Prior to yesterday, I hadn’t been sick since December 31, 2006 {not counting pregnancy sickness and not counting one horrible night with food poisoning. I’m talking viruses here}. I remember the date because I had plans to go out with friends to celebrate the New Year, but stayed home with the flu instead. Four years is a long time to go without getting the flu or even a cold, but clearly it was time for me to get my smug self knocked off my soap box. I was getting a little too confident in my immune system’s strength and forgot that an immune system can only remain strong if you continue to feed it well. And this Christmas, I did not feed my immune system well. I deserved to get the flu.
There are two culprits, in particular, that suppress an immune system that I indulged in: sugar and alcohol. I don’t eat sugar-laden treats on a regular basis, but when my grandma sent her famous homemade fudge, caramels, and divinity, I couldn’t let all of her hard work be for naught. Eating a piece of fudge here, a caramel there, all day long ensured that I had a steady stream of sugar in my system for about 4 straight days. If you remember this post about sugar you know that it weakens your immune system for about five hours after you ingest it, not allowing the white blood cells to fight off germs at their full strength. Alcohol has the same effect on the immune system. On a normal basis, I drink alcohol maybe once a month in a social setting. With my parents here and my dad and I enjoying our time with food in the kitchen, I had 1-3 glasses of wine each night the last four days.
I have no doubt that it was the combination of sugar and alcohol, coupled with the stress of getting everything done for the holiday (stress is also bad for the immune system) and putting exercise on the back burner, that weakened my immune system enough to not be able to fight off this bug. I’m mad at myself because I know better than to allow this to happen. Even though my body was able to fight the infection in about 12 hours, it should not have stood a chance against my immune system. I have learned my lesson and hope that now that I’ve kicked this bug I won’t be sick again for at least another four years.
Here are the things I normally do to keep my immune system strong:
1. Avoid sugar
2. Keep stress to a minimum
3. Get a good night’s sleep (for me that means a minimum of 7 hours, but ideally 8-9)
4. Exercise
5. Don’t drink too much alcohol
6. Get Vitamin D (in the spring/summer/fall this means getting outside without sunscreen for a little while everyday. In the winter this means taking a quality supplement)
7. Eat a wide variety of immune-boosting foods
Vitamin C foods: oranges, strawberries, kiwis, broccoli, brussels sprouts, butternut squash, kale, chard, red bell peppers
Vitamin E foods: almonds, sunflower seeds, avocado, blueberries, raspberries, pumpkin, chard
Foods with Carotenoids: carrots, apricots, sweet potato, spinach, kale, squash
Zinc foods: grass-fed beef, turkey (dark meat), beans
Garlic
Selenium foods: wheat germ, sunflower seeds, tuna fish, lentils, cashews
Omega 3 Fatty Acid foods: salmon, tuna, flaxseeds, chia seeds
Foods with Probiotics: yogurt, kefir, miso, sauerkraut
Getting sick is not something that is inevitable. We can avoid it by keeping our immune system strong and letting it do its job. So far Tim and Meghan have not gotten sick. I hope their immune systems are able to fight the flu better than mine was!
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