There are ways to boost your immunity during cold and flu season

Sheryl Lozicki is a Registered Dietitian at Mercy Health Saint Mary’s and the Director of Nutrition and Wellness. Today’s “On the Menu” segment is a review of the “Top 5” ways to boost your immunity during the cold and flu season.
Right now we are in the perfect storm following the holidays: increased stress, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, poor diet, and for some, too much alcohol.
1. Frequent Hand Washing and Don’t Touch Your Face. To catch a cold or the flu, the virus needs to get in through your eyes, nose or mouth. Every time you touch your face, you increase your chances of getting sick and the average person touches their face 16 times in an hour! Frequent, correctly washed hands will reduce your chances of getting sick, so say the alphabet or count to 20 as you wash and make sure the soap covers your entire hands including between your fingers and beneath your nails.
2. Flu Shot. This is especially important in the very young, older adults or those with poor immune systems, and even younger people in Michigan are being struck with H1N1 this year, causing serious complications, like kidney failure or even death. Children are more apt to catch the virus due to inadequate hand washing, the fact that they touch everything and don’t cover their mouth when they sneeze. Older adults are more apt to experience secondary complications related to the flu.
3. Adequate Rest. Lack of sleep reduces your immune system function making you more susceptible to the virus. Even those who get the flu vaccine but are sleep deprived build fewer antibodies, according to research published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. For example, on day 10 post vaccine, the sleep-deprived group had half the antibodies of the control, well-rested group.

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