It’s very important for us to build our immune system all year long especially right now as we are heading into the cold and flu season.
I hope you find the information below to be helpful. This is not intended to replace advice from your health care practitioner. We just want to share our favourite tips in the spirit of “live, learn and pass it on” (and to “Strengthen Uxbridge One Person at a Time”). Our thought process is there’s no need to suffer for weeks on end with a bug and who has time to be sick anyway!
- Firstly, as soon as possible upon rising, drink warm water and lemon
to cleanse your body, re-hydrate & to help yourself keep regular. - Gargle with warm salt water. In my opinion. This is the least expensive and often forgotten best treatment (& prevention) for the common cold!
Oil of oregano washed down with water and cold fx supplement. Oil of oregano taken under the tongue gets into your cells right away. - At the first onset of a cold take 3 cold fx’s 3x/day as per directions. I find it truly does cut the symptoms in 1/2. I take one or two daily all year long
- Forget Hall’s, full of sugar and artificial/processed ingredients. Zinc lozenges are a much more natural and effective way to ease a sore throat while helping to build your immune system. We take a zinc supplement as well. They’re very inexpensive and good to take right before bed. The lozenges FYI are between the front counters at today’s Natural Solutions Health Food Store here in Uxbridge. Zinc is known to help reduce cold symptoms. The key is to take these at the onset of a scratchy throat.
- Elderberry Extract.Used for years in traditional eastern medicine as it’s extremely high in antioxidants. Today’s Natural Solutions also carry it. NRG Members, show your NRG 4 Life key tag for a discount. It doesn’t include all items though so be sure to check in store however it does include a lot so check in store for details. They’re sooo helpful in there too!
- I also get Deep Immune drops from Today’s which is another awesome supplement that I take every day and highly recommend. It’s a powerful little cocktail of immune boosting herbs.
- Allimax – a form of garlic that’s made from stabilized allicin extract from the garlic bulb (that is the most potent part that’s edible). This supplement is more costly, however, worth it in our mind. This potent, highly concentrated form is said to help inflammation of any kind.
- As above, Zinc. It’s known to help boost immune system. We take it just before bedtime.
- Sleep! Rest!
- Avoid rubbing your eyes. Wash hands thoroughly often including wrist areas. We all must practice coughing into our elbows and staying away from public places in those with compromised immune systems including young children and older adults when we are infected.
- Open doors, turn on taps with paper towels or sleeve as much as possible. Use public devises like ATM’s, debit machines with knuckles and wipe down the grocery store cart before using or keep gloves on. Use hand sanitizer often including on the steering wheel. We must all practice cleaning our devices regularly as well as these are huge germ collecting culprits
- Yes, I do shake hands (!!!), however, prefer fist bumps – LOL!
- Pharmacists recommend using alcohol wipes over the hand sanitizers/cleaners as they’re higher concentration and less irritating. Remember that exposing yourself to germs does build our immune system just remember to wash hands regularly and in very warm water for the duration of the Happy Birthday song!
This might sound a bit excessive, however, we can’t afford to be sick. The down time is costly and we deserve to feel at our best as much as possible. I take these supplements daily along with a good probiotic as all our health starts in the gut. If our gut is healthy, we have less inflammation in general.
Remember that it’s inevitable to If you do come down with a cold every once in a while, however, by boosting the immune system daily with the above high-grade supplements and practicing healthy habits, we can cut both the duration and length of colds, flus!