Winter is coming
With winter on its way, now’s the time to build your immunity so that you can fight winter ills and chills. We asked Red Seal naturopath Julie Fergusson for her top three ways on how to build your body’s defences.
Our immune system is very complex, made up of organs, cells and proteins that work together to defend our bodies from unwelcome bacteria and viruses. When they’re not well supported our immunity can become compromised.
The fundamentals of staying well include eating a healthy diet, getting enough vitamin C (our bodies cannot make their own), making time to relax and exercise, and ensuring you live in a warm, dry environment – but there are other things we need to take care of, which are equally important, says Fergusson.
Sleep
Getting enough sleep is the most important thing anyone can do for their overall health. Sleep loss not only influences our predisposition to getting sick, it also affects our ability to fight an illness.
It’s easy to ‘soldier on’ when you’re feeling under the weather, but think of it like you would putting off a trip to the dentist – the longer you leave it, the worse it will get. Take the time to rest as much as possible as soon as you feel something coming on.
Ensure your environment is conducive to sleep: limit caffeine, go to bed a little earlier and make sure you follow a regular and consistent pre-bed ritual (take a bath, read, drink herbal tea, for example).
Magnesium is highly recommended as a supplement which can help to bring on sleep as it helps to relax your body and mind.
Herbs such as passionflower, valerian, chamomile and skullcap also support the body to relax and Tart Cherry is believed to support the production of natural sleep hormones.
The gut
Your intestinal tract controls about 70 per cent of your immune system. In a healthy gut the good bacteria outnumber the bad and when our gut bacteria are in balance, we’re not even aware of the role our gut plays. It’s a different story when the bad bacteria outnumber the good.
The modern diet has not done our digestive system any favours. Processed and refined foods can destroy good bacteria and, at the same time, feed harmful bacteria with processed starch and sugars. Fermented foods can help to keep bacteria in balance. Yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut, pickles, kombucha and tempeh are great foods to start with.
Probiotics are also a fantastic and easy way to help restore and maintain good gut bacteria, especially if you feel you need a bit of a boost. They are also critical after a course of antibiotics to restore your gut health.
Vitamin D
For obvious reasons we are avoiding the sun more now, however, the sun’s rays do help to protect our immune system by stimulating the production of vitamin D. Generally, five to 15 minutes of sun exposure on bare skin each day will be enough.
During winter, getting that exposure can be more of a challenge. Ensure you are getting good fats into your diet, as vitamin D absorption needs fats in the diet. Nuts, avocados, salmon, tuna and egg yolks are easy additions to your meals and snacks. Vitamin D supplements or cod liver oil are also a great option during the winter months.