How to Keep from Getting Sick this Winter
Flu & cold season will probably continue for next 2-3 months. (COVID season seems to be all of the time.) So prevention is a timely topic. The best prevention is to bolster your terrain. According to CancerChoices.org, “Your body terrain is the state of your inner environment. It includes your nutritional status, metabolism, immune function, microbiome, environmental exposures, and more”.
Keep your terrain strong by:
- Eating nutritious foods and avoiding junky, processed foods.
- Avoiding sugar especially (it lowers your immune system for hours afterward)
- Managing your stress and reducing what stressors you can.
- Laughing and smiling a lot.
- Keeping well-hydrated.
- Getting 7-8 hours of sleep
- Never touching your eyes, nose, or mouth before thoroughly washing your hands.
- Moving more.
- Not licking doorknobs. Just seeing if you are reading this.
- Getting sunlight and fresh air.
- Having optimal Vitamin D levels. Most people are low. Ask your health provider to order a lab test to check.
- Holding your breath. This one may sound odd, and I am sure that I look weird at times out in public, but, for instance, if I walking down an aisle at the store and someone coughs, I immediately hold my breath, turn the other way and walk quickly in the opposite direction.
Seriously, these recommendations really work. I rarely get sick. The last time I had the flu was about 10 years ago, and the last cold was before that. I have had COVID two times, but what continues to take me down are autoimmune and chronic issues. I am still trying to figure all of that out. However, that said…
Let’s Unpack just one of the above a bit: “Getting 7-8 hours of sleep”
First of all, going to bed and going to sleep every night seems like a very indulgent thing to do. In my mind at least. We change into pajamas, perhaps shower or bathe, lay down in bed, close our eyes, and check out of life. Every night. And we get away with it!
Sometimes when I go to bed I feel like an iPhone or iPad that needs recharging, thinking like “here I am in my dock station”.
Secondly…
Why sleep is important:
Interestingly, scientists are not sure exactly why we need sleep, but it has been well proven that we do. There are at least 4 different theories about why.
However, we do know that major restorative functions take place while we sleep. This such as tissue repair, cementing new memories, the removal of toxic wastes in the brain, processing and filtering information, and giving your organs and muscles a break. Also, during sleep the releasing and regulation of important hormones occur such as human growth hormone; insulin; hunger regulating hormones, ghrelin and leptin; and testosterone; as well as much, much more. Furthermore, sleep helps produce cytokines and T-cells, which help fight infections, thereby boosting the immune system.
Health expert Mark Sisson in his book, Primal Blueprint, says, “Chronic sleep deficit may lead to weight gain…negatively affect your mood, concentration, and memory retention” as well as make you “less productive and more irritable, impatient, and moody”. It can “also lead to hypertension, elevated stress hormone levels, irregular heartbeat, compromised immune function, and drastically increased risk for obesity and heart disease”. Umm, who wants any of that?
Thirdly…
Causes of Sleep Disruption (just to name a few):
Caffeine, of course.
Exercising too close to bedtime.
Environment is too hot or too cold.
Cluttery bedroom.
Stress.
Crying babies.
High EMF (electromagnetic field) exposure.
Exposure to too much light after dark and the use of screens, you know, iPhones, iPads, TV’s.
Too much alcohol, or alcohol consumption too close to bedtime.
Too much mental stimulation, like studying too late or scary movies.
Some of these sleep impediments you can’t control, but many of them you can. So, do what you can, but…
You will find me in my dock station tonight probably between 9:00 & 9:30 p.m.
Sweet dreams,
~Vanessa
www.vanessamarsden.com
Instagram @wellnessadventure_RN
Note: Some of the sleep info is recycled material from my website article: The Importance of Sleep
