Cold and flu season 2018-2019 is soon upon us so what can we do to not get the
flu? Coming right up hey I'm Dr. Ekberg with WellnessFor
Life and if you'd like to truly master health by understanding how the body
really works make sure that you subscribe and hit that notification bell
so that you don't miss anything so how come that there is an official cold and
flu season every year do the bugs kind of migrate or is it certain things that
humans do that make us more susceptible so first of all not everybody gets the
flu even though the flu virus there's bugs all around us not everyone gets it
because some people have a stronger immune system some bodies can put up
more resistance so what are the factors that influence that well in your body
you have a system your autonomic nervous system kind of operates on a seesaw and
we call that the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous system and the
sympathetic nervous system that's your fight/flight system it's designed to rev
things up to increase your blood sugar to increase your heart rate to increase
your blood pressure to get you ready for a fight
to get you ready to run away and whenever that happens whenever that
sympathetic nervous system is activated you automatically by default
decrease the activity of the parasympathetic and the parasympathetic
is your feed breed system that's what handles your digestion and your immune
system and your repair and your healing and your reproduction so modern human
beings have more stress than we've ever had because we live in a very very
complex world but starting somewhere around Halloween it tends to increase
and that is why we become more susceptible we
increase our stress so what is stress stress is anything that activates your
sympathetic nervous system so that it can be chemical stress structural stress
and emotional stress so in chiropractic we talked about this triad of health
that the human is influenced by chemical structural and emotional factors so
chemical stress would be things like toxins and pathogens and unstable blood
sugar for example all of those are chemical stresses structural stress our
trauma slips and falls but also lack of movement because movement drives the
frontal lobe that inhibits stress so sedentary living in activity is actually
a form of physical stress and emotional stress is when we feel overwhelmed when
you feel tense or frustrated or inadequate or there's just too many
things to do and not enough time and starting somewhere around Halloween with
all of that can be and then going on through the Thanksgiving and then all
the Christmas parties we tend to eat more candy we tend to go to more parties
we tend to not have time to exercise because of all the parties and we're
less inclined to exercise because it's cold and dark and then all the emotional
stress because we have all these things to do and all these parties to prepare
for and all these dinners to cook so stress everyone would probably agree
that for most people stress increases during the holiday season which
coincides with the flu season so knowing that what can we do about it well the
first thing that you want to do is to cut back on sugar because sugar it is
the main form of chemical stress it as soon as you eat sugar you destabilize
your blood sugar you create a blood sugar rollercoaster every time your
blood sugar is low you make cortisol which is a stress hormone and there you
go sugar also feeds all the pathogens all of the bugs that create the flu
the colds and flues they are fed by sugar everything you don't want in your
body everything that feeds offer you loves sugar so number two avoid sugar
okay number three don't eat sugar number four
eat good quality food eat grass-fed meat eat organic meat eat wild caught fish
eat organic vegetables eat quality fat eat grass-fed organic butter eat extra
virgin olive oil eat coconut oil but don't eat sugar I think you're getting
the picture now I really hope so and five stay physically active I know the
season is very challenging because we're so tempted to go inside and just do
other things but we want to stay active the activity drives the frontal lobe the
frontal lobe inhibits the stress response and balances out this seesaw
and you can benefit your immune system by doing that and finally to combat the
emotional stress try to find some time despite all of the hurry to relax put
aside five minutes do some deep breathing put aside some time to do
meditation there's a guided meditation on our site here's a link for that one
so there are a lot of things that we can do and realize that the flu does not hit
you accidentally it does not land on you just because you have bad luck it lands
on everybody and if you have a stronger immune system if your parasympathetic
sympathetic nervous system are imbalanced then you will probably not
get the flu so a lot of people wonder about the flu shot and I'm not going to
get into a lot of detail there my personal opinion is I don't get the flu
shot but I would recommend for everyone to do your research don't take my word
for it and even more importantly don't take your medical
doctor's word for it and don't get the flu shot just because it's offered free
at your local Kroger or Walmart or wherever else you happen to be make an
informed decision and do all the things that it needs to get you healthy and in
balance and strengthen your immune system if you enjoy this sort of content
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helping get the message of health out to the broader public thanks for watching