How to boost your immune system and fend off infections!
1)Boost your vitamin D. A meta-analysis of 25 randomized controlled trials including more than 11,000 participants, found taking Vitamin D daily cut the risk of respiratory infection in half.
Most of us don’t get enough sunlight, especially in winter. Unfortunately light through glass doesn’t count, as it isn’t the right wavelength your body needs to create vitamin D. Many people when tested are found to have low levels. Most people can safely take vitamin D and still be well within the normal range. Vitamin D is critical to your immune system and low levels have been linked to auto immune disease like Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
2)Take Vitamin C and a probiotic. There are over 700 species of bacteria in the oral cavity alone. These help protect you from the bad bugs that cause infections. A new probiotic Streptoccocus salivarius K12, colonises the mouth and throat with good bacteria. It’s a lozenge you use each day. Backed by 30 years of research, the BLIS K12 strain has been scientifically developed to support a healthy microflora in the oral cavity.
In the ProChild Study, a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the efficacy of a probiotic formulation, called Lab4, combined with vitamin C was tested for six months. The 57 preschool children, aged three to six years, received the probiotic of Lactobacillus acidophilus CUL21, Lactobacillus acidophilus CUL60, Bifidobacterium bifidum CUL20, and Bifidobacterium animalis and 50mg Vitamin C or a placebo. Compared to placebo, the children in the treatment group had 49% reduced duration of cough and cold symptoms, 33% reduced Upper Respiratory Tract Infection incidence, 30% reduced absenteeism from school and 43% reduced GP visits!
A new Australian study has highlighted that Vitamin C deficiency is more common than is generally thought, and is associated with prolonged length of stay in hospital. (76.5% of patients had hypovitaminosis C).
Another meta-analysis found that vitamin C helps reduce the length of stays in intensive care units. Intravenous Vitamin C reduced the length of an ICU stay on average by 7.8% (95% CI: 4.2% to 11.2%; p = 0.00003). Orally administered vitamin C in doses of 1–3 g/day reduced the length of ICU stay by 8.6% (p = 0.003). In addition, researchers also found that in three trials where patients needed mechanical ventilation for over 24 hours, vitamin C shortened the duration of mechanical ventilation by 18.2% (95% CI 7.7% to 27%; p = 0.001). A previous meta-analysis of 11 trials on patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery found that vitamin C shortened hospital stay on average by 10%.
3) Rest and de-stress! It’s really important to give your body the chance to recover. Your main repair and regeneration happens whilst you sleep, so make your sleep routine and environment as optimal as possible. Make the room dark and avoid screens 30minutes before bed. Invest in a high quality pillow and mattress. Avoid caffeine after 2pm. Minimise alcohol as it reduces the quality of your sleep. In the morning get into sunlight to help set your circadian rhythm. Your morning has a major impact on your night. Sleep deprivation alters immune function and appears to generally reduce resistance to infection so it’s important to fix. We use a range of fantastic products with our patients that help the mind calm down before bed, improve the quality and duration of sleep and help you wake up feeling refreshed. If you’re sleep is impacting your wellbeing make an appointment as there’s plenty of things we can do help. You can read more about ways to reduce stress here in this free Quick start guide
4) Wash your hands! Most infections are viruses that spread through touch. Someone sneezes or coughs into their hand, then they touch a surface like a door handle. You then touch that door and rub your eyes or eat something and inadvertently get infected. A sneeze can spread far and wide! To protect others, sneeze into your right elbow (put your right hand on your left shoulder). This will contain the germs. Before eating, wash your hands! (Water and soap is fine, no need for anti-bacterial washes, often these have harsh chemicals in them).
5) Eat more good fat and protein. Boost your olive oil, eat more raw nuts, eggs and high quality protein like grass fed organic meat. Your body needs high quality raw materials to build a high quality immune system.
6) Deal with chronic inflammation. If your immune system is chronically activated it can’t fight off new threats as easily. If you have a chronic health issue such as an issue with your gut, make an appointment with us so we can help get you back on the road to wellness. If you have an ongoing dental infection, get it fixed.
7) If you come down with the flu or other infection, we offer an IV therapy of high dose vitamin C and other key antioxidants to rehydrate you, and super charge your immune system.
8)Maximise your gut health, hormones, methylation, detoxification, sleep, cognition, and general well being so you are more able to fend off infections! Our doctors use a nutrition first drugs last approach and optimise all areas of health to maximise your wellbeing for the long term. Learn more here about why our Functional Medicine approach is unique: https://www.evergreendoctors.com
