What are some NATURAL ways to boost my immune system to ward off the flu this year?

Question

I know about washing hands, blah blah blah. I'm interested in specific vitamins or other remedies that might help strengthen my body's ability to ward it off.

If your answer is "get a flu shot" please don't bother as I am allergic so it's not an option. Thanks!

Answer 1

we get sick because our immune system is weak.

There are alot of things you can do to accelerate boosting your immune system. Some to by recognizing what caused your immune system to get weak, then avoiding those things as much as possible. Before I share many ways to boost your immune system, take a look at some possible reasons why our immune system gets weak.

1) Toxins: Most people today have excess accumulation of toxins and waste material in their bodies causing their body to be acidic and adding stress to their immune system function. The two main reasons for this is
a) People are putting huge amounts of toxins (mostly unknowingly) in their bodies on a regular basis and
b) their elimination channels are clogged, slow or sluggish.
c) toxins like "junk" food, medications(drugs), sugars, excess alcohol, allergens all stress your immune system, thus making it weak and unable to fight the germs when exposed to them.

2) Nutritional Deficiency:
When your body lacks nutrition, you will have a weak immune system.
Since our bodies can not produce nutrients needed for optimal health, quality food plays a major factor in keeping our cells healthy and our immune system strong. Food not only provides energy to your body, but all the nutrients that are essential for a healthy immune system.

3) Lack of drinking healthy water:
Dehydration means the cells just simply do not have enough fluid. Dehydration cause medical problems including pain, arthritis, asthma, and allergies, among other medical issues. It can affect your energy and your sleep, and the ability to get toxins/waste material out of the body.

4) Lack of physical activity:
Lack of regular, moderate exercise appears to slow down cleansing the body of certain toxins and waste products

5) Lack of sufficient rest:
lack of sleep will stress your immune system and thus increase the risk of catching a bug.

6) Chronic stress
People who are under chronic stress have lower than normal white blood cell counts, are more vulnerable to colds and other viruses and take longer to recover from them. They are more likely to experience more severe symptoms than people who are not under a great deal of stress.

The good news is you can strengthen your immune system by doing as many of the following list as possible....

1) I know you heard about washing your hands, it does help, but obviously it is much more than that. Keep practicing good personal hygiene care, and wash your hands! The great plague of 1918 could have been avoided by practicing good personal hygiene.

2) get plenty of rest. During deep sleep, our body release potent immune-enhancing substances that strengthen your immune system function. By not allowing our body sufficient rest, the immune system will sputter, and as a result, not function at full capacity. We then are more likely to become ill with common illnesses. A healthy, deep sleep allows our body to release a significant amount of growth hormone that boost the immune system and aids in the growth and repair of the body.

3) get moderate and regular exercise
An increase in blood flow associated with moderate exercise helps to circulate antibodies along with white blood cells necessary to fight infection more quickly. As a result, this provides our bodies with an early warning system to ward off potentially damaging germs. In addition, the increase in body temperature as a result of physical activity may aid in inhibiting the growth of bacteria; thus allowing the body to fight infection more effectively.

4) Receiving a Regular Body Cleansing.
Body cleansing is essential because our bodies need to properly eliminate the toxic build up that has formed in our intestines (colon), which may lead to sickness and disease. Our body organs and tissues must be free of toxins for the immune system to function optimally thus enabling our bodies to receive the essential nutrients our bodies need.

5) Boost immune system by drinking plenty of filtered water.
Water is essential for all living things and keeps our immune system operating optimally while improving the way we feel, look and live. Without sufficient amounts of water, you may experience routine fatigue, dry skin, headaches, constipation, and a decrease normal bodily function which may lead to your body unable to fight off diseases. Without water we would literally dehydrate which could result in the shutting down of vital organs and ultimately end in death.

6) Eliminate all sugar and allergens from your diet.
Just a small amount of sugar has been proven to impair white blood cells up to 50% for very short periods of time. By discovering what our personal food allergies are, then eliminating or desensitizing them will help strengthen your immune system. By removing these triggers, our immune cells are strengthened in order to combat other invaders such as influenza rather than the allergen. The elimination of sugar from your diet can also strengthen immune system.

