I was listening to a acquaintance the other day and he kept apologizing because he had come down with a cold. He lives in a warmer part of the country, and he is generally pretty healthy, so he considered it pretty unusual.

When I hear something like that, I have to resist the impulse to share what I know about boosting the immune system to avoid getting sick like that. He already eats pretty well and exercises, so he would be a great candidate for the immune boosting supplement that I promote. The problem is, I don’t want to come across as just some pushy sales guy.

I know the product works great, and can really fine tune the immune system so that even healthy people can reduce the already small likelihood that they will get ill. Unfortunately, especially in the nutritional supplement industry, there are so many people pushing “snake oil” products that any kind of suggestion will get ignored, at best. It makes things a bit more difficult for those of us who are not fly-by-night and have something that really will help. One of the ways around it is to let people get to me, and then they learn that I always look for the best quality and value of products in my life, especially with things that I offer to others.

For example, one of my friends who is an avid cyclist takes my advice with regards to sports nutrition supplements. He knows I give good advice because his performance has improved since he started following it. A few weeks back he came down with a cold. When I suggested our immune boosting supplement, he was at first a bit hesitant as he thought he didn’t get sick that often. When I reminded him of some of the get togethers he had to miss due to being sick, he realized that he did catch something several times a year. So now he is using the supplement and is having good results so far.

Of course, with the prevention of anything, you don’t really know right away if something is working or not. It depends on the individual and what their normal patterns are. If they normally catch a cold every month, and then that stops happening after using a product, then they can say with a good degree of certainty that the product is doing something for them.

There are other ways to tell if a “prevention” product is working or not, but that’s a subject for another time.

Of all the things that we can do to boost our immune system, stress can seem to be the most difficult one to control. All kinds of things come up everyday, whether they involve work, friends, or family life that cause us some level of stress. Low levels of stress are actually good for us and can help us to excel (as in the case of participating in sports).

But when stress levels increase to the point where it causes us to react negatively, or to constantly be in the “fight or flight” mode it starts to have a negative effect on our overall health. Besides the negative impact on our social situation (nobody likes to be around terse grump) the body will be able to protect itself less effectively from infection.

The “fight or flight” response does some interesting things to our physiology. Since the body is reacting like there is an immediate physical threat to deal with, all of the body’s systems put a priority on an immediate physical response, causing us to be more jumpy and irritable. All of the systems that would normally be working on healing and protecting the body are given a low priority (as they don’t help with short term survival) which then leads to more long term problems.

People with higher stress levels tend to have a harder time losing weight, because the body’s metabolism is out of whack. People with high stress levels also get sick more often since immunity is one of systems that becomes a low priority and gets less of the body’s resources.

Employers should take note!

Create a comfortable workplace and place reasonable workloads on workers. Overloading workers will cause stress, reducing the strength of the immune system and making them more susceptible to illness. This of course leads to lost worker productivity. So the ironic twist is that a company trying to get more out of it’s workforce can actually decrease output by placing greater demands on workers.

The one tip to take away from all of this is that if you find yourself being more susceptible to illness than most people, check your stress level. Take some steps to help decrease the level of stress in your life. Outside forces can’t always be controlled, but try to take the time to do things you enjoy, get some exercise, and face challenges with a positive attitude.

Actually soap does help with preventing illness, but is anti-bacterial soap any better?

When looking at it from the point of fighting off colds and flu, anti-bacterial soap does not do any better than regular soap. Since colds and flu are caused by viruses - not bacteria - this kind of soap does not affect getting sick this way. In fact, it can cause more harm than good.

It has already been shown that the overuse of antibiotics has caused some bacteria based illnesses to become harder to treat as the bacteria become drug resistant. The same thing happens with the anti-bacterial soaps. Even if they kill most of the bacteria in the areas being washed, the few that did not die (were resistant) will multiply and can become the dominant form of the bacteria, which would then be completely immune to the soap.

