It’s that time of the year again when cold and flu season is in full force: the post-nasal drip, the cough, the nasal congestion, all of it. No one likes it, but it’s inevitable that it’s around us all. So what can you do to prevent getting sick? Well, don’t worry — I got you. I’m giving you 7 Naturopathic Medicine hacks to boost your immune system, so here we go.

PRO TIP #1: DON’T PUT POISON IN YOUR BODY

This includes alcohol, drugs, tobacco, and dare I even say it, sugar*! These all increase the toxin load on the body (especially on the lungs and liver), and therefore increases the amount of systemic inflammation. This makes your body a perfect host for those evil cold and flu critters, and because your body is pre-occupied with taking care of the toxins and inflammation, that it is blissfully unaware that there are a few unwanted guests present… that is until it is too late.

* Processed sugar, not the natural sugars in fruit.

“THE FOOD YOU EAT CAN BE EITHER THE SAFEST AND MOST POWERFUL FORM OF MEDICINE OR THE SLOWEST FORM OF POISON.” — ANN WIGMORE

PRO TIP# 2: NOURISH YOUR BODY

Rather than ingesting poison (like processed sugar), choose to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. The greater the variety, the better. You’ve probably heard someone say “eat the rainbow” before, and that’s because phytochemicals (technical term for the important chemical nutrient found in food) tend to be different colors. For example, generally, red foods contain lots of lycopene, purple/blue contain anthocyanin, yellow/orange contain carotenoids, brown/white contain allicin, and green contain a bunch of good stuff like carotenoids, indoles and saponins. Each phytochemical has a different health benefit, like lycopene is an anti-oxidant and is well touted to help decrease risks of prostate cancer (looking at your gentlemen); Anthocyanin is also a great anti-oxidant with many anti-cancer, and cardiac benefits; carotenoids biome vitamin A, which is great for the eyes and it is a good anti-viral; and allicin is a fantastic anti-microbial (kills all the bad things). Basically, there is a reason your mom told you to eat your veggies— they’re protecting your from the bad critters, amongst other things.

PRO TIP#3: MOVEMENT IS EVERYTHING

If we could put what exercise does for the body in a pill, everyone would be taking it. Yet, not enough people are getting adequate movement… and if that happens to be you, here are just a small sampling of the health benefits. It enhances T-cell (white blood cells that kill bad critters) function, decreases inflammation, improves insulin resistance (this is especially important for people with diabetes), it releases endorphins (think runner’s high), and increases serotonin (the feel good neurotransmitter). Moving your body will improve your fitness so you can escape during the zombie apocalypse, protect you when the zombie virus is all around you, and keep you happy during all of it. Sounds like a win-win-win to me.

PRO TIP #4: MANAGE YOUR STRESS

Stress is terrible on the body, but only if it is chronic. In states of acute stress, it’s beneficial— but acute stress isn’t what most folks are dealing with now. Back in the cavemen days, though, it’s what kept us alive. If we saw a tiger our sympathetic nervous system, aka “fight or flight”, would get activated and the only thing that mattered was our survival, which meant shunting blood away from vital organ systems to our muscles instead so we could literally run for our lives. Our nervous system didn’t care about the food in our stomach, making a baby, or fighting off the bacterial infection we have— because if the tiger got us, it was all over. So our sympathetic nervous system makes it possible for us to GTFO and live another day, and when that happened, it would switch over to the parasympathetic nervous system, aka “rest and digest”. This would then give circulation back to all the other organs, so you can digest your food, have a libido, mount an immune response, etc.

Unfortunately, nowadays, that tiger is the news, social media, work, etc— and you know it never really goes away. So we are left with chronic stress that makes it difficult to have a fully functioning immune system (among other things). Then we go on vacation, decreasing stress significantly (in most cases), and bam we get sick. That’s because the sympathetic nervous system is no longer surpassing your immune system.

All this to say, stress management is incredibly important. We cannot make our stress go away completely, but we can do things to put a hold on it, so we can be in a rest and digest phase. Here are a few of my favorites: exercise (no surprise there), meditation, deep belly breathing, laughing, and play (do things you enjoy).

PRO TIP# 6: END YOUR SHOWER ON A COLD RINSE

The use of water to improve health is called hydrotherapy. After taking a hot shower, end on a cold rinse. It doesn’t have to be torturous, it just needs to be a temperature difference. This creates a strong pumping action which stimulates the immune system, decreases inflammation, and improves metabolism among other things.

Just try it. You’ll walk out of your shower warmer than if you didn’t, I guarantee it. This is because the cold water drives your circulation back to your core to keep you warm.

PRO TIP# 7: UTILIZE CHINESE MEDICINE

Chinese medicine is more than just acupuncture. It includes Chinese herbal formulas, moxibustion, and cupping. There are several different forms, or styles, of each as well. No matter which route your go, there is a lot of evidence that Chinese medicine increases your immune system, decreases stress, and pain. So make regular visits to acu-land**, but only with the assistance of a licensed acupuncturist.

** Acu-land: that peaceful place you go during (and after) acupuncture