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Keep Your Defenses Up

    It's cold and flu season and I get asked quite often what I do for protection.
    There are many good remedies available and I've learned over the years
    that everyone has a slightly different "recipe" for staying healthy.  Here's what
    I try to do:

    Use a hand sanitizing gel and try to keep my hands away from my face.  Many
    cold and flu viruses are transmitted this way.

    Take a good multiple vitamin.  I recommend one that has at least 50mg of the
    B vitamins, perferably 75-100mg.  Theses will help with the stress that seems
    to accompany the winter season.

    Take 1000mg of vitamin C a day.  That was good advice twenty years ago and
    it's still good today.  Emergen-C packets are a great way to take your C.  
    They are good tasting, have the benefits of 32 mineral ascorbates, and insure
    you take in fluids as well.

    As hard as it is this time of year, try not to overeat or indulge in too many sweets.  I remember reading
    a study years ago that the consumption of sugar could decrease the activity of white blood cells by a
    factor of 10.  White blood cells are a key component to your body's defense system.

    If you listen closely your body usually pre-signals the onset of a cold.  For some it's a headache, joint
    pain, or even just a lack of energy.  As soon as I feel something is coming on I start a regimen of
    echinacea root and white willow bark.  I like using Nature's Way Echinacea Root Complex because it
    contains just the root, the most powerful part of the plant, of two of the strongest species, echinacea
    angustifolia and purpurea.  The white willow bark is a source of salicylic acid, aspirin essentially, and
    acts as an anti-immflamatory and works against fever.  I start by taking three echinacea and two white
    willow three times a day.  Quite often this combination works within 48 hours and I reduce the dose for
    the next two or three days.

    Rest.  Going to bed early at the first sign of an illness may keep you from staying in bed during an
    illness.  Your body has the tools to fight most diseases we just have to sometimes get out of the way
    and let it do it's job.  

    Light exercise.  The lymph system is a passive system.  Unlike your cardiovascular system that has
    the heart to pump things around your lymph fluid moves when you move.  Light, and the key is light,
    exercise keeps the lymph system moving and therefore, much more active.

    Every once in awhile a cold or virus is going to get you.  When it does, take the time to take care of
    yourself:  take plenty of fluids, keep your body nourished, and rest.

    Stay healthy!
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