Tips for Avoiding the Flu

1. Exercise a little bit everyday. Exercise moves the lymphatic system, which helps to detoxify the poisons in your body.

2.     Keep warm. Make sure your throat, chest and ears are protected from wind, drafts and cold. Use a scarf around your neck when going outside, wear turtleneck shirts or sweaters, wear a hat. The neck, chest and ears are areas where wind can invade the body and cause sickness. The Oriental medical perspective is that wind invasions make people more susceptible to developing colds and flu. Always keep your feet warm and dry also.

3.    Get adequate sleep and relaxation. Your body becomes vulnerable to stress, invasion and proliferation of germs/bacteria without enough rest. Cancel appointments and stay home when you feel the onset of an illness - everyone will be grateful for your consideration.  

4.     Sweat the flu away. At the onset of cold/flu symptoms - take hot baths, use a steam bath or sauna. Wear layers of clothes to bed so you sweat. Toxins are released through sweat, and viruses don’t replicate quickly in very warm temperatures. The body's natural defense against many infections is a mild fever. Inducing sweating periodically will help reduce the toxins in your body, so you will have more resources available to fight the flu virus should you come in contact with the virus.  

5.     Eat smart. Avoid refined sugars (processed foods, commercial baked goods, sodas, alcohol, etc.). Refined carbohydrates raise the body's acidic pH level, and allow bacteria, mold, yeast and fungi to thrive. Colds & Flu thrive in an acidic pH environment. Simple carbohydrates in processed foods suck up the nutrition your body needs to detoxify, nourish and build new cells and antibodies. Focus on alkalizing foods - vegetables, whole grains, legumes/beans. 

6.     Add spice to your life!  Turmeric, cayenne, cumin seeds, oregano, thyme, basil, ginger, mustard seeds, cloves and cinnamon have many beneficial qualities including strong antioxidants that help fight infections.

7.     Take a probiotic supplement of Acidophilus/Bifidobacteria, first thing in the morning and/or last thing at night - works best on an empty stomach. Eat naturally fermented foods - unprocessed yogurt (not the silly commercial yogurt with flavors & dyes,) tempeh, miso and pickled foods like sauerkraut. Eighty percent of your immune system is located in your digestive system, so enhancing your gut with probiotics can ward off cold/flu viruses.

8.     Avoid cold drinks & cold foods. Your body has to heat cold drinks/foods to body temperature in order to digest them, and the energy required for that heating could be better spent building new cells and fighting infections.

9.     Get enough vitamin D. Vitamin D helps boost immunity and also stops the immune system from over-reacting. On a daily basis make sure you are supplementing at least 600iu.

10.  Wash your hands often. Washing your hands will decrease your likelihood of spreading a virus to your nose, mouth or other people. Antibacterial soaps are not necessary, and can cause more harm than good. 

11.  Get a massage or acupuncture treatment once a month to keep energy channels open, to prevent stagnation of blood, and prevent mucus accumulation. Massage and acupuncture also just feel good!   Treat yourself. 

12. Make your bedroom as dark as possible when you sleep at night.  Research
shows that sleeping in complete darkness strengthens immune systems, and promotes serotonin.

13. Wear gloves in public (easy to do in winter!). Instead of touching doors, grocery cart handles, gasoline pumps, etc., with your bare hands, wear gloves.  Keep hands away from face and wash gloves often.

14. If someone in your household does get sick, boil some vinegar in a pot and carry the pot around the house-the vinegar steam kills germs. This won't cure the sick person, but will prevent the sickness from spreading to others. This is a Chinese Medicine remedy for clearing the house of infectious germs.