Don’t Let the Holiday’s Derail Your Health! Our Best Immune Boosting Tips for the Winter Revealed!
Winter weather is creeping in! Many of you have started noticing the frosty temperatures in the morning, and some congestion from the furnace’s dry air. I’m always getting questions this time of year about staying healthy and avoiding the sickness’s that plague us throughout the colder months.
Our immune systems are amazing! If you only knew how hard they are working day and night to keep you well, you’d consider supporting your immune system a no brainer every day, not just during the cold season. However, since most of their job is done in the background, I totally get why people might not think about immune boosting until the risk is greater.
The excellent news is that we have come up with some of the fastest, simplest yet most effective ways to keep your cells at their absolute healthiest!* I’ve provided a full list of the supplements I’ve found most effective, and where to get them, at the end of this post!
Our Immune Boosting Methods:
1. Vitamin D3 - Vit D3 packs a powerful immune punch. While still being heavily researched to discover just how and why Vitamin D3 is so effective in supporting immune systems, so far it has been shown to help decrease inflammation during an immune response, regulate DNA, and play a part in production of immune cells. Researchers also agree that there is too much evidence to ignore the correlation between the colder months, when we have naturally lower levels of Vitamin D3, and increased levels of sickness. Unless you’re living near the equator you and your kids won’t be getting any vitamin D after September, so we recommend a quality supplement.
We also need to talk about appropriate levels of vitamin D3. The real issue here is the “normal” values that appear on our bloodwork when we get a check-up at the doctor’s office. According to most physicians, anything above 30 would be considered to be in the healthy range. The problem with that is that anything under 30 is considered a deficiency and leaves you open to many health issues. So how can something so close to being deficient be healthy? The answer is, it can’t. Nutrient levels like this aren’t really that black and white. It’s not like either you’re deficient or you’re healthy, it’s a spectrum; and being at 35 doesn’t mean you’re going to function super well just because you’re not below the “deficiency threshold”.
This is why we do a lot of Vitamin D3 testing in our office. We actually do our own testing to ensure that we get our patients vitamin levels in what is considered the optimal range which is at least 50, and really should be closer to 70. If you know your vitamin D3 levels are under those numbers, then you are at risk for lower immune function and I’d highly suggest getting yourself a high quality D3 supplement. If you aren’t sure ask us about getting tested!
2. Vitamin C - It should come as no surprise that Vitamin C is making our list of immune supports, but what good would this list be if I didn’t mention it, right? There is a laundry list of ways that Vitamin C helps support immunity. It is a powerful antioxidant, keeping cells health a regulating DNA. It also actually supports skin cells in staying healthy and keeping out invaders. In addition, it enhances production of certain immune cells while also being necessary for the detox/clean up process that happens when fighting an infection. While there are a large amount of supplements for Vitamin C available we like liposomal C. Check the list at the end of this post for our favs!
3. Zinc – Zinc is super crucial to the function of the cells that regulate our body’s natural immune system. Not only this, but zinc also plays a role in the removal of waste from fighting off the infection. Imagine you’re trying to clean your house but can’t take out any of the trash! Ensuring the body has adequate levels of zinc will mean that your cells can function the way they should, and that you’re able to get rid of the yuck as the bad bugs die off. Getting quality zinc is key, that’s why we recommend Biotics brand. Get the site link at the end of the post.
4. NAET – umm, what? If you’re like most of my patients coming in for the first time, you might not have heard of NAET, but it’s awesome. To keep a long story short, NAET uses acupressure techniques and acts a little bit like a system reset when your body has been over sensitized to certain environmental things like foods, allergens, bacteria or viruses. Getting a quick reboot for your immune system might just mean the difference between staying healthy and being down for the count this cold and flu season. Need more info? Check out our post all about NAET here or give us a call to schedule your first session!
There are a host of other ways to help your immune system (and whole body) function better such as sleeping more, decreasing stress and changing your diet. The thing is, we know that during the holiday season most people have a tough time making these types of lasting health changes and are in need of a little extra boost to be sure they can safely get through the winter months illness free.
As promised, here’s our list of preferred supplements. These have been carefully curated over years of research and seeing what has worked the best for my patients. I’ve tried to stack as many of them as I can in one place so you can find them all and get them shipped right to your door, so you’ll need to make a quick account at each site, which allows you access and gets you a discount off the regular price of the supplement.
Many of our best supplements can be found at The Doctors Supplement Store. (For this site use registration code: CR1735 to order online)
Vitamin D3:
Biotics Research Bio-D-Mulsion Forte
DesBio Liposomal D3-K2, Creamy Vanilla
Vitamin C:
DesBio Liposomal Vitamin C
Designs For Health Liposomal Vitamin C
Zinc: These will be found (along with an awesome combo support supplement) at Biotics. (no registration code needed using this link)
Biotics Zn-Zyme and Zn-Zyme forte
There's another great combination immune boosting supplement that I also frequently use this time of year that can be found at Apex Energetics.
For this site use Registration Code: DrC
Apex Immu-Zyme
If you have questions about any of our supplement recommendations, don't hesitate to reach out!
*Please be advised that boosting/supporting your immune system is meant simply to help make your immune system stronger and keep it functioning optimally. It is not a treatment for illness.
Dr. Caroline Ricker has been passionately helping people avoid unnecessary medications and surgeries since 2009. She combines a very logical functional medicine approach to digestive disorders and more using a more alternative holistic approach, utilizing standard lab tests and in-office evaluations as well as nutrition, acupuncture and homeopathy.