Keeping Your Immune System Healthy

By Nutritionist, Donna Walsh, Graduate from The College of Naturopathic Medicine.

Coughing, sneezing and moaning… sound like anyone around you these days? Not forgetting sore throats, chest infections, bunged up heads and stuffy noses. Okay, so just about everyone and their cat are sick at the moment. Besides increasing our vitamin C, is there anything else we can do about it? Thankfully, yes! With good nutrition and by choosing the right foods at the right time, we can speed up the recovery from infection and better yet, prevent reoccurrence next year.

Firstly, you need to establish why you are getting sick. Take a moment and ask yourself is it stress? –Are you the type of person who gets sick right at the end of a busy/stressful task or time in your life (such as Christmas)? Or, is it simply low-immunity? Do you pick up whatever ‘bug’ is ‘going around’? Once you can pin-point why you get sick, you can then take action to prevent it happening! So, if your immune system is falling victim to stress, follow these tips:

Give your body what it needs. In times of stress our adrenal glands use floods of B-vitamins, especially pantothenic acid (B5). Take a good B-complex vitamin daily (always consult your GP if you are on medication), or ensure you are eating a wide & varied diet including, healthy wholegrains like oats, buckwheat & quinoa, legumes like lentils & split peas, sweet potatoes, mushrooms & broccoli, with avocadoes & natural yoghurt being particularly high in B5 (McAdams 2015).

- Swap stimulants like tea & coffee, for relaxing herbal teas, like chamomile and lemon-balm. You can sip these all day, as they are naturally caffeine-free.

- Take a good quality probiotic about a month before you usually get sick, or as soon as other people around you are getting sick.

- Omit processed sugar from your diet. Swap sugary treats for high protein fruit & nut snacks, which you can make yourself by blending nuts with dried apricots/figs/dates. Sugar depletes the immune system, reducing the efficiency of your white blood cells for up to 5 hours after you’ve eaten it (Bock 1997)

- Get some sleep. I’ve saved the most important for last! The very immune cells your body needs to fight infection are made at night while you sleep, so snuggle up!