7) Eat nutritiously
Good foods to eat include organic fruits and vegetables, chloretta, medicinal mushrooms like maitake, shiitake, reishi, or turkey tail. Besides water, wheatgrass juice, aloe vera juice, or green tea are good drinks. If it doesn’t rot or sprout, do without.
Stay away from junk food like pop, bake goods, any processed foods. Bad foods contain stuff like refined sugar, sodium nitrite, Trans fats, Mono-sodium glutamate (MSG), Artificial colors, preservatives, and flavors.

8) Take supplements
Supplements are needed because our bodies can not produce the nutrients necessary to maintain optimum health. There are many nutrients needed in order to maintain a strong immune system. It is very challenging in the world we live in to obtain sufficient nutrition with the foods available to us. They are over processed and void of many essential nutrients. Additionally, food is grown in soils that have been over-planted and saturated with synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Vitamin and mineral deficiency subjects us to more diseases, aging, sickness, and the weakening of our immune system.

Best herbs include echinacea, goldenseal, garlic, olive leaf extract, elderberry, or astragalus.

Best vitamins include Vitamin A, C, or E. These are a good source of antioxidants, which will boost your immune system.
The minerals zinc and selenium also help with boosting your immune system.

As you can see, there is no one magic cure, one supplement, or one way to ward off the flu, but there are many natural things you can do to help your situation.

More details can be found at the website in the source box.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Garlic is a very good immune system booster, so taking 3 to 6 high strength odourless 3,000 mg garlic oil capsules every day will help. Garlic is very good for people with sinus problems and is both an antibacterial agent and an antimicrobial agent.

Also, taking 1 or 2 gm of vitamin C or even less every day will also help.

Answer 4

Here are few tips to keep healthy:

- Physical activity: fitness, yoga, running, hiking... to keep your body strong.

- Eat healthy: more vegetable and fruit - especially kiwi, lemon, paprika (anything with vitamin C). Less fried food (because fat on high temperatures become toxic and that keeps your immune cells busy instead of fighting with viruses and bacteria).

- Stimulate your thymus (point on sternum in line with armpits): tap on it each morning 15 to 20 times - that will stimulate your immune system.

- Drink min 1.5 - 2 liter water a day - that will help clean your organism and feed your cells. You can make tee instead of drinking water - chamomile, green tee... that will have even more effect. But careful - some tees can be toxic if your drinking the same tee every day for longer periods - rather drink different tees and listen to your taste - which is the best judge for what is good for you!

- Essential oils (inhalation, bath): tee tree, eucalyptus, lemon, spearmint, rosemary. For inhalation put one drop on tissue and inhale. For bath mix 2-3 EOs (25-30 drops altogether - for kids and half that dose) in soy cream (5-10ml) - shake it for 2-3 minutes and put it in filled bathtub. If you have high blood pressure - take it easy with rosemary and eucalyptus. Pregnant women should consult with aromatherapist before taking EOs in any way.

- Think positive!

Answer 5

try Vitamin C and echinacea. They are the best for immune system boosts. Also drink tea this winter instead of coffee. the have powerful antioxidants.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

Vitamin C! I thought every one knew that.

Orange juice in the morning, Lemon tea mmm

Answer 8

In general take hot water.avoid sour& cold food.
Take a mixture of Ginger juice+piper longum powder+honey once or twice a day.

Answer 9

Strong dose of Vitamin C, will boost the immune system as well as fight a number of diseases. Daily intake of Vitamin C should be near 2000 mg, particularly when every other person is victim of 'seasonal flu'.


Please read below article. I read it couple year ago and ever since my kids and we take a 500mg chewable tablet made of natural citrus fruits. Fresh citrus juice is definetly better choice, but a glass full will only deliver about 100mg.. i read somewhere.


sniffle > cold > flu > bronchitis > pneumonia

Vitamin C can help stop this series before it starts. The further you've gone down the path of sickness, the more "C" it will take to heal. The faster a locomotive is going, the more braking power it takes to stop it. Dr. Linus Pauling says to start taking more C at the very first sniffle. Good idea.

It is common for people to raise their eyebrows when many therapeutic claims are made for a single vitamin. "Vitamin C for colds, maybe. But pneumonia? C'mon!"

My central thesis may help explain it: The reason one vitamin can CURE so many conditions is that a deficiency of one vitamin can CAUSE many conditions. Disease is often the aggravated result of vitamin deficiency. If this seems to be too much emphasis on nutrition and not enough on microbes, we must remember that we live with viruses and bacteria all about us, all the time. Yet everyone is not sick all of the time. Differing nutritional status is at least as important a consideration as any other. A deficiency of any one vitamin can eventually cause death. Yet the aggressive use of vitamins to cure disease is seldom advocated.

