Flu "Season"

Flu “Season”

It’s time to up your immune system’s game.  The flu season (aka the sugar, junk food and no sun season) is here.  Over the next couple months we have less sun exposure, lower vitamin D and due to holidays, we don’t eat as carefully as the rest of the year, myself included. 

In order to keep energy level up and not get taken down by flu or some other bug, it’s a good idea to boost your vitamin D level, microbiome and make sure you’re getting adjusted regularly. 

D levels are low in everyone not taking a supplement. “Normal” D levels medically are 20-40ng/ml.   However, this is inadequate for top notch immune function and cancer prevention.  If you want to make sure you’re not going to be out of the office for a few days or a week with some flu bug, you’ve got to keep your D level at 60 or so.  And that requires supplementation of about 5,000IU per day.   Some people with malabsorption and gut problems need to use 10,000IU per day.  How do you know?  You need to test.  Add vitamin D levels to your yearly lab work.

D3 with vitamin K2: K helps absorption of the D3 and makes it more bioavailable.  Everyone who is not on blood thinners or have a clotting disorder should use this type of supplement. 

Pick it up in our office or go here NutriDyn | D3 5000 with K2 Is K2 critical?  No, but it is better.  Again, if you are using coumadin or Eloquis, just use D3 with no K. NutriDyn | D3 5000 It will be fine. 

I need to add a bit about magnesium here too.  Magnesium helps regulate the D activity.  If you are magnesium deficient, consider adding that.  Magnesium deficiency symptoms are low energy and muscle tension and spasms, particularly at night.  But, I don’t want to go down the list here, but that one’s worth mentioning.

Also on the immune system’s list of requirements is a healthy microbiome.  This is perhaps the MOST important.  The microbiome is all the “bugs” that live on you and in you. They crowd out the bad bugs by using up all the resources.  Much like a healthy, well cared for lawn keeps out dandelions.  You cultivate the microbiome by “seeding” probiotics and you keep it healthy by eating prebiotics.  The food the probiotics like.  Good bacteria like low sugar food, like veggies, particularly fermented veggies. In fact, they come with more bacteria.  Bad bacteria like sugar and junk food.   So, your diet determines your microbiome makeup over time.  Even if you start with good bacteria and eat junk food, the good bacteria die off and the bad bacteria take over.   You can accomplish quite a bit for your immune system by eating better.  

People say “I eat yogurt”.   That’s not enough.  And on top of it, the fruit on the bottom stuff is just too much sugar.  Eat yogurt, of course, but make it good for you yogurt.  Full fat, no sugar added.  Even so, that’s not enough to correct a messed up microbiome, you need to supplement 50 to 100 billion CFUs (colony forming units) per day for months, even a year or so to correct a bad microbiome.  And, those supplements should be many different strains. Here's what we use in our office: Visbiome GI Care High Potency Probiotic Capsules | Visbiome® You can order online or get it at Vibrant Life Center.

Nothing beats your nervous system’s inherent ability to marshal an immune response to pathogens and bad bugs.  The vagus nerve that controls ‘fight or flight’ response and is critical to this job.   The vagus nerve exits the spine right at the top of the neck.  If you’re somebody who gets headaches or gets dizzy frequently, your vagus nerve is likely not working too well.  You need to get adjusted before bothering spending any money on vitamins and probiotics. 

Getting a chiropractic adjustment at Vibrant Life Center in Oakdale, activates your white blood cell activity.  If you are not feeling well and think you should skip your adjustment because you’re sick, that’s backwards.  If you’re sick, get adjusted by Dr. Danielle Fleming or Dr. Daniel Barrett.  You’ll be bouncing back much quicker.  Don’t worry about getting us sick.  You can’t make me or our staff sick.  We all make ourselves sick by our own behavior and immune systems.  Only I can make me sick.  You can’t do it. Get adjusted, go here: Vibrant Life Center Chiropractic | Chiropractic | 6070 50th Street North, Oakdale, MN, USA

The only time I personally get to experience respiratory problems is if I don’t sleep well for a few days in a row.  This typically happens going snowmobiling with the guys.  We hit the trail at 7 am and ride all day getting back at midnight or 2am and do it again the next day.  A couple days of that kind of thing and your immune system might be off its game.  So, by Tuesday or so after a weekend of that, I sometimes get to experience something like that. 

What do I do then? Get adjusted, sleep and heal. I go to bed early, dressed in a hoodie sweatshirt, sweatpants and these old school hand-knit socks given to me by a dear Latvian immigrant, Ritma, who gave them to me for my birthday years ago. Prior to going to bed I drink a bunch of water and eat something simple and salty (electrolytes) to prevent feeling achy from dehydration. 

By the way, that’s mainly why people don’t feel good. They ache all over from electrolyte loss by fever and not eating.  If you use electrolytes when you have a fever (don’t take Tylenol or Ibuprofen for a fever… it’s been shown not to make any difference in febrile seizure incidence for kids or adults) you won’t feel so bad while you’re creating a bunch of phlegm to cough up.  And, don’t interrupt that process either with cough suppressants or antihistamines. That’s the process to get the bad bugs out.  You hack them up and swallow them (digest) or spit them out.  Sorry, gross, but that’s normal.  Not sick in fact.  It doesn’t feel great but that’s what healthy looks like.

Condensed summary: Get adjusted, 5,000IU D3, Probiotics, eat prebiotics, sleep.

Have a great day.

Dr. Barrett

Vibrant Life Center.