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- Start your day with a large cup of very warm/ almost hot water. Our bodies lose water through respiration while we sleep, and the dry winter air doesn’t help. In addition, hot water relaxes smooth muscle of the digestive system, cleanses the stomach of traces of food and normalizes its pH, getting you ready for digestion. Wait 20 min before ingesting any other liquids or food. (For extra credit, squeeze the juice of ½ lemon into your morning water.)
2. Eat a healthy breakfast. It doesn’t need to be large, but it has to be healthy. Fruit, oatmeal, eggs, even vegetables –all are very good choices. Better yet, have a salad for breakfast. I know how odd this sounds, but a nice salad full of raw and cooked veggies dressed with extra virgin olive oil and apple cider vinegar and topped with a boiled egg is a fantastic way to start to the day.
3. Get fresh air every day. The stale indoor air doesn’t provide enough oxygen to support optimal lung and blood function. And while you are outside, start taking deeper breaths. Most adults never inhale enough air to fill their entire lungs, they’re so-called “shallow chest breathers”, while the lower lobes of the lungs never get any fresh oxygen. Try this exercise: take the deepest breath you‘ve ever taken through your nose and watch your belly expand. Hold all that air in your lungs for a few seconds, then exhale slowly out of the nose. When you think that all the air is out, squeeze your lower belly in and push the rest of the air out. Now your lungs are truly empty and ready for that oxygenated fresh new air. Also, deep slow breathing calms the nervous system and reduces stress.
4. Lay off sugar, or at least drastically reduce its intake. The ills of white sugar are numerous, but most importantly, it severely suppresses the function of the immune system making us prone to infections.
5. Take high quality nutritional supplements. The following 4 vitamins will do wonders for supporting your health and immune system. Vitamin D – it has been estimated that over 80% of people in the world are deficient in this vitamin, even people who spend many hours out in the sun. Low levels of vitamin D have been associated with frequent infections, including colds and influenza. Another important element, zinc, controls immune system messaging within the cells and is also an anti-oxidant (prevents cell damage) as well as an anti-inflammatory. In order to work effectively in the body to boost immune function, zinc has to be pushed into the cells which would require an ionophore, i.e., quercetin . An ionophore is a substance that transports particles across the cell wall barrier into the center of the cell where viral reproduction takes place. Therefore, the major benefit of taking quercetin with zinc is that the quercetin will push the zinc into the center of the cell where the zinc can stop viruses from reproducing. Finally, vitamin C is a well-known and well studied powerful antioxidant that can strengthen your body’s natural defenses. Vitamin C orchestrates the function of the human immune system by supporting various aspects of both the innate and adaptive immune system including antimicrobial activities of phagocyte cells. In humans, severe vitamin C deficiency has been associated with impairments in immunity and increased susceptibility to more infections, while high dosages of vitamin C supplementation (of at least 5000mg) seems helpful in prevention and treatment of infections. Vitamin C can also shorten the duration of common cold symptoms.
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