- It’s inevitable that you will get sick. However, you can take certain preventative measures that will make you less sick, less often.
- If you do get sick, sleep more as sleep supports optimal immune function, and sleep deprivation decreases the performance of the immune system significantly.
- If you can tolerate eating, great. Eat normal. If you can’t focus on what you can tolerate with an emphasis on protein, fluids, and electrolytes.
As a nutrition coach with Fortitude Sports Performance and an RN by career with an active license, I work with individuals year round and I will say that inevitably at some point, no matter how many grams of vitamin c you take, you will get sick. Whether you have a strong or a weak immune system, you will get stressed, be under slept, and/or come in contact with a strain of virus or bacteria that you have never experienced before, don’t have an existing immunity to, and you will fall ill for a length of time. However, as a proactive individual it is much easier to prevent yourself from getting sick by maintaining a variety of habits that will make sure that you have heightened immunity, increased ability to fight exposure to any pathogen, and ways to go about limiting that potential exposure. This topic could be one thousand pages, so I am going to be very general here.
Your body’s first barrier to infection is called nonspecific immunity. This is basically your skin, eyes, mouth, stomach acid in your stomach. Things that in general, protect you from bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc. It’s your first line of defense, and if there is any breach here, you are more prone to infection. If you have any cuts or open wounds, you want these cleaned with peroxide, iodine, alcohol (you betcha), etc. and covered. Eyes are much less risk, but face and mouth can be protected if you’re in a high risk public area such as an airplane travelling internationally or even domestically. It may be well worth it to get a mask to cover your face as droplet infections such as the common cold and flu are picked up via the nose and mouth. If you DO ingest something, typically your stomach will kill off a lot of whatever is harmful due to the hydrochloric acid in your stomach having a ph of roughly 2. However, if you are someone who commonly takes antacid tablets, drinks a ton of water with meals, or has a sodium deficiency, this stomach acid ph could be less potent, and less of a line of defense. Steer clear of antacid tablets if you can, and increase your sodium intake to improve production of hydro-CHLORIC (sodium-CHLORIDE) acid to improve digestion as well as increase the ability of your stomach to destroy harmful bacteria.
Your specific immunity is your immune system in your body which includes all manner of white blood cells, antibodies, T-cells, etc. This is what targets and destroys bacteria and viruses to make you un-sick. The number one way you can make sure this is functioning optimally is through diet, exercise, and sleep. When you sleep optimally, your immune system functions very well, as it should, and you will rarely get sick. However, most Americans are sleep deprived. When you are sleep deprived, the effectiveness of your immune system to protect you is greatly reduced. Your body’s response in creating antibodies decreases, and even its ability to destroy cancer cells is drastically reduced. Your diet influences your immune system as well. Most notably, your micronutrient intake. Micronutrients such as vitamin D, Vitamin C, zinc, selenium, and others are responsibly for a range of immunological functions and if you are deficient in them you will likely get more sick, more often, and be slower to recover. And lastly, exercise. Exercise improves immunity. It’s not known exactly how, but some of the theories center around the idea that exercise improves the amount of functional of white blood cells, that exercise increases body temperature which helps inhibit the growth of bacteria, and that exercise helps circulate white blood cells faster, helping them to attack and destroy pathogens. The less active you are, the more prone to getting sick you will be.
Say you are one of the people who does all these things, or hell, maybe you are not? And you unfortunately got sick. There are a few things you can do to improve your recovery time and reduce the hit your body will take from being ill. The first thing I generally recommend to people is of course, sleep. This is primarily where your focus should be if you are significantly ill, as sleep is a state where your body is going to heal the fastest. There is a reason you are exceptionally more fatigued when you are sick. That is your body doing that ON PURPOSE to make you SLEEP MORE. The second focus should be on diet. If you have an appetite, great. Eat a balance of lean quality protein, fresh fruits and vegetables, and some starches. If you do not have an appetite, eat what you can tolerate, with an emphasis on protein content, and electrolytes/fluid. You are already sick, what you don’t want is to be sick AND dehydrated. Protein will limit muscle atrophy and provide some sustenance for your body. My go-to recommendation is bone broth, as it is high in protein, and also soothing on the digestive system if you’re feeling queasy. Oh, and it is fluid, with electrolytes in it. Basically, a one stop shop if you’re sick for vital nutrients your body needs to heal. Lastly, supplements. Some of the most effective supplements I like to use are olive leaf, echinacea, vitamin c, and zinc (there are numerous others!). All of which go a long way towards upregulating your immune system.