What are some preventative strategies to avoid the flu this season?

did you get your answers that you were asking about. I do muscle testing so testing my own body . I will test if I need the herbs I have on hand as well as essential oils. of course good diet/ raw honey tsp per day. along what I read below, turmeric on hand and when the resp colds/ or sinuses sometimes it wants 6 turmeric capsules/day, maybe elderberry and I have 4 diff resp combod from a company called nature sunshine . "sinus support" "ALJ" :lung support" or "FOUR which has 4 hot herbs in them) think of hot sauce when you eat a Taco w ith hot sauce and your nose starts running. the hot herbs heat up the thick mucus to make a it runny . keeping the congestion in sinus and lungs to a more liquid state.

Always lots of fruit and vegetables. I provide my clients with fruit, vegetables and berries in capsule form, all guaranteed herbicide and pesticide free. We have three gold standard studies on immunity.
Keep away for sugars if you can, as they will weaken your immune system.
Avoid stress, maybe with daily meditation.
Please give me a shout if you would like to see any of the science. Hope you are staying well.

As a Natural Health Educator and a natural health consultant I tell people the following things to do during cold and flu season. But first, a wee bit of philosophy... We have this misconception that germs cause illness. It's actually a thing, called "germ theory". Germs are everywhere and if germs made us sick, we'd all be sick all the time. What prevents us from getting sick??? A strong immune system. It's not the germs that are making us sick, it's a weakened or not-taken-care-of (for lack of a better term, neglected) immune system. So, what are some natural ways to support your immune system?

- Water (drink good clean water - take your body weight, divide it in half and drink that number of ounces of water each day)
- Sleep (sleep hygiene is very important. Get 7-8 hours of sleep per night)
- Whole Foods (eat good food. avoid the garbage and junk - fruits, veggies, lean protein, good fats avoid sugar!)
- Vitamin C (and foods that contain vitamin c. beyond citrus - yum, green pepper!)
- Elderberry Syrup (be careful if taking elderberry supplements that contain as their first or second ingredient: sugar, even natural sugars will aid the inflammation processes in the body)
- Vitamin D (It may be winter; but soak up the rays on these sunny days or find a good vitamin D supplement)
- Colloidial Silver (you won't turn blue...)
- Immune Boosting Essential Oils (regardless of where you fall on the debate of essential oils... I choose Young Living's Thieves blend

If you have any questions or would like to schedule a natural health assessment/appointment, visit my profile to schedule!

My five go to's for immune support during cold and flu season are:

- vitamin C
- GOOD, clean water
- sleep (at least 8 hours a night)
- elderberry syrup
- thieves essential oil blend

Easiest and most simple answer:
1. Get on a good schedule for sleep. Try to sleep at the same time at night and wake up at the same time in the morning. 8-9 hours is great (every person is slightly different). Get an app if you want to track it too!

2. Eat less sugar. Bacteria LOVE sugar. Not only do bacteria feed off of this, too much refined sugar in the diet increases inflammation, which demands more of your body leaving less energy to fend off of fighting the infection.

3. Eat whole food plants. Without cooking certain vegetables, they will contain vitamin E and other antioxidants that your body loves to keep you strong! Increase those leafy green foods in your diet!

4. Eat less. Eating less causes less time for your body to digest food and more time for healing to take place. Eat less and spread eating throughout the day.

5. Any time you are stressed about something, catch yourself and go to a room alone. Close your eyes, breathe in for 5 seconds, then breathe out for 5 seconds and say the word "release". Do this for a 5 minute and you will decrease stress in your life. Anything that increases stress in your life, puts you in a state of fight or flight and decreases healing in the body

6. Get adjusted! In my office, all of my patients have less occurences of getting the flu, getting sick, and are able to fight it off better than they were before getting adjusted.

I hope this was a very easy guide to achieve health and be strong throughout times when everyone else is sick.

Side note: I do everything I said above. I do not remember the last time I had the flu or was sick. You can do it too!

My Secret weapon is True Chi Immune Power. I take it almost every day. It is safe for long-term use. It is based on Chinese herbal medicine. The basis of the formula is Yu Ping Feng San (Jade Windscreen) but there are more immune herbs in it. I keep it in my car so I can be sure to take it before going into a more heavily populated areas including my work space if there is a flu epidemic. It is a very effective product that I have trouble keeping in stock at my private practice as it flies off the shelf.

I do muscle testing and for me a n my family I have a number of supplements that are available . elderberry , turmeric, echancea , goldenseal, I take raw honey daily. I use a company called nature sunshine w respiratory herbs called sinus comfort, ALJ and FOUR. a liquid called immune shot is potent and not very tasty. Like I said I MT and the body tells me what I need to take eliminating the guess work and wasting my money. ECH and GS herbs are less on my list

In addition to proper nutrition, supplementation and quality sleep, I also work with my clients on stress perception and stress resilience. We cannot control outside stressors, but we can learn to change our thoughts about situations that feel stressful in our bodies. Once you learn how to do this you will be able to practice and improve and take this skill into everything you do.

Plenty of organic vegetables and fruits in your meals will help tremendously to prevent sickness in general, and drinking lots of anti-inflammatory teas like nettle and green will help alleviate the stress on your immune system as well.

However, avoiding refined sugars is going to be one of the best things you could possibly do to prevent sickness. Refined/added sugars do absolutely nothing beneficial for you, and in fact work to weaken your immune system (one example being producing/feeding nasty bacteria to fight against your good gut bacteria)! There is a whole list of problems that refined sugars can cause and sickness is just one of those things, so you're better off avoiding them altogether.

Common sense is going to be your greatest ally against sickness, especially during the flu season. If something doesn't feel right to you, don't do it! If you know a particular food is bad for you, don't eat it! Keep up your hygiene and get plenty of light exercise to keep your system functioning optimally (no need to push too hard).

Good luck!

Number 1 is nutrition and supplementation. Anything you can do to help your cells survive and prosper can go a long way in protecting you from viruses in general. Well, Ken, that's all well and good, but what supplements do you suggest? Great Question Ken, my first is always Vitamin C. It has the ability to take up free radicles which releases that duty from your immune system, allowing it to focus on other things, like viruses. :-) It is reported that in order to get the most out of Vitamin C you should take it at least 3 times a day or to bowel tolerance. Meaning, if your stools become really loose, back off your dosage until normal bowel movements return. The reason is, within 3-6 hours the mineral is out of your system, thus it is no longer providing maximum support. My next is Collodial Silver. Although it may not have an effect on many viruses, it can eliminate up to 600 different microorganisms, leaving your good ones alone. This also frees up your organic immune system to focus on the flu virus. Because honestly, the best defense against any virus is your immune system. Of course, this is just my opinion and experience.