Ways to boost my winter immunitysteemCreated with Sketch.

in #health7 years ago (edited)

As you know, I was feeling somewhat seedy yesterday, with a very sore throat. Luckily there are a variety of ways of boosting winter immunity and tackling a sore throat.

influenza.jpg

Vitamins

• Cod liver oil is a good source of vitamins A & D, so I take that regularly through the year, but especially in winter
• Humans are amongst only four mammals that cannot make their own vitamin C, so we need it in our food. But in winter I often supplement as well. Some comes from food based vitamin C mixes and some comes from Liposomal C, which is good for larger doses. That’s because it’s encapsulated in lipids (fats) so gets absorbed in the small intestine, instead of the stomach, where there are more vitamin C receptors. Yesterday I increased my daily dose.

Hot Drinks

• Ginger tea with fresh lemon juice and manuka honey, or just the lemon and honey in hot water
• Beef or chicken broth, by itself
• OR made into Warming winter vegetable soup maybe with some ginger, garlic or turmeric added
• OR made into an eggnog by beating it up with a couple of raw free range eggs (pic below is of yesterday’s breakfast)

eggnog.jpg

Something topical for the throat

• I like to gargle with some colloidal silver to address some of the bad bacteria present. You can swallow it afterwards, but I’ve been swishing then spitting it out.
• Another way to get rid of some of the bad bacteria in your mouth is oil pulling with coconut oil. This involves putting a large spoonful of coconut oil in your mouth, letting it dissolve, then swishing it around your mouth for about 10 minutes. The bad bacteria are absorbed into the coconut oil. You then spit it out, and rinse your mouth well with warm water. I’d still gargle with colloidal silver afterwards though, as the oil pulling doesn’t really get into the throat.
• After the colloidal silver gargle, I’ve been sucking on a lozenge made from manuka honey, to sooth my throat.
• At different times of the day, I’ve been introducing good bacteria. You can open a multi strain probiotic capsule and sprinkle it at the back of your throat, and then not eat or drink anything for a while. This adds back a range of good bugs.
• But I also like to use BLIS Throat Guard lozenges, which give you a good dose of the bugs that usually live in the mouth.

R & R

• Number 1 – stay warm! Not easy to do yesterday, but we did our best.
• Number 2 – rest. Bed rest. Snuggling in front of the fire rest. Reading a book or watching a movie rest. Not sitting in front of the computer answering 3 days worth of Steemit comments. I didn’t do so well on that rule yesterday!

There is one member of our household who understands the importance of rest on a cold winter’s day. As you can see, the weather is still a bit rough.

christo.jpg

Other therapeutics

• Herbs like echinacea or astragalus
• There are usually a few suitable remedies in a homeopathic first aid kit, but you need to talk to someone who knows how to choose the right one
• EDIT - I forgot about essential oils! Think of eucalyptus for sprinkling on a basinful full of hot water, to inhale. Or maybe lemon topically (in an organic carrier oil). Visit Mr Google for more info on how to use essential oils safely, and which ones to use.

Emotional Freedom Technique

Unless you’ve already learnt some EFT, you will need to read my two previous posts on EFT before trying this ~ Emotional Freedom Technique Part 1 ~ EFT Part 2 – Getting started.

This is a three round tapping routine, from Gwenn Bonnell, to improve immunity.

What level in percent is your immunity functioning at right now? Let a number come to you or simply guess (which is one way of allowing your unconscious mind to tell you what it actually is). You don't have to be completely accurate here. We're only looking for a start point.

Do three rounds of tapping:

  1. Setup: "Even though my immunity is running at only XX percent, I fully and deeply love and accept myself and my body"
    Reminder: ["Immunity running at XX percent"]
  1. Setup: "Even though my immunity is still running under 100%, I release anything and everything that lowers my immunity, as I fully and deeply love and accept myself and my body "
    Reminder: ["Release everything that lowers my immunity "]
  1. Setup: "Even though my immunity is not used to running at 100% all the time, I now repair everything that lowers my immunity, as I fully and deeply love and accept myself and my body,"
    Reminder: ["Repair everything that lowers my immunity "]

Then tap on individual symptoms, such as “sore throat” or “runny nose”.

