Your parents probably told you that you would get sick going outside in the cold. Your internet-educated friends have probably told you that isn’t the case. The reality is that cold weather does not directly cause illness. It does, however, affect your body’s ability to fight off illness which can indirectly cause you to get sick. Here are few things you can do to help prevent this.
Eat a Healthy Diet
To fight off bacteria and viruses, your body needs energy. You provide it with energy through the food that you eat. However, not all food is equally beneficial. Pretty much any food is going to give you energy, but not all food will give your body the proper nutrients that are essential to keeping up a strong immune system. During the cold weather, you must eat plenty of foods that give your body vitamins. Vitamin C and vitamin D are particularly important ones. Fruits and vegetables are a great way to get these vitamins. Try to eat fruits and vegetables in a variety of colors. While not a perfect way to diversify your diet, a variety of colors usually means that you are getting the variety of nutrients that you need. Not only will a healthy diet prevent you from getting sick, but it will also help you feel more alert and energized throughout the day.
Keep Your Home Warm
The human body relies on a steady body temperature for many of its important functions. When you start to get cold, your body starts redirecting energy to the most immediately vital functions like keeping oxygen and blood flowing throughout the body’s core and to the brain. One of the functions that is less immediately important is your immune system. This can leave you are risk of getting sick. So, you must stay warm throughout the winter months. One of the best ways to do that is to keep your house warm. To make sure that your house stays adequately warm throughout the winter, you may want to have your furnace system checked over. You don’t want it breaking down during the winter. There are a lot of small things that could be wrong with it that you didn’t know about during the warmer months. For example, problems with your home’s circuit breaker can reduce your furnace efficiency.
Get Enough Sleep
Sleep is the body’s chance to rejuvenate itself. If you are not getting adequate sleep, you are going to wear your body down. This is just one way that poor sleep can hurt your immune system. Poor sleep can also lead to difficulty in mental processing. This will raise your stress levels which can also cause problems with your immune system. How much sleep you need to get depends on your age, but the average is 8 hours. Perhaps more important for good sleep is consistent sleep. You need to make sure that you are going to bed at the same time each night so that your body can complete its regular sleep cycles.
The best way to combat sickness does not start with home remedies when you start feeling unwell. The best solution starts much further in advance. To avoid getting sick, instill sustainable health practices in your everyday life. Stick to these, and you’ll find that you rarely get sick.
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