Immune Support
It’s that time of year again... we are at a critical point where Covid, cold & flu, and now RSV season are all closing in on us. It’s a pretty gnarly combination this year and you’ve probably noticed that a lot of people around you are getting sick—and staying sick. I’ve written this post to share my top recommendations for basic immune support from the comfort of your home. Please note that this is not intended as medical advice. To optimize your individual health I suggest booking a naturopathic visit so that I may tailor a plan specifically to your health needs.
Emma’s Top Tips for Optimizing Your Immune System at Home:
Sleep - Do not underestimate the power of rest! It’s not a coincidence that your body is telling you to curl up on the couch with a blanket and a cup of tea (or to just straight up hibernate!) during these blisteringly cold days. Ours bodies adapt to the different seasons in many ways, one of those ways being our circadian rhythm. As a result of the decrease in natural light, we tend to produce more melatonin and subsequently sleep longer in the winter than in the warmer months. If your schedule allows, try to wind down earlier, and/or let yourself sleep in a little longer this season. A good nights sleep can go a long way in supporting our body’s natural defences.
Movement - Daily movement is always an important factor in promoting good health, but perhaps even more important now, as our desire to enhance our immune systems has never been higher! Movement helps to optimize our immune system by increasing the circulation of lymphatic fluid throughout our body. This helps to enhance the number of antibodies and white blood cells (our bodies immune cells that help the body recognize and fight disease) that are circulating throughout the body. Movement can also decrease the release of stress hormones, which have a negative impact on our immune system.
Contrast Hydrotherapy - What is this? It is the use of water for therapeutic effect, specifically alternating between hot and cold temperatures. Ways you can achieve this are: in the shower, using a sauna/steam room alternating with a cold shower, or at a spa with hot and cold baths. The easiest is in the shower: start with 30 seconds of as-cold-as-you-can-tolerate at the end of a hot shower and work your way up to 2 minutes. You can also alternate between hot and cold water in the shower, but it is important to always end on the cold cycle. This helps to promote circulation of blood and lymphatic fluid throughout the body, which in turn can boost your immune system in the ways I mentioned above. Contrast hydrotherapy also has a lot of other benefits like: improving energy and mood, decreasing inflammation, and improving range of motion and muscle recovery (to name a few!). Give it a try if you’re feeling bold.
Increase Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables - This sounds like a no-brainer, right? Of course a variety of fruits and vegetables are good for us. But there’s more.. remember how I said our body adjusts to the seasons? This includes our digestive system as well. While it may make sense to consume a lot of salads and smoothies during the warmer months, our digestive fire tends to burn a little less bright in the winter, so consuming raw produce is less optimal.
Try to have more cooked vegetables (roasted roots vegetables, Brussel sprouts, soups, stews) and warm salads (roasted squash, zucchini, red pepper, and mushroom with some warm tahini dressing on a bed of arugula, for example) to help support your digestive system. Try to incorporate fruits like cranberries, pomegranates and blueberries into a warm bowl of oatmeal, chia pudding, or a stack of flax pancakes instead of a cold smoothie. Citrus fruits are also a wonderful addition in the winter, as they are full of nutrients including vitamin C that play a big supportive role in our immunity, and they help support digestion as well (which, as I mentioned, needs a lot more help in the winter!). You could try slicing up a grapefruit and adding it to your water throughout the day, or warming up a small pot of water with lemon, orange, ginger and honey on the stove and drinking as tea.
Garlic is your friend this season. This spicy little bulb packs a lot of antimicrobial properties that are most effective when garlic is consumed crushed and raw (of course, raw garlic isn’t for everyone). Lastly, warming spices are also your friend this season as they promote circulation and help to keep the body temperature up, so try to incorporate them into your meals & teas. If it looks like the colour of fire, it’s probably got warming qualities: cayenne, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, and cardamom are some of my faves.
Vitamin D - Vitamin D is a wonderful, wonderful vitamin (though really it’s a lot more than just a vitamin). It plays an important role in not only immune function, but also in hormone production and mood. Your muscles need vitamin D to move, your nerves need it to carry messages, your brain needs it to function properly, your bones need it to develop and stay strong, and your heart needs it to maintain a healthy blood pressure. Let’s hear it for vitamin D!!! We get vitamin D when our bare skin is exposed to direct sunlight (extremely difficult in Canada during the fall and winter months). One way to enhance our vitamin D intake in during the darker months of the year is with a UV lamp (often referred to as a SAD lamp). To a lesser extent, we can get vitamin D from dietary sources. The best natural dietary sources of vitamin D are fatty fish (like trout, salmon, tuna, sardines, and mackerel) and fish liver oils. Other dietary sources include fortified foods like milk and plant-based milk alternatives, breakfast cereals, some orange juices and yogurts.. so yeah, not a lot of foods! This is why supplementing with vitamin D in the winter can be crucial. There are different forms of vitamin D supplements available, which is just one of the reasons we recommend consulting with your health care practitioner first.
There are many other nutrients and herbs that can play a supportive role in optimizing our immune function. For many reasons, I do not recommend supplementation without detailed instructions from a medical practitioner. I recommend booking an appointment with myself, another naturopath, or your primary care practitioner in order to determine which specific nutrients and doses are right for YOU.
