How to Prepare for Flu Season
Flu season is almost here. In fact, September and October are the months of the year the CDC recommends everyone 6 months and older get a flu shot to prepare for the upcoming flu season.
According to the CDC, the average effectiveness of the flu vaccine is between 40% and 60%. However, this can range from as low as 0% to as high as 80% depending on the age and health of the individual receiving the vaccine, and the timing of the vaccination.
I’m not going to tell you whether you should get a flu vaccine. I will say I have one major concern about the vaccine, as I do with most of the medications we take. Most people who get the vaccine depend on the vaccine instead of healthy lifestyle choices to keep themselves well during cold and flu season.
Every day your immune system fights off all sorts of bacteria and viruses. That was really evident during COVID when some members of a household became infected, and others didn’t. When we get sick, it’s usually because our immune system has been compromised.
Let’s talk about a few things you can do that are most likely to boost your immune system.
Reduce Stress
Stress increases your body’s levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which weakens your immune system. Stress significantly impacts your immune system, affecting susceptibility to illness and overall health.
Short-term stress, like a workout, can boost your immune system. It’s the long-term stress, like not being able to pay your bills or having a bad work environment, that takes a toll on you.
If you want to stay healthy, do all you can to avoid big stressors that never go away. The American Psychological Association’s annual report Stress in America tells us 77% of adults in the U.S. are stressed about the future of our nation. The report also tells us 73% of us are stressed about the economy.
If you want to reduce stress about the future of America, spend a lot less time scrolling your social media feeds and more time going for walks, reading good books, or just being outdoors in nature.
With the economy being the second biggest stressor for Americans, managing your debt and getting out of debt is one the best things you can do for your immune system. People with more debt have more anxiety, overeat more, smoke more, and drink more.
One of the best things most of us can do to reduce stress and manage our money is cut up and pay off the credit cards. Stop buying things we don’t need and do more things that cost less money.
Eating more fruits and vegetables also reduces stress.
Stop Eating Added Sugars
Too much added sugar can weaken your immune cells, making it harder for them to attack harmful bacteria and viruses. Too much sugar will also disrupt the balance of good bacteria in the gut, replacing beneficial bacteria with harmful bacteria that lower the protective immune response.
I’m convinced that too much added sugar in our diets is one of the big reasons many of us get sick, especially around the holidays. If you want to stay well, you must be relentless about keeping added sugars out of your diet. That’s not easy. The average American consumes 57 pounds of added sugar each year. It’s even harder when you understand that sugar is hiding in 74% of packaged foods. Here are a few things I recommend everyone keep in mind when it comes to eliminating sugar from their diets:
- Most of what you eat should be whole, unprocessed foods that don’t have any added sugars.
- Eat simple processed foods where sugar is not listed as one of the first three ingredients on the label.
- Become familiar with the 61 names for sugar used by the American food industry. Food ingredients that end in -ose, like sucrose and fructose are sugars. Syrups are sugars.
- If a food has more than 2 types of sugar in the ingredients list, don’t eat it. The manufacturer is trying to hide the sugar.
- Drink more water, which will help reduce your appetite and cravings and will flush your body of toxins and bacteria that can lead to illness.
Get Plenty of Sleep
Sleep is like nutrition for your immune system. When you sleep, your immune system releases proteins called cytokines which help fight infection and inflammation. Not getting enough sleep reduces the number of cytokines you have, making it more difficult for you to fight an infection.
One of your body’s first lines of defense for fighting cancer and other pathogens is natural killer cells. A single night with only four hours of sleep can cause a 70% drop in your natural killer cells.
But one sleepless night is not nearly as bad as chronic short sleep, night after night. Most Americans fall into this sleep pattern. A Gallup poll conducted in 2024 found that 57% of Americans reported not getting enough sleep on a regular basis. So, how much is enough? I would say that depends on the person. If you wake up feeling rested and ready for the day, you’re getting enough sleep. If you’re tired, you need more.
When it comes to your immune system, we do know how much sleep you need. In a study conducted at the University of Pittsburgh, volunteers allowed researchers to spray cold-inducing viruses up their noses. Participants who slept less than six hours a night were 4.5 times more likely to catch a cold than those who got seven or more hours. Another study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh found that people who sleep six hours or less per night were 11.5 times more likely to be unprotected from a vaccine than those who slept more than seven hours on average.
For your immune system to be healthy, somewhere around seven hours of sleep per night seems to be the sweet spot.
Flu season is right around the corner. Hopefully, these tips will help you stay well.
Stay Strong,
Bo Railey
