Fall into Health: Ten Imperative Immune-Boosting Tips

The first rounds of colds and flus have already started to pass through the city, and it's still close to 20 degrees out!

These respiratory infections come in waves, and it is virtually impossible to avoid exposure to the viruses and bacteria that fester indoors in the cooler months. Guaranteed, you will find bountiful colonies coating door handles, communal pens, subway poles, bank machine buttons and especially on your colleagues friendly handshaking hands.

Wash your hands and use sanitizer they tell you...but if you did this as much as you needed to, your hands would become raw and dry. Plus, it's enough to drive you to paranoia! 

Do try to keep your hands clean as best as you can, but instead of worrying excessively about your exposure to pathogens, an often overlooked tactic is to support your immune system. Your immune system is your body's natural defense system to fight off invaders. If it is functioning well, it will be able to keep you healthy even in the presence of bacteria and viruses.

Here are ten ways to maintain your immune strength:

1. Drink plenty of water  - This helps with circulation and elimination, and ensures your cells are hydrated to function optimally. In the cooler months, warmer liquids (at least room temperature) are easier for your system to process
2. Consume seasonal foods that elevate your mood - Complex carbohydrates, found in whole grains, sweet potatoes, parsnips, fruit, will stimulate serotonin production, thereby improving your mood, which in turn strengthens immunity
3. Do not stress - High levels of stress will depress your immune system. Find a new approach to stressful situations, if you can, or find techniques for stress-reduction (meditation, deep breathing, enjoyable hobbies, exercise)
4. Exercise - There is no easier way to increase your energy, elevate serotonin, and turbocharge your immune system than regular physical exercise.
5. Sleep well - Ensure that you get adequate rest, your immune cells and tissues need this essential time to recuperate and regenerate
6. Sunlight Exposure - In addition to increasing vitamin D in your body, sunlight also increases serotonin (and for us Canadians, take 2000 IU/day of a good quality vitamin D3 supplement)
7. Take a vacation - For some people who really detest the cooler months, the best and only antidote is a quick trip to a sunny destination to recharge your batteries.
8. Supplement Essentials for immune health - A good multivitamin, vitamin C, B-complex, echinacea, fish oil and oregano oil are beneficial to support immune cells and combat pathogens.Talk to your Naturopath for a regime that works for you.
9. Reduce sugar and refined carb intake - A surefire way to depress your immune system and increase your risk of illness is to eat these foods; avoid them and you will be much better off.
10. Get outside! - A huge reason that people get ill in the cold season is that they stay indoors...not because they are outdoors, as is commonly thought. Re-circulated air and indoor toxins will prevent your immune system from optimal functioning, but if you dress warm (definitely wear a scarf!) and enjoy the fresh outdoor air, your body will be better equipped to fight off impending sickness.

Enjoy the colours and beauty of autumn and Happy Thanksgiving!
Makoto Trotter

Warming Foods for the Cooler Weather: A Chinese Medicine Perspective

Seems like in the last couple of weeks, everyone has been getting sick from coast to coast (we noticed it in Toronto and then when we went to Vancouver for Aileen's sister's wedding, people were hacking out their lungs). Part of the problem is that the weather has been cooling down, and as happens every year, we neglect to protect ourselves with adequate clothing.

Yesterday I saw people wearing parkas, others wearing shorts, and some wearing parkas with shorts(??). What this means is that those people that are holding on to the last remnants of summer by continuing to wear their summer wardrobe (not that I can blame em...I'm having a really hard time giving up my flipflops) are going to be chilled, and thereby at a higher risk of infection, such as the common cold.

For decades, conventional thinking has dismissed the correlation between cold weather and risk of infection because of Pasteur's germ theory of medicine. The germ theory explains that infection is based on exposure of a host to a pathogenic organism. The component that this theory neglects is the immune state of the host, which can be compromised by exposure to negative stressors, such as cold weather. Mothers and grandmothers have been telling us ad nauseum for eons to "dress warmly" and their theory has been vindicated by a review article in 2007 in the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, which clarifies that there is a relation between repiratory tract infection incidence and exposure to cold: Exposure to Cold and Respiratory Tract Infections.

Further to this study, in 2005 at the Common Cold Center at Cardiff University, Claire Johnson and Professor Ron Eccles conducted a study that involved immersing participants' feet in cold water for twenty minutes. The participants' incidence of catching a common cold within the next few days was 29%, which was much higher than the control group, which was only 9%.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has acknowledged this phenomenon for thousands of years, and termed pathologies created by exposure to cold as "Wind-Cold Invasion". Much of TCM theory is based on Yin versus Yang qualities, which includes respectively, Cold and Heat characteristics.

Based upon changes of seasons, TCM also recommends changing cooking methods and types of foods based on their inherent cooling or warming qualities, to balance out the energies we are exposed to from the environment.

Cooking methods that impart "heat" into foods include roasting, baking and steaming. A raw food diet may be beneficial to some people who have a more yang or hot constitution, but may be detrimental in the cooler months from October to March.

Below, I have summarized common warming and cooling foods from each particular food group. During the fall, winter, and early spring, stick to neutral and warming food types, and in the summer, switch to cooling foods.

• Warming Vegetables: sweet potato, parsnips, cilantro, green onions, cabbage, beets, turnips, pumpkin, shiitake mushrooms
• Cooling Vegetables: broccoli, eggplant, cucumber, lettuce, tomatoes, radish, celery


• Warming Fruits: blackberry, cherry, date, peach, lychee
• Cooling Fruits: apple, banana, watermelon, strawberry, grapefruit, avocado


• Warming Grains: oats, quinoa, rice, spelt, rye
• Cooling Grains: barley, wheat, wild rice, millet


• Nuts and seeds are generally all neutral, with some warming nuts including coconut, pinenut, chestnut and walnut.
  
• Most meats are warm or neutral. Cool meats are frog and rabbit. I know this may be extremely challenging, but please make sure to limit your intake of frog and rabbit meat in the winter.


• Most beans are neutral, with the exception of the cooling beans mung, soy, and lima beans.


• Herbs are generally warming foods. If they are added to a recipe, they will provide more heat to the final food. There are some cooling herbs to avoid in the winter time: marjoram, mint and tamarind

TCM also considers a protective energy called your Wei Qi (akin to your immune system), that can be easily depleted by exposure of your neck to cold winds. So, like your mom always told you, DONT FORGET TO WEAR YOUR SCARF.