Obviously eating well, exercising every day and getting enough sleep is integral to staying healthy, but what should you do when you're "under attack" with a cold or the dreaded flu? Here are some tips:
Supplement Your Diet
Vitamin C helps increase the production of disease-fighting white blood cells and antibodies.
Vitamin E also helps immunity cells produce antibodies.
Echinacea fires up your immune system to help prevent/treat attack.
Beta-Carotene converts in the body into Vitamin A and helps in the production of infection-fighting cells.
Zinc increases the ability of white blood cells to fight infection.
Selenium helps prevent cellular damage by free radicals.
Exercise is great to reduce stress, improve sleep and aid weight management HOWEVER if you've got a "bug" is best to cut out or cut back on exercise until your immune system has recovered (physical activity causes a level of stress on the body). "Soldiering On" is NOT the way to quickly recover - if you're unwell, treat your body nicely and let it rest.
Sleep rejuvenates your body and helps your immune system function. Deep sleep stimulates the thymus gland to produce T-cells which help reject foregin substances and produces antibodies to fight infection. Aim to get 7-8 hours quality sleep a night. Sleeping helps you de-stress...
Stress triggers the release of adrenaline and cortisol hormones that will reduce your boyd's ability to produce antibodies - that's why highly-stressed people offers get more colds and suffer digestive upsets.
Resource: 'liveitup' Winter 08 magazine, published by Blackmores. Information supplied by Andrew Cate, Nutritionist.
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