Prepare your health for the cold winter ahead and avoid illness with knowledge from our new blog series.
Part 1, written by guest biologist, and nutritionist, Elizabeth A Grochowska
(MSc Biol, LCH, Dipl EMS, member CThA)
If we are to face the cold months in good shape, we need to strengthen our immune system by embarking on a healthier lifestyle.
This will involve the following:
1. Good nutrition
2. Supplementing our diet with specific nutrients
3. Sleep and rest
4. Decreasing our toxic load
5. Working on our breathing
6. Improving our posture
7. Taking care of our mental health
8. Having a sufficient amount of physical activity
9. Connecting with nature
10. Dressing appropriately
As we see, there are several important elements that are important to our overall well-being. Where do we start?
Well, this depends on the person. We are all different, so no one size fits all. There are, however, absolute basics that apply to each individual, and depending on actual needs, interventions might take a different form, according to priorities.
I am going to try to keep things as simple as possible, although complete avoidance of scientific terms will not be possible.
First of all, it is important to have a basic knowledge of the immune system - broadly, how it works and is influenced by different internal, as well as external factors. There is a lot of information out there presented in various ways, and depending on the reader’s background, desire, and ability to acquire the knowledge, some sources are going to be more suitable than others.
Here I have included several videos and links and strongly encourage readers to familiarise themselves with knowledge of the immune system:
You can also click the image below, or here, for a BioInteractive module that introduces the anatomy of the immune system and walks you through the timeline of a typical immune response.
You can also learn more from this detailed explanation of how nonspecific and specific immunity function and how the immune system evolved.
Infections
Coming down with an infection might be unavoidable, although the severity might vary depending on our homeostatic state, which fluctuates all the time and is very dependent on the ten factors listed above.
The better we take care of our overall well-being, the less severe the symptoms are going to be and the less we are going to suffer.
Let’s take the very common upper respiratory tract infections manifesting with a sore throat, cough, coryza, general malaise, and aches. Regardless of the diagnosis (eg tonsillitis, laryngitis, pharyngitis, flu, etc), these are self-limiting conditions that are more or less unpleasant and troubling.
Pathogens
Medically speaking, they are caused by pathogenic microbes: viruses, bacteria, and sometimes fungi (fungal infections/ respiratory mycoses mostly affect the lungs and are usually of a serious nature). Any pathogen needs favourable conditions in order to reproduce and increase in numbers. The growth is exponential, causing changes in the surroundings (meaning the affected tissues and organs).
As a pathogen takes over, our system becomes unbalanced and we get sick. Visible signs of acute inflammation (eg due to bacterial infection), including redness, heat, pain, swelling, and loss of function of affected body parts, can be observed.
If we come down with a cold, for example, we do not need to panic, as we can make things better for ourselves if we are prepared. In saying so, one should bear in mind that some people might already have their health compromised by chronic conditions and/or an unhealthy lifestyle.
Things then get complicated when faced with a seasonal infection like a cold or flu. In any case, masking the symptoms with over-the-counter medicines is not the best idea. They might make someone feel a bit better, but they do not have a curative effect. They do not enhance our immune response.
Supplements
Our food is grown differently now from how it was in our grandparents' days and can be depleted in certain nutrients which are crucial for the efficient functioning of the immune system (learn more about that here). Therefore supplementing our diet, especially in cold months, and giving that extra support to our immune system might be a good idea.
In our next installment of this ongoing series, we will consider some vital nutrients and natural remedies helpful for fighting off infections in more detail.
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