other cells. This is part of why a virus can move through the body so quickly and become systemic. Cutting your sugar intake can slow do the speed that the virus replicates.
2. Increase your water intake. Water is a large part of every cell in the body so it is crucial to make sure you are getting enough water to both help fight off a viral infection once it's settled it, but to also help ward off the infection to begin with. Sufficient amounts of water also keep the mucus membranes and skin hydrated and help to act as a barrier against viral infection.
3. VitaminD is actually a hormone that is created in the body when we are in direct access to sunlight. During the winter months, when the sun is much more scarce for many parts of the northern hemisphere, vitaminD levels need to be supplemented. Iit is recommended in many health circles that when supplementing with VitaminD that a female takes 4,000-5,000iu a day while pregnant and nursing women should take 5,000-6,000iu a day. Men should take a minimum of 5,000iu a day and kids should take 1,000iu per 25 pounds of body weight of if your child is 75 pounds, they should be getting roughly 3000iu a day. Check out this article that goes into more depth on the importance of Vitamin D and the symptoms and issues when deficient.
4. Probiotics play an important overall role in gut health, but most people don't realize that gut health plays an important role in the immune system. In our medical system, we tend to look at the body as individual units (cardiovascular system, immune system, digestive system, etc) and see specific doctors for each system, instead of seeing how each system interacts and benefits the others. When it comes to the immune system, over 80% of it is located within the gut so having a health microbiome is essential. My favorite probiotic contains over 17 billion live cultures from 9 beneficial bacteria, all helping to create the ideal microbiome in the gut.
5. Over the centuries, simple herbs have been used to keep people healthy and many have scientifcally been proven to be affective. A few of these are clove, cinnamon and oregano. Lemon and orange have also been found to have cleansing properties, which is why you will often see if many cleaning products. One of my favorite products to help keep my family healthy is Thieves. It combines the power of clove, cinnamon and lemon as well as adds eucalyptus and rosemary into the mix. This product is so important to the overall health of my family that I was thankful when my favorite company came out with an entire line of products to keep my house clean and my family health. With products ranging from toothpaste, soaps, hand sanitizer and mouthwash to laundry soap, household cleaner, and dishwasher detergent, all areas of our household can reap the benefits.
None of these things are going to keep you 100% from getting sick this season but all will assist you in staying healthy. Sleep and stress levels also play an important role in your immune system strength so make sure to get plenty of rest this winter! I have my hands on 20-30 patients, or more, a day so staying healthy is important to me, especially when they come in sniffling and sneezing. Thieves hand sanitizer is my best friend most days! Stay healthy my friends!! You've got this!
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