Natural Prevention of Swine Flu
There has been a lot of talk lately on the news and in the community about swine-origin flu. Thus far, the transmission of swine-flu, and risk factors associated with it are thought to be very similar to the seasonal flu that we see every year. I thought it might be helpful to review some of the simple, natural ways that we can protect ourselves from flu viruses.
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Get enough sleep. There are numerous studies showing how important sleep is for many aspects of health, in one such study, it was found that patients who had adequate sleep produced far more antibodies in response to a viral (hepatitis A) vaccination, and produced significantly higher levels of immune-stimulating hormones.
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Keep chronic stress to a minimum. Unlike acute fight-or-flight forms of stress, a meta-analysis of research shows that chronic stressors can lower the functioning of the immune system.
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Meditation is great to help prevent chronic stress from accumulating and one study using mindfulness meditation found that those who meditated not only had increased activity in an area of the brain associated with positive mood, but also had significantly higher antibody production in response to an influenza vaccination.
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Keep physically active, especially if you are elderly. As we advance in age, parts of our immune system that work to fight off a specific infectious agent like a virus decline. A study of older men found that this trend was partially reversed by regular physical exercise.
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Drink plenty of fluids and eat nutritious food. This one is pretty much a no-brainer!
- Quit smoking. Smoking, among other things, damages the ability of the respiratory tract and lungs to take care of themselves. Smokers are not only more susceptible to infection, but also have on average more severe symptoms, and take longer to recover from respiratory infection. As far as quitting goes, there truly is no time like the present.
I hope these simple pointers can help us to live a more healthy life in general, and help us to stay calm in the current atmosphere of reactivity and fear. There are many other strategies such as clinical nutrition, herbs and supplementation that can help support a healthy immune system. These require much more individual attention and recommend contacting one of our providers should you want to pursue them further.