Notice that we do NOT tap for our immunity increasing to 100%. It's best to let your body, with its own innate intelligence, increase your immunity at a healthy rate.

I managed a fair number of these remedies yesterday and I’m feeling a bit better today. But more rest is required. So if I don’t answer comments straight away, it’s because today I really did go a for a nice lie down.

Thanks for reading, and if it’s winter where you are – keep wrapped up.

Top pic from Pixabay, rest by me.

Follow me for more health, nutrition, food, lifestyle and recipe posts.

Contact me in SteemitChat to ask about one on one nutritional coaching or EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) sessions by Skype. (But don’t just say Hello. Tell me straight away why you’re messaging, without waiting for me to say Hello back.) Steem, other altcoins or Paypal accepted.

Some of my previous posts on HEALTH & LIFESTYLE:

Sleep like a kitten Part 1 – 3 tips
Sleep Well Part 2 – What’s your sleeping style?
Sleep Well Part 3 – Resetting your body clock
Thoughts about Breast Health
I’ve got a cold & how to handle it
Overcoming my fears
Positivity Challenge 4 – Emotional Freedom Technique Part 1
EFT Part 2 – Getting started
Six days training in a new natural therapy
Quick & Easy calming tip
EFT Tapping videos for Xmas stress
Seated exercise – legs
Seated exercise – head & shoulders

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Ginger tea with fresh lemon juice and manuka honey, or just the lemon and honey in hot water

This is what I do. I must say that it's anti-inflammatory properties is quite amazing.

Sorry to feel that you were under the weather, my friend. I hope you feel better by now!

Still not quite 100% but getting there. I firmly believe that illness is our body's way of telling us to rest, so have been obeying as much as possible!

YES! I keep telling my acupuncture patients the same thing haha! Our body knows more about ourselves than we do, so we better adhere to the signs.

Great post, thanks for sharing!
The winter immune boosting rules I live by are: Eat a balanced diet with whole foods, get plenty of (high dose) vitamin C, use herbs and spices like Garlic and Turmeric, drink plenty of clean (non-fluoridated) water, get 7 to 8 hours of sleep a day, say hello to friendly bacteria (yogurt), I avoid antibiotics and the flu shot like the plague and try to get some exercise in! Although that is something I need to work on more :)

Yes, yes and yes! All of those things. The regular exercise is always harder in winter. And the unfluoridated water is going to get harder to come by, thanks to Peter Dunne :-(

Well, if our lovely 'political leaders' fluoridate the water, then I will find a way to get it out again! ;-)

Sadly Wellington is already fluoridated, even though a bunch of us repeatedly make submissions to the city council against it. I did a submission to the parliamentary select committee a few months back too. We used to be able to get unfluoridated water from a couple of public taps in the Hutt Valley. But they were closed for a while due to an e-coli scare. So we ended up buying a WatersCo water filter which is supposed to take up to 99% of the fluoride out. Given that we have three whole house filters as well (@sift666 likes long baths), we're fairly confident that the end result has very little fluoride.

Going back to your previous comment about probiotic foods, we make our own caspian sea yoghurt and kefir. And have you tried the new Urban Monk fermented Ginger Carrots? Yummo!

Thanks for sharing this info, I get sick often in the winter time and boosting the immune system really helps with recovery. And drinking hot or warm tea really helps burning up the bad bacteria. That meditation will also help with easing and discomfort or pain to remind the body of self healing love. I've also tried gargling warm salt water or drinking a good dose of apple cider vinegar with killing the bad bacteria. Hopefully I won't have to try out those remedies anytime soon.

I forgot about gargling with salt water - that's a great one too. I don't think I could have had ACV yesterday, my throat was too raw. But definitely another good remedy. And meditating on self healing love deserves a place on the list too. Thanks for adding all those suggestions.

