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[00:00:00] Jenny Swisher: Welcome friends to this episode of the Sync Your Life podcast. Today we’re diving into natural ways to boost your immune system heading into the colder fall temperatures. It goes without saying that society often calls fall and winter months sick season, but in reality it’s eat a lot of crap season.

[00:01:15] Jenny Swisher: From Halloween candy, to Thanksgiving feasts, to Christmas cookies, all the way through to Valentine chocolates and more candy, it’s no wonder that we often spend time with colds, flus, and yucky viruses from September through March. For today’s purposes, I’m going to give you all the things that my family is doing to combat cold and flu season by boosting our immune systems naturally.

[00:01:36] Jenny Swisher: As usual, none of this should be deemed medical advice. That being said, I myself am coming off of my third round of COVID as we speak at the time of this recording, and man, it really never gets easier. I went two years without it, and then my oldest daughter brought it home from school a couple weeks ago.

[00:01:52] Jenny Swisher: While I’m grateful that my symptoms have always been mild with COVID compared to others, it’s still no fun to deal with the symptoms. So pardon my weird voice today, but we’re going to keep going. So let’s talk first about what we eat and how that matters. When we consume things like sugar and processed foods, you could say that we’re feeding our bodies.

[00:02:09] Jenny Swisher: our machines, crappy fuel. I tell my daughters that our food is our fuel. And when we can load up on whole foods, we’re giving our bodies the energy they need to have energy and fight off bugs. When we feed it crap, we often pay for it by a weakened immune system. I’ve seen in my work, so many women who are under eating and relying on quick meals, granola bars for breakfast on their way out the door or carry out for dinner.

[00:02:34] Jenny Swisher: And then they pay for it by being constantly sick during these months, make food, your priority. Whether it’s preparing a little bit on the weekends with some meal prep, or simply making the daily choice, it matters. Equally as important is sleep. Naturally, as the sun begins to go down earlier in the day in the wintertime, our melatonin settles in sooner as well.

[00:02:56] Jenny Swisher: You’ve heard of a long winter’s nap, right? Well, it’s true. Bears hibernate in the winter and humans often turn inward as well, looking for all the cozy stuff during the winter months. But our fast paced lifestyle often doesn’t warrant a day off by the fire, or sleeping in until the sun rises, or going to bed early when the sun sets.

[00:03:14] Jenny Swisher: Our busy jobs and places to be keep us going well into the dark. Lack of sleep weakens the immune system as well by not giving our bodies the resiliency that it requires through that good quality sleep. So what do we do? We schedule the downtime. For my family, that looks like extra rest on the weekends, earlier bedtimes than summer time.

[00:03:35] Jenny Swisher: and resting before we get hit with a fever or a bug. We often know when our bodies need it, if we just take the time and get quiet enough to listen. Next on the list is supplementation. I will be sure to link up my COVID podcast from a couple years ago, where I share my entire supplement regimen for COVID in more detail.

[00:03:54] Jenny Swisher: But once again, this third time around, I’m following the same regimen myself. I’m taking one baby aspirin per day. N acetylcysteine, extra vitamin C, and quercetin. But even when I’m not sick with COVID, I take 2000mg of vitamin C per day, local elderberry syrup, vitamin D, and zinc. I will also link up for you my deep dive on vitamin D in the show notes because Americans should be checking vitamin D levels in the winter months at the very least.

[00:04:21] Jenny Swisher: If you’re low in vitamin D, supplementation can be game changing for you. Did you know that one of the most common factors of morbidity in COVID 19 was low vitamin D? Now you know. Speaking of vitamin D, that brings me to tip number four, which is to get some sunlight. I know it might be getting colder where you are, but according to my daughter’s nature preschool, there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.

[00:04:44] Jenny Swisher: Taking your daily walk, getting outside and letting the sun hit your face is not only good for your mood, but also for your immune system. Infrared light through red light therapy or infrared saunas can be great also. I will link up my favorite red light in the show notes. And finally, movement. It wouldn’t be me doing this podcast if I didn’t mention movement.

[00:05:04] Jenny Swisher: Exercise is known to boost the immune system. In fact, I will link up for you in the show notes, an article straight from PubMed that’s titled the compelling link between physical activity and the body’s defense system.

[00:05:16] Jenny Swisher: The highlights of the study state that quote, Acute exercise is an immune system adjuvant that improves defense activity and metabolic health. Data supports a clear inverse relationship between moderate exercise training and illness risk. Exercise training has an anti inflammatory influence mediated through multiple pathways.

[00:05:37] Jenny Swisher: So there you have it, friends. This is what my family is doing heading into the fall and winter months. Now, I’ll be honest and I’ll tell you that when it comes to the holidays, We do allow treats. For Halloween, my kids are now used to the Yum Earth brand, as well as the No Way Foods brand when it comes to candies, and we stay away from the typical Hershey chocolates and red dyes.

[00:05:56] Jenny Swisher: When it comes to Christmas cookies, we have our own recipes that we love for coconut sugar cookies versus white refined sugar cookies, and we often find ourselves making plenty of treats during the holiday season that are just less inflammatory to our bodies. But at the end of the day, these five things that we’ve discussed.

[00:06:12] Jenny Swisher: Eating a whole foods based diet and eliminating processed foods, refined sugar, and alcohol, prioritizing sleep and rest, supplementing, getting sunlight daily in the outdoors, and moving with exercise are precisely how we are going into sick season prepared. As always, I will link everything up in the show notes that I mentioned here for you today, including the deeper dive on vitamin D and COVID, but just know this.

[00:06:35] Jenny Swisher: So much of your health is within your control. Of course, we do the things. We wash our hands, what, right? We do, we sanitize. But if we have kids or we’re out and about, sickness is going to happen. It’s not always about fending it off, but being prepared for it when it comes. Remember, your body is your machine, and the better you take care of it, the better it will take care of you.

[00:06:56] Jenny Swisher: I hope this is helpful as always, my friends. We’ll talk again soon. Until next time. Bye bye.