Question: Every winter I get cold or flu like symptoms. Is there something I can do or take to minimize this?

Did you see the commercial on Psoriasis that has these little robots picking up little red specks from a conveyor belt and placing them up on a wall above them thereby making the psoriasis rash worse?

It is interesting to note that while some people think that those little bots are bad guys, they are actually chemicals our immune system releases in times of stress, and disease.  Some people probably think, “Kill the bots!”

The human body has a miraculous way of dealing with illness.  The Immune system stands ready 24 hours a day to fight anything and everything.  It has the power to unleash all these chemicals, but the side effects of the chemicals sometimes make us feel bad.  Fevers are caused by chemicals released from our immune system to “pasteurize” our blood and kill bad guys.  Symptoms some people experience include sinus drainage, congestion, ear pain and pressure, facial pain, and sore throat.

While these symptoms are annoying, they can be controlled.  There is an over the counter medication for nearly every symptom we have.  To prevent bad colds during the winter, I recommend 5 OTC products: Probiotics, Garlic, Vitamins A, C, and D, and Echinacea. 

Probiotics such as Lactinex, Acidophilus, Align, and Bifantis all have several million cells per tab and can be taken to prevent and treat diarrhea, gastroenteritis, irritable bowel syndrome, indigestion, and flatulence (what some know as “gas.”)

Garlic comes in tab form OTC, or in natural cloves.  You can take the tab daily or mix it in sugar water with 1 part crushed root with 10 parts water.  Do not take with Coumadin or oral anticoagulants. 

Vitamin A comes in 5,000 IU for men and 4,000 IU for women.  Vitamin A increases resistance to infections.

Vitamin C RDA is 60mg for adults. 500mg to 1000mg are safe daily intake, even though no research over past 20 years shows that those doses do not prevent colds.  However, Vitamin C is essential for healthy neutrophils, a key infection fighter in our immune system.

Vitamin D is our super ubiquitous vitamin we talked about in an earlier article, and 2000 IU daily is recommended for healthy immune systems.  In addition to aiding our immune system to fight colds, it also can reverse certain cancers like myeloid leukemia.

Two tsp of Echinacea in a cup of water three times daily is recommended to reduce the duration of a cold.  You can take an Echinacea tab daily to try to prevent colds.

I recommend this strategy for the winter months.  Of course, if you have symptoms longer than 4 days, any worsening of your colds, or concerns, no improvement with OTCs, or fever greater than 100.4 degrees you must come in to the ER or see your doctor and get appropriate treatment.

Thanks for all your great questions, keep them coming at runsinthewynd@gmail.com