“I heard this guy has a cold. Maybe we shouldn’t get too close to him.”
This is a myth. If your body is strong, you will have a well-functioning immune system that will help you fight off most viral and bacterial attacks. It is always helpful to avoid as many sources of germs as you can. Don’t share a glass with a sick person, wash your hands often, and encourage everyone to cough or sneeze into their elbow. However, if you are not strong, have a poor diet, sleep deprived, and you’re under stress both mentally and physically, you will easily get sick. If all you needed was more vitamin C, then that’s an easy fix. However, many people find it doesn’t help much, because of the other stresses in their life.
Learn to recognize and deal with your stress. Are you tense, irritable, having trouble sleeping, or trouble focusing? You must deal with your stress before it becomes chronic. Short term stress is normal and unavoidable, the problem is when it goes unchecked for months and your body becomes weak.
Most people think of stress as simply worrying or mental stress, but it comes in physical and chemical as well. Let me explain. Mental stress results from the way you think or how you perceive your world. Remember hearing that it’s not what happens to you that counts in life as much as how you react to what happens to you. In other words, it’s how you think and mentally process your world.
Physical stress is anything that physically affects our body such as how much we move, injuries we sustain, or our posture. Too much movement will cause a strain and too little movement will weaken our body.
Chemical stress comes from the foods or drugs we eat or the air we breathe. A poor diet will stress our body as will many drugs, and air pollution.
Being strong and reducing stress comes from learning to Move Well, Eat Well, and Think Well.
Move Well: Get plenty of regular exercise. You don’t have to go to a gym, but you do need to get your steps every day. Fitbit suggests you get 10,000 steps per day. You might get 4,000 from a half hour walk and if you don’t sit all day afterwards, it shouldn’t be too hard to get to 10,000. You may also want to do some regular stretching and get plenty of rest. Try to sleep at least 7 to 9 hours per night. Some people think they can get by on 6 others seem to need 10. What really matters is to consistently get the sleep you need.
Eat Well: Make sure to eat a healthy diet full of fruits and vegetables, and drink lots of water, weak tea, or diluted juices. Avoid a lot of caffeine or alcohol as these are more work for the body to process. Don’t eat or drink a lot of sugar as it will interfere with the way Vitamin C helps your immune system keep you well.
Think Well: We all know people who are positive and seem happy all the time. They don’t rattle easily and generally look at the bright side of any situation. These people are healthy thinkers and have what we call a positive mental attitude. Unfortunately, far too often we see people with a negative mental attitude. They criticize everything and everyone, finding fault in every situation. Who’s right and who’s the happier, healthier person? I think it’s obvious. The real trick is learning to think more positive. It may not come naturally to you especially if your family was always critical. You may need to learn to look at the bright side, see the good in everyone, and hold back your criticism when no one is asking for it. Affirmations are positive statements about what you want in life and can be repeated out loud several times per day. You can keep a journal where you write out all the positive things that happen to you each day. Sure, there may be some bad things, but learn to look for the good and focus on them. Let the bad stuff fade away. Start out each day by doing the Grateful Exercise. Before you even get out of bed, say to yourself at least three things you are grateful for. You may be sick and have a financial crisis, but you have a great spouse, a roof over your head, and a job. Spending your time worrying about anything too much will make you sick.
Also, when you are too sore to get enough exercise, you really could benefit from a Chiropractic adjustment that helps to get everything moving well again. Even when you don’t notice any pain, restricted or misaligned joints are causing a stress to your body and adjustments can help to reduce this stress. Studies have shown that a single Chiropractic adjustment increases your white blood cell count making your immune system stronger and better able to fight off germs.
To fight the colds and flus, you need to be strong and have a properly functioning immune system. Learn to Move Well, Eat Well, and Think Well, and see your Chiropractor regularly.