As we head into the winter months Down Under, the flu season also starts to pick up. While many people protect themselves with their annual flu shot, there are also natural vitamins and strategies you can adopt to be proactive active colds and flu this season. Here are just five ways you can help beat colds and flu this winter.
Stress management
Managing your mental, emotional and physical stress are key to ensuring you are at your optimal health during the cold and flu season. When you are under stress it can have a significant impact on your immune system. The more stress you place your mind and body under, the greater risk you are at from disease and illness. Maintaining a regular meditation or other relaxation practice are an important proactive approach to help maintain a strong immune system.
Sleep and rest
Getting plenty of rest and a good night’s sleep go a long way to help your mind and body heal. The more fatigued you become means you open yourself up to infection. Your body needs time to relax and repair and when you are sick, the best cure is resting for a few days.
Get some Vitamin D
Vitamin D deficiency research shows is one of the underlying causes of influenza. People who have low levels of vitamin D have shown to be susceptible to colds and flu more than those who are rich in vitamin D. Taking Vitamin D improves your lung function to also protect you against in other respiratory infections due to its anti-inflammatory properties.
Take your Vitamin C
Effective in preventing and treating upper respiratory tract infections in children, vitamins C is also recommended for adults. Vitamin C supplements that are plant based such as rosehip are preferred due to their anti-inflammatory properties.
Add Zinc to your diet
Zinc has strong anti-viral properties against colds and flu and has been shown to reduce the length of severity in a cold. Zinc has the added bonus of improving your gut immunity and microbiota function to boost your immune system. Zinc is recommended for the older person as it can reduce your susceptibility to viral infections.
Of course, as frequent readers of this blog have seen over the past few weeks, I love lemons. They are my ultimate go to for boosting the immune system. You can read more on this post `The Power of Lemons‘.