Stay Healthy While Everyone Else is Sick!

There is a horrible feeling of dread when it seems like everyone around you is getting sick. Whether it’s your spouse, half of your co-works or that random person in the elevator who keeps coughing; suddenly you start seeing sick people everywhere. So with the world around you succumbing to ‘that cold’ how do you avoid its tyranny?  

The obvious and easy answer is to have a good healthy immune system; the hard answer is how you get a good healthy immune system.  There is no one thing (or combination of things) that works for everyone.  With that being said, here are some general tips and tricks I have found that keep me healthy.

1.       Eat right – this is one of those general statements for being healthy, but making sure that your body gets all the nutrients it needs is an important part of having a healthy immune system. Specifically make sure to get enough magnesium, Vitamin B, and Vitamin D (ok you don’t eat Vitamin D, you get it from the sun but it’s still an important part of your immune system).

2.       Treat your gastrointestinal system well.  90% of our immune system lives in our GI tract.

3.       Reduce stress- those who are constantly feeling the effects of stress are much more likely to get sick. This is just one of the reasons it’s important to find an outlet to release your daily stress.

4.       Wash your hand before you eat.  Everyone (well hopefully everyone) washes their hands after they use the restroom, but rarely right before they eat. But, if you work in an office and you are typing on the keyboard and then eat a sandwich….. I think you can fill in the gaps. The trick is not to Lysol the whole office (there are a lot of toxic chemicals that get released into the air when you do) but simply to wash your hands with soap and water.  Anti-bacteria soap is fine if you’re out and about, but it’s always best to use actual soap and water if you get the chance.

5.       If I feel something coming on… sleep, sleep, and get some more sleep!! When we sleep it’s a chance for our body to focus a lot of its energy on healing. So, if you feel that tickle in the back of your throat, go to bed early that night.

6.       I get adjusted on a regular basis. This helps keep my body, and my nervous system, at its peak health so that is I come into contact with a cold I am able to fight it quickly.