Do You Treat Your Immune System Like a Weekend Warrior?
As a wellness coach, I occasionally get questions from people wanting advice for a quick fix.
“Help! I’ve come down with a horrendous cough!”, or “I have a massive head cold, any hot tea suggestions?”, or “I think I have the flu, what essential oil would you try?!”
While there are certainly some steps you can take in the short term to manage these immunity emergencies using alternative or natural means, for best results you need to look beyond the weekend warrior approach to natural wellness.
If you came to me saying you wanted to run a marathon, I would assume you were planning on giving yourself many months to train for it.
You need to strengthen many different areas over a period of time to have a successful, injury-free race. You certainly wouldn’t have a successful result if you started training a week or two prior without properly adapting to the stressors of the event. Your body would likely break down in some way or another even though you had every intention of completing the race.
The same is true when looking at wellness. You must view it through a long lens, taking time to build and strengthen connected systems and continually providing your body with what it needs to successfully get through a “crisis”.
If you pay little attention to your wellness on the day to day, but expect a weekend of ‘cramming’ with echinacea and ginger tea to stomp out your flu, you will find yourself, as in the race example above, limping along, wondering what the heck happened.
Building a strong immune system is the key to optimal health but it takes daily effort. Commit to building a regular practice of self-care, making sure all systems are functioning at optimal levels. Here are some of the things you can do to begin a long term training plan for your immune system.
Get Quality Sleep- a minimum of 7 hours nightly...not kidding
Eat Quality Foods- go heavy on fresh vegetables and greens along with all the other good stuff.
Stay Hydrated - this means plenty of H2O. A dehydrated body never functions at full capacity.
Exercise - this reduces stress, benefits all systems, helping to create overall balance, too much exercise, however, can lower your immune function
Stress Maintenance - A stressed-out mind/body can result in disease. Meditate, walk, be in natural settings, hug your dog, laugh, pray, breathe deeply and repeat, practice qigong, etc.
Maintain Optimal Vitamin D - Read here
Build a Healthy Microbiome - eat fermented foods, eat veggies, avoid unnecessary antibiotics
Avoid Sugar/Sweets - Your immune system function is lowered after consuming sugary items
Avoid Fast Food/Low-Quality Food - You, and your immune system, deserve the best
Enjoy Daily - Lots of fresh ginger, fresh garlic, turmeric, oregano, cayenne pepper, cinnamon