In addition to diligent hand washing and social distancing, here are a few of my favorite tips for helping to boost immunity:*
- Avoid sugar like it’s the plague! Seriously, sugar can considerably suppress your immune function for several hours after its ingestion. That means an open door to any unwelcome microbial invaders just waiting in the wings. Minimize its intake and avoid it altogether if you start to feel like you’re coming down with something or someone in your home is ill.
- Vitamin C. Standard dose for adults to help support immune function is 1 to 3 GRAMS (or 1000 to 3000 mg) daily. Be sure to take this in divided doses throughout the day. Taken all it once, it can create GI distress or diarrhea. Plus, your body can only absorb so much at once; the rest is excreted in urine.
- Zinc. Standard dose for adults to help support immune function is 25 to 50 mg daily. Taking more than this can create a copper deficiency, so more is not better. Zinc is a very important nutrient in helping to ward off viral invaders, though, so don’t skip it.
- Vitamin D. You’ve likely heard me harp on you again and again to get your serum D levels checked. If your D level is already in the optimal range (60-90), taking 2000 IU daily of D3 is great most of the time. But if you know your levels are low (under 60) OR during times when your immune system is challenged or you’re exposed to illness, it’s a good idea to up this to 5000 IU/day. If you happen to become ill, double that again to 10,000 IU a day while you are sick (up to 2 weeks).
- Ravensara or Eucalyptus Essential Oils. Two of my all time favorites for their antiviral and antimicrobial properties. Best use: place a single drop on a tissue, fold the tissue over and twist it (wick it) with that drop to the inside, so it won’t touch your skin. Put it up your nostril and breathe for a couple of minutes with it in place; switch it to the other nostril for another couple of minutes. Repeat several times a day. On the go in a public space and don’t want to shove a tissue up your nose? Just hold that tissue beneath your nose and deeply inhale, or place a drop on your mask if you’re wearing one. You can also add a couple drops to your pillow at night or add it to the medicine cup on the top of your humidifier (adding it to the water tank can etch the plastic). Note: Do not place the oil in direct contact with your skin, as it can burn.
- Get adequate rest and stay hydrated. Sometimes easier said than done, of course, but those two are key ingredients to making sure your body has the wherewithal to withstand any immune assaults.
- Keep warm! We tend to take this for granted, particularly when we’ve had days of lovely weather. What you may not realize is that our rapid temperature fluctuations—warm and balmy one day and chilly the next—can really tap our wei qi, the defensive qi that helps fend off invading pathogens. In fact, we tend to see more illness around times when we have these major weather shifts as our bodies struggle to keep up with the changes and tap out our reserves. You can help minimize this by ensuring you stay warm enough, especially in chilly or windy weather. In particular, make sure your neck, low back, and back of knees are adequately protected from the chill.
- Maintain your self-care chest stretches! The stretches I’ve taught you can help open the chest and improve lung capacity—breathing deeper not only reduces stress levels, it also helps the lungs remain clear. Additionally, working across your sternum/breast bone area with these stretches can help to stimulate the thymus gland; this gland plays a vital role in producing immune components to ward off illness. Can’t remember how to do the stretches? Send me an email, and I’ll forward you directions.
If you do become ill, there are number of wonderful products on the market which can be helpful, depending on you (age, symptoms, underlying health conditions, other meds) and your symptoms. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like help with herbal remedies.
*Please note, these are general guidelines for otherwise healthy adults and might not be appropriate for all individuals or all situations. They are not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease and are for educational purposes only. They are not intended as a substitute for medical care. Should any information conflict with your physician’s recommendations, please follow the advice of your physician.