How to Prevent the Flu: as Easy as 1, 2, 3...
exception. Americans suffer from ap- proximately 1 billion colds per year, or about two to four colds per year for the average adult. But why do people start getting sick
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as the leaves start to fall? Unfortunately in the US, thanks to the CDC, nearly anyone seeing their doctor for a cold will be told that they are infected with H1N1 and will be added to the already inflated CDC statistics.
olds are a leading cause of doctor visits and missed days from work and school, and this season is no
However, according to the CBS News
study, when you come down with chills, fever, cough, runny nose, malaise and all those other "flu-like" symptoms, the illness is likely caused by influenza at most, 17 percent of the time, and as little as 3 per- cent! The other 83 to 97 percent of the time it's caused by other viruses or bacteria. So remember that not every illness
that appears to be the flu, actually IS the flu. In fact, most of the time it's not. Nev- ertheless, as temperatures drop, we begin to congregate indoors and spend less time in the sun. This means our vitamin D lev- els begin to drop, and we are more apt to spread viruses from one person to another. It isn't that these opportunistic patho-
gens magically appear at certain times of the year—they're always around. It's your ability to respond to them that changes with the seasons. It is important to under- stand the causes of viral upper respiratory syndromes if you want to avoid them.
The Real Cause of Colds and Flu Many people believe that colds and
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flu are caused by bacteria, but this is sim- ply incorrect. Colds and flu are caused by viruses, and using antibiotics to treat a viral infection is inappropriate and inef- fective. Viruses are orders of magnitude smaller than bacteria and have entirely different structures that make antibiotics useless. (Occasionally antibiotics are re-
quired if there is a secondary bacterial sinus infection or bronchitis/pneumonia, but this is the rare exception.)
It is also important to recognize that,
although a virus triggers your cold or flu symptoms, it is not the real cause of the illness. So, what is the real cause of colds and flu?
My simple and short answer has al-
ways been that it's due to an impaired immune system. That's still true. However, research has confirmed that "catching" colds and flu may be a symptom of an underlying vitamin D deficiency! Less than optimal vitamin D levels will significantly impair your immune response and make you far more susceptible to contracting colds, influenza, and other respiratory infections.
Although there are many ways you might end up with a weakened immune system, the more common contributing factors are:
~ Vitamin D deficiency, as previously mentioned
~ Eating too much sugar and too many grains
~ Not getting enough sleep ~ Insufficient exercise
~ Inadequately managing emotional stressors in your life
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