How to stay healthy this winter
You may have noticed the air starting to feel a bit cooler and the days drawing in slightly early; the winter months are creeping up on us. And with the incoming of winter also brings colds and flu, as some of you may feel is an annual occurrence.
Be this because of the lack of Vitamin D from fewer hours of sunlight, leading to a less inefficient immune system. Or the longer time we spend indoors with the windows and doors shut, causing poor ventilation and helping to spread viruses. What can you do to try and stay healthy this winter?
1. Stay warm
When outside, it is better to verge on being too warm than cold, i.e., put that extra layer on or bring a hat and gloves with you; it is better to be safe than sorry. Remember your hands, feet, and head are where most heat is lost, so warm socks, hats, and gloves are a good idea.
Try to keep your home heated at a steady temperature throughout the day. The NHS recommends that for those who are not very mobile, are 65 or over, or have a health condition, such as heart or lung disease, the heating needs to be at least 18C. It is ok to be below this for healthy, young, active individuals as long as you are comfortable.
It is also a good idea to keep your bedroom windows closed at night and to shut your curtains at dawn to prevent draughts.
2. Stay hydrated
You should be aiming to get your daily recommended amount of water or more: The NHS recommend 6-8 glasses of water throughout the day and more if exercising or sweating.
Staying hydrated can help with congestion by loosening the mucus in your nasal cavities. As well as help flush out harmful toxins and impurities from the body and produce lymph, which helps circulate white blood cells and nutrients to all the tissues in the body.
3. Wash your hands regularly
We have become more familiar with this in the past 18 months; however, it may be even more critical now as we ease back to normal with fewer restrictions coming into flu season. We should keep remembering to wash our hands regularly with soap for at least 20 seconds.
Another good practice is to wipe your phone with antibacterial wipes regularly. If you think about the number of times you touch a railing, lift button, or door handle, then go to type a text or reply to an email, imagine the number of germs on your phone. That we then often bring close to our face.
4. Get your sleep
If you have read my previous blog, you will know about the importance of sleep in all aspects of our health. Including the immune system; Sleeping five instead of seven hours on average a week can increase the infection rate from 18 to 50% of infectious diseases such as the common cold and influenza.
You should try to get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep a night and ideally 8 hours.
5. Eat a healthy diet
We should always be trying to eat a colourful and balanced diet. Including the basics you are probably already aware of; fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts and whole grains.
But there are some specific foods that we can include in our diet that will strengthen your natural defences and help your chances of warding off colds and flu.
Kerry Torrens is a qualified nutritionist and a member of the Royal Society of Medicine and the British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy. She writes for many publications, including BBC good food. This is her advice on boosting our immune system via our diet this winter taken from How to prevent a cold - BBC Good Food.
· Vegetables such as sweet potatoes, butternut squash and beetroot are rich in beta-carotene, which our bodies convert to vitamin A. We need vitamin A to keep the mucosal linings in our nose and lungs robust enough to defend against infection. Other foods to include are orange and red fruits such as oranges, mango, apricots and melon.
· Garlic and onion contain potent oils that have an anti-microbial action, so they may help protect against bacterial and viral infections. They also support good gut health as prebiotics by promoting the growth of healthy bacteria.
· Vitamin C- we can get all the vitamin C we need to support a healthy immune system through eating plenty of fruit and vegetables. These include leafy, dark green vegetables such as chard and spinach, peppers, broccoli, peas, kiwi fruit and citrus fruits. There is little evidence to suggest that supplementing with high levels of vitamin C will reduce the risk of catching a cold, but it may help the severity and duration of a cold if you were to catch one.
· Vitamin D- lower vitamin D levels are associated with a greater risk of infection. Getting enough vitamin D through the sunlight can be tricky in the winter, so we should get more Vitamin D in our diet. There are only a few food sources, of which the best are oily fish such as salmon and mackerel, eggs and mushrooms.
· Grains such as oats and barley are rich in water-soluble fibre called beta-glucans. While keeping us full and satisfied, they have a valuable immune-modulatory effect, increasing the number and function of protective immune cells.
· Probiotics - more than 60% of our immune defences lie along the mucosal lining of our gut, so keeping it healthy is vital. Including probiotic foods like live yoghurt, kefir, kimchi, and sauerkraut can help feed the good bacteria in the gut, but introduce these foods gradually to give your system time to adjust."
They have lots of great recipes that include these ingredients on the website linked above.
6. Exercise
It is harder to keep up your exercise routine in winter, but you should try; exercising in moderation will help support the immune system by stimulating the production of white blood cells and have a beneficial long-term effect on the immune response.
The study recommends your exercise session should be less than 60 minutes and of a moderate-to-vigorous intensity. You should still get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity a week but spread out evenly throughout the week, not for more than 60 minutes a time.
Exercise with a too high workload can diminish the immune response; our bodies produce cortisol under stress, weakening the immune system.
"Add life to your years & years to your life."
Written by Hope Parish.
References
2. How to prevent a cold - BBC Good Food
3. How to stay well in winter - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
5. Hydration for Immune System – UCI
6. The compelling link between physical activity and the body's defense system - ScienceDirect
7. Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold - PubMed (nih.gov)