Naturopathic Advise on Staying Healthy
How doing frour simple things can help keep you healthy.
- Eat Clean.
- Exercise.
- Increase hydration.
- Sleep.
1. Eat Clean. This means quit sugar. Yes NO sugar.
Read all the labels (added sugars include brown sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, lactose, malt syrup, maltose, molasses, raw sugar, and sucrose). Almost everything has sugar in it. Better yet, don’t eat anything with a label! Real food has no added sugar.
Support your immune system by staying away from sugar. An overdose of sugar, eating or drinking 8 tbsp. of sugar, the equivalent of 30 oz. of soda, can reduce the ability of white blood cells to defend us by 40 percent.
With ongoing concerns about flu & viruses, we need the best functioning immune system possible. The immune-suppressing effect of sugar starts less than 30 minutes after ingestion. Maximum immune suppression occurs 1-2 hours after ingestion and remains suppressed for up to 5 hours after ingesting. In contrast, the ingestion of complex carbohydrates (vegetables), has no effect on the immune system.
2. Exercise.
Nothing new here, exercise is good for everything. But let’s try something a little different: Strength training with Weights. The focus of this kind of exercise should be on increasing strength, not losing pounds. Increasing muscle mass may cause an increase in weight, which can be disillusioning for some.
Baseline fitness levels count when health crises strike. Having muscle on your body is protective from getting many chronic degenerative illnesses and also in surviving heart attacks and cancer. The most potent exercises for orthopedic health, improving metabolism, balancing hormones, decreasing inflammation, modulating immune function, reducing pain, lowering blood pressure, improving heart health and increasing resilience revolve around adding and maintaining healthy lean skeletal muscle mass to the body, and keeping it there as we age. If you don’t have weights, improvise. Pick up a jug of milk, stand up tall and strong, and walk around your house. Having a jug in each hand is even more potent. No milk jugs? Try shopping bags with books or cans.
Do weight strength training (not just body weight exercises) 3-4x/week.
3. Increase Hydration. This means water. Not coffee, juice, energy drinks which are all diuretics and dehydrating, but plain water.
Keep mucous membranes moist by being well hydrated. Keep your immunity up by drinking plenty of water to stave off infection. Staying hydrated helps your body naturally eliminate toxins and other bacteria that may cause illness.
Drink more water. Ideally you are looking getting at least 3 Liters (96 oz.) per day.
4. Sleep. Yes, lack of sleep can affect your immune system.
Studies show that people who don’t get quality sleep or enough sleep are more likely to get sick after being exposed to a virus. Lack of sleep can also affect how fast you recover if you do get sick. Infection-fighting antibodies and cells are reduced during periods when you don’t get enough sleep. In simple terms, sleep deprivation suppresses immune system function. The more all-nighters you pull, the more likely you are to decrease your body’s ability to respond to viruses or bacterial infections. How much sleep do you need to bolster your immune system? The optimal amount of sleep for most adults is 7-8 hours of good sleep each night. Teenagers need 9-10 hours of sleep. School-aged children may need 10 or more hours of sleep. Are you getting enough sleep?