Yes the apple cider vinegar is good but not when the throat is still raw. Learned that the hard way lol

Hi Deb, gosh I am just as sick. I really hope you feel better today. Rest is definitely the one thing that helps!

Getting better. Hope you are too! xx

Oh no @kiwideb - I hope you're not worse off today. You are definitely getting your fluids, what with all the tea and broth! I've never gargled colloidal silver before and don't know if I could open up a probiotic capsule and just swallow that with nothing else. But hopefully this helps you recover quickly!

Not worse off, just moved into a different phase. But hopefully moving through quickly. You don't really swallow the probiotic, just let it sit on the back of your tongue. The aim is to get it into your throat and maybe sinuses, rather than into the gut.

I'm partial to non-medicated saline spray. The salt seems to help the gross stuff drain and naturally dry out. My husband swears by grapeseed extract as well. What, if any, are your thoughts on apple cider vinegar?

Yes, both of those are good things to add to the list.
ACV - I've never taken it for a virus. I think of it as being good for digestion, as it's fermented and helps promote good hydrochloric acid production. So indirectly at least, it's going to be good for immunity. And it will have some vitamin C in it. But @wanderingsaga uses it for immunity (see his comment) so he may know more.

We are two then... I am sick with throat virus since Wednesday. Luckily enough, the weather is crap.

Same amount of time as me. Two good reasons for us both to stay indoors!

I do love bone broths and vege soups in winter ^_^

Get well soon :D

Oops, sorry, missed this earlier - thanks for the get well wishes, almost back to normal now.

Yay! :) And no worries easy enough to do when there's a lot goingon :D

Are you feeling any better? I forgot the other crazy part about the differences in where we live, you're in winter right now :(

That was a very cozy post, actually made me imagine it being winter and curled up under blankets with a cup of hot tea. I really like the sound of the first one, loving both ginger and honey :)

Feel better love!! xo

Thanks, darl. I've moved into a different phase of the lurg, but will spare you the details. It was a much nicer day today and we actually got out and got some fresh air.

Actually just the word lurg sounds horrific...like a medieval plague of some kind, hahaha!

That's good--if the rain holds off, hubby and I are going on an overnight camping trip via motorcycle and what we can carry in the saddle bags and a backpack. Which means sleeping under the stars in a hammock...after a campfire. I am really hoping the rain holds off!!

Oh does it sound horrific? I had to go look it up and "lurgy" originally came from the Goon show.

That sounds like a fun adventure. Surely the rain will hold off, we've had enough for everybody!

I've never seen the Goon show, sounds funny.

Well, it has been uncharacteristically rainy here. And right now it is muggy, I'm not interested in getting out in the woods and sweating my arse off, so hopefully it will cool down some, or at least dry out some. Think I need to head to my parent's house for a dip in the lake ;)

I never actually clicked with the Goon Show. Well, apart from the Ying Tong song, and even then half of it's probably enough

I was much more of a Monty Python gal. The Dead Parrot sketch is a classic - the first 3.5 mins anyway

No, sweating your arse off in some muggy woods sounds like a big of a slog - a dip in the lake sounds better, even if it is still raining.

Oh, I loveddd monty python!! Actually, it's been a long time since I've watched it, I could definitely go for some Holy Grail or Life of Brian haha!!

The coconuts clopping to make horse sounds, haahaahaaaaa. God.

Laughter is good for whatever ails you - we must check those movies out again.

Sorry you've not been feeling well :( Thank you for this comprehensive list of ways to boost the body's immunity defenses, @kiwideb. So great! I like the tip on how you use colloidal silver - I've been reading more about it from @creatr (his website: http://silverengines.com/p/). Your comment about 'sitting in front of the computer answering 3 days worth of Steemit comments.' made me laugh - because that's what I'm doing now!

Oops - I see that he's already commented and posted a link (sorry for the duplicate). I didn't scroll down far enough to read all the comments

They can get out of hand if not done every day! A couple of nights off, and it's all over, red rover.

Awesome tips as ever lass! I liked the look of your breakfast!

Thanks! It was light but nourishing, so a great start to the day.

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