Not just flu season remedies
Getting through seasonal maladies can be tough, especially if you are prone to sickness. The key is to boost your immune system year-round so you can fight all the pathogens thrown your way.
We are blessed with a built-in disease-fighting system called our immune system. We must keep our immune systems in tip-top shape in order to fight against diseases of all kinds. There are a few easy ways to do this;
use food as medicine
make small lifestyle changes to better your health.
add medicinal herbs as alternatives
move your body.
The most readily available way to keep us healthy is through our diets and the foods we eat. As Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” It’s that simple. We can get all the vitamins and minerals that our bodies need to help fight infection and chronic inflammation just from the foods we eat. Eating the right foods can help keep inflammation down reducing chronic illness which can have long-term effects. Chronic inflammation caused by an overactive immune system from highly inflammatory foods, microbes, chemicals, plant pollens, and allergens can increase your risk for cancer, diabetes, heart disease, depression, arthritis, and even Alzheimers disease.
Some anti-inflammatory foods to add to your diet are:
Seasonal fruits up to 2 cups a day, pomegranates( high in Vit C, K, potassium, and fiber), pears, apples, and persimmons for fall and winter
Berries high in fiber and antioxidant activity and Vit C, blackberries, blueberries, cranberries, etc.
Green leafy vegetables, spinach, kale, swiss chard, mustard greens, collard greens. Add a salad a day. Add greens to your smoothie, and sautee greens w morning eggs.
Fish and chicken are healthy sources of protein, low in fat and fish is high in omegas which help also to lower bad cholesterol.
STAY AWAY FROM
overly processed foods such as fast food
deep fried foods
T.V dinners with high sodium content
excess sugar (the silent killer).
Everything in moderation, this time of year especially. When we overindulge these highly inflammatory foods can become harmful to our health leading to chronic inflammation.
Small lifestyle changes like adding exercise to your routine can strengthen your immune system. Year-round you can keep your immune system strong by exercising which increases its fighting power. You don’t have to work out for long hours to achieve this. The rule of thumb for adults is 150 hours a week, see my Move your body section for ideas.
Add medicinal herbal teas and other remedies like Colloidal silver. Silver, if you haven’t heard about it is a great way to keep your immune system in check daily. Colloidal silver is in the form of nanoparticles that our bodies can process and absorb easily. Research shows CS can fight strong bacteria like gram-positive and negative strains and multidrug-resistant bacteria. Colloidal silver also has antiviral effects and can be used to treat strong flu viruses like SARS. I use it every day to ward off microbes. It is also very effective for fungal and other microbial infections. Sovereign Silver is our favorite and it comes in a nose spray that is great for allergies or to use daily to protect you from getting sick.
Medicinal herbs like oregano oil are a very effective healthy and safe alternative. Oregano oils active ingredients like carvacrol and thymol have very strong medicinal properties that fight against multidrug-resistant bacteria that antibiotics aren’t strong enough to kill. It is one of the strongest defenses against bacterial, virus, and fungal infections. Oregano has also been shown to be an important anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and cancer suppressor. This is one medicinal herb that you should have in your medicine cabinet and take daily during flu season to avoid getting sick and to boost your immune system.
Stress is another culprit that increases inflammation and can cause our immune systems to become weak. When we are stressed we release the stress hormone cortisol, no matter if it is good stress or bad. Cortisol is the flight or fight hormone that increases inflammation in the body. Find ways to reduce your stress daily and especially during the holidays to avoid getting sick. See the Chill page under the self-care section for tips to reduce stress.
There are many ways to keep your immune system strong and healthy, using essential oils, herbal teas, movement, diet, and small lifestyle changes reducing stress to get you through all seasons of change to keep you healthy.
