If you are one of those people who always seems to catch every bug going around, the winter months tend to be a time of misery. Why is it that some people seem to sail through winter without so much as a sniffle, whilst you catch cold after cold?
The usual answer is that your immune system is not as efficient as it should be. There are a number of factors that can affect immunity, but the good news is these can all be improved upon, so maybe you don't have to suffer this year.
The development of the immune system starts before birth, when we inherit some resistance from our parents' genes, and is further developed as we come through the birth canal and pick up our first lot of bacteria - our starter kit of mucosal flora in the digestive system. We then "switch on" our immune system through breast feeding as a result of the colostrum found in our mother's milk.
The immune system is extremely complex and has many layers. Our basic immunity that starts from birth is called our Innate Immune System. This is made up of physical barriers such as our skin or mucous membranes, which are protected by natural substances such as mucous, saliva, tears and stomach acid. Inflammation is also part of the Innate Immunity and is triggered in response to foreign invaders, leading to mobilisation of our most vicious army, our white blood cells.
We then have more specific immunity that develops as we are exposed to disease or through vaccination. This part of the immune system is called "Acquired or Adaptive Immunity" and is where our immune system builds up knowledge and antibodies against specific viruses or bacteria.
So with all these natural defence mechanisms why does our immunity become compromised? What affects it and how can we sort this out in time for winter?
Allergies
As you will probably know, allergies occur when the immune system becomes over active and starts to react to something that would ordinarily be a harmless substance - like pollen or food. When people are suffering from a lot of allergic reaction this can display in the form of hay fever or food intolerances. While the immune system is busy dealing with that it can shift focus away from its other jobs, like patrolling the body for real invaders. Consequently those suffering from allergies also seem to be more prone to catching winter chills.
In preparation for winter I suggest you start working with your allergies. Get help identifying foods that may not be working for you and exclude them. There are also many natural health products that can help balance immunity - colostrum is an immune balancer, as is the herb Echinacea. These can help move the immune system away from being reactive to normally harmless substances, and direct immune forces to look for invading winter bugs instead.
Stress
When we experience stress for a long period of time it can shut down our immune system. Our natural chemical response to stress is to produce hormones such as cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine. Cortisol blocks the immune system - not so helpful now, but when we evolved, short term stress meant fighting off a cold was unlikely to happen at the same time as fleeing a predator. Long term stress is a new feature of the modern world, and this endless supply of cortisol now leaves us open to disease.
Cortisol also shifts our immunity towards allergy sensitivity, which as we've seen doesn't help overall immunity. I have explained many times to clients that too much "stress" is not the same as "not coping mentally". We can still be trucking along doing a job competently, but our body can still be suffering the physiological effects of being too busy, multi-tasking and under constant pressure.
I understand that most of us can't just stop working and stop stressing immediately, but there are many herbs and nutrients that can support the nervous system and move it out of "fight or flight" mode. Astragalus is one of my favourite herbs for the busy person who gets sick all the time - not only does it boost the immune system and increase white blood cells, it also helps to balance cortisol levels to manage that fight or flight response. Many of the herbs in the ginseng family have also traditionally been used as restorative tonics to increase energy and boost immunity. So if it looks like stress levels will continue into winter, taking herbs to manage the physical effects is a must.
Nutritional deficiencies
There are many nutrients that are key to our immune health that can easily be depleted in everyday life by poor diet, poor digestion, stress, medications and more. Vitamin C for instance is essential to make stress hormones, so is quickly used up when constant stress means we need more of them.
Vitamin C also becomes depleted in smokers, as it is used to bind the free radicals from inhaled toxins. It is essential for our immune system to build white blood cells, where it is used in manufacturing and is actually part of these cells themselves, and is quickly used up if we get sick - which is why it is a great nutrient to take in advance, or at the first sign of sniffles.
Zinc is another key nutrient and is an important part of the defence barriers we talked about before. It has an antibacterial effect in our saliva, on our skin and in our mucous membranes, and is used up quickly in viral attacks as it is used to build our white blood cells. There is great evidence around that shows zinc can shorten the duration of respiratory tract infections - so if you are having recurrent mouth ulcers and have white spots on your nails, you may be starting winter low on zinc and would be best to top it up.
Digestive health
Over 70% of our immunity is found in our digestive system. We often forget that our digestive system is just a big tube going through our body that protects against harmful things we ingest and absorbs the nutrients we need to stay well. Many viruses, bacteria and pathogens can enter through the digestive system, so we need strong barriers to protect us. Many lifestyle factors can cause damage to the mucosal barriers, and the balance of good bacteria vs bad bacteria in the gut is important to our core defences.
As mentioned, the immune system's focus can be diverted to food allergies and over sensitivity in the digestive system, instead of protecting us from exposure to bacteria and viruses. Probiotics are good to take before the start of winter, to ensure we have the right amount of good bacteria to feed our mucosal cells and protect our digestive barriers. Probiotics can become depleted if we need to take antibiotics, so make sure if you have to take these medications that you take probiotics alongside.
Again, work on identifying those food intolerances, eliminate them and start digestive healing before winter starts in earnest.
Sleep
How many of you have done as I used to do - burning the candle at both ends, not getting enough sleep and subsequently getting sick. My early warning sign is always a sore throat, and when I used to ignore this (before I got older and wiser) it used to end in tonsillitis. Studies have shown that poor sleep can result in poor immunity, so what is the connection?
As well as lack of sleep leading us to become run down, make poor food choices and have poor energy, studies have shown that sleep patterns have a direct effect on our immune system. There is a two-way communication between our immune system and the nervous system, the good management of which requires sleep. It seems that many of our immune functions are regulated in synchrony with the circadian rhythms which govern our 24 hour sleep-wake cycle. If these rhythms are disrupted then so can the maintenance and production of our immune defences.
So if you are having sleep problems, come and get some help to get back into those immune supportive patterns. Sometimes magnesium before bed is enough, but many people might need more help identifying the chemical imbalances that may be causing difficulties getting to sleep or staying asleep.