Take Vitamin C, for example. Because it is so good for so many illnesses, to the medical profession it is seen as TOO good for TOO MANY conditions. What a nice problem to have. This substance is too useful. Mmm. Can't have that, now, can we!

Of course, doctors use the same antibiotic for dozens of different infectious diseases. Their argument, and mine too, is that there is common ground (infection) that must be stopped. Antibiotics kill bacteria like an A-bomb. Vitamin C works through the body's immune system, like the French Resistance. You can probably win the war either way, but I'd rather avoid the negative effects of both the Bomb and the antibiotics.

COLDS AND FLU

Robert F. Cathcart III, M.D. says vitamin C works exceptionally well as an antibiotic if you take enough. "Enough" is called "saturation," and is indicated by loose bowels, intestinal gas or diarrhea. Try taking Vitamin C until saturation is reached. 20,000 IU of Vitamin A daily and a few grams of bioflavonoid supplements will also help. When sick, I drink lots of carrot juice and don't need to take extra vitamin A. During illness, if you eat almost entirely fruits and vegetables, you won't need the bioflavonoid supplement either. The biggest difference you will find in treating influenza is that your saturation level of Vitamin C will be higher (perhaps MUCH higher) than with the common cold.

Dr. Linus Pauling has been saying this for decades, starting with the classic Vitamin C, The Common Cold and The Flu (Freeman, 1970). His more recent book, How To Live Longer and Feel Better (Freeman, 1986), is even better. It is practical, clear, and contains hundreds of supporting scientific references.


BRONCHITIS AND PNEUMONIA

Preventing is obviously easier than treating severe illness. Immediate use of hourly gram doses of Vitamin C up to saturation will usually stop bronchitis or pneumonia from ever starting. But if they have, treat serious illness seriously: in the very young or the very old, pneumonia can kill. Do not hesitate to seek medical attention.

Here is a second opinion. Dr. Cathcart advocates treating pneumonia with up to 200,000 milligrams of Vitamin C daily, often intravenously. You and I can simulate a 24 hour IV of Vitamin C by taking it by mouth very, very often. When I had pneumonia, it took 2,000 mg of Vitamin C every six minutes to get me to saturation. My oral daily dose was over 100,000 mg. Fever, cough and other symptoms were reduced in hours; complete recovery took just a few days. Bronchitis clears up even faster. That is performance at least as good as any antibiotic will give, and the vitamin is both safer and cheaper.

May I suggest consulting The Journal of Preventive Medicine and The Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine for additional support for mega-vitamin therapies? The research is done, the write ups are out there, and your librarian will help you tap into them easily.

Treating respiratory infections with massive amounts of Vitamin C is not a new idea at all. Frederick R. Klenner, M.D. and William J. McCormick, M.D. used this approach successfully for decades beginning back in the 1940's! You will want to consult their works, listed in the Bibliography under "Vitamin C". Doctors who think that Vitamin C generally has merit, but that massive doses are ineffective or somehow harmful will do well to read the original papers for themselves. Clinical evidence confirms the powerful antibiotic effect of Vitamin C when used in sufficient quantity.

Speaking as a parent, I can confirm that Vitamin C works as well as antibiotics since our children have never needed antibiotics, not even once. That is not because we did nothing; we used vitamin C instead.

Vitamin C can be used alone or right along with medicines if one so chooses. Prescription drugs are not doing the job. 75,000 Americans die from pneumonia each year (Vital Statistics of the U.S., Department of Health and Human Services, Vol. 2, 1989). There is no question that aggressive use of Vitamin C would lower that figure a great deal. There is no excuse for excluding it.


Copyright C 2004 and prior years Andrew W. Saul. From the books DOCTOR YOURSELF and FIRE YOUR DOCTOR, available from Andrew Saul, 23 Greenridge Crescent, Hamlin, NY 14464.

Answer 10

I take Glyco-nutrients, Phyto-matrix vitamins. They are both all natural from plant sources only. They work great.

Answer 11

eat well, take a lot of food that will keep you warm, like spicy hot foods. A lot of citrus, it contains vit C. Good hot chocolate drink.