The anti-bacterial soaps can also be harsh on the skin and actually kill off the good kinds of bacteria that live with us. People are becoming more aware of the good kinds of bacteria that live in our digestive system and many have learned that restoring a healthy population of these good bacteria can actually help with overall health as well as digestive health. In addition to the bacteria that live in our digestive system, we have bacteria that live on our skin and perform important functions there. By getting rid of the good bacteria on the skin we can become more susceptible to things like skin fungus and certain kinds of eczema.

It is important to wash your hands. Always after using the restroom and always before preparing food. The lack of proper hand washing is a leading contributor to many public (and private) disease outbreaks. However, washing with antibacterial soap is not going to be any better for you long term than using soap without antibacterial properties.

The best long term protection is going to be working on building your immune system up so that it can handle any malicious bacteria that comes along as well as the viruses that seem to come at us at certain times of the year.

I came across some interesting writings from Tim Sanders at http://sanderssays.typepad.com. He has some good, solid advice for travelers about how to take extra steps to keep from getting sick while traveling. I used to travel quite bit myself for work, so his tips really hit home.

Briefly, he recommends washing your hands - a lot. We come in contact with many different kinds of people everyday even when we are not traveling. Our potential exposure to viruses, particularly ones that originate overseas increases manifold when spend much time in an airport. Add to that we may be meeting with people who are also traveling from other parts of the country, and the world, and we can see how easy it could be to come in contact with diseases that our immune system is not ready for.

Another tip he gives is to avoid sugar, as consuming too much sugar can lower the effectiveness of the immune system. Tim’s post gives a reference on some research that was done connecting the typical over-consumption of sugary foods during the winter holidays and the increase of illness during those months.

There is a very good business reason for taking these precautions. When you are down because of illness, your ability to be productive suffers. And getting sick when on the road is the worst. You’re wiped out when your traveling and meeting with clients, and then when you get back home you can’t enjoy the time with your family because you need time to recover - maybe just to back on another airplane.

So, when you are traveling, remember to eat healthy, wash your hands, and don’t catch anything!

Most people have heard that you should have chicken soup when you are feeling sick, but not nearly as many people know why. Chicken soup may not be in as much favor now as it used to be, with so many over-the-counter and prescription drugs available for use, but it can still be a great way to get on the road to recovery.

One of the primary things that makes chicken soup so helpful is that it helps you to stay hydrated. Water is a very important part of our body’s proper functioning, so anything that will make us take in more fluid will be very valuable. Putting more fluids through the body helps with flow through the lymph nodes, which help to eliminate toxins and byproducts.

Of course, along with the water there are typically many other herbs and spices. Sodium (salt) is going to be an important part of this mix for the body functioning properly. If you are normally otherwise healthy, then you don’t need to go for the “low-sodium” versions of the soup. People with hypertension (high blood pressure) need to be more careful with this, but electrolytes like sodium are still important for proper hydration.

The protein found in the chicken is also going to help with recovery. Besides water, protein is the most abundant component of the body and we need even more of it when we are sick to help the immune system work properly and to repair damage done by bacteria and viruses.

Being a proponent of healthy living in general, I also recommend buying (or making) your chicken soup with hormone-free chickens farmed humanely. I’ve even seen vegetarian “chicken soup” made with tofu, so that can definitely be a good alternative as it will still provide good hydration, electrolytes, and protein.

Now, don’t get sick in first place (look around the site for some good ways to boost the immune system), but if you do make sure to add a good food along the lines of chicken soup to your recovery plan.

I came across an interesting blog post the other day connecting the idea of feeling smug to making improvements in your life.

The posting goes into some detail on the definitions of smugness and how attaching positive outcomes to negative experiences can be a good motivator to take steps to avoid the bad experience from happening again.

After reading it, I realized that I have some of the same feelings about staying healthy and, in particular, not getting sick. In fact, I do take a certain amount of pride in not catching cold or the flu when it seems to be going around. I do have enough manners to not gloat about it to someone who actually has come down with a cold, but to myself I think, “I could have helped with that.”

I think maybe “smug” would be not quite the correct word for this kind of feeling. I’m sure others who make the effort to take care of themselves feel somewhat vindicated when it becomes apparent that this focus is paying off. Instead of “smug”, I would use the word “pride”. Having pride in how your body reacts to stress, adversity and outside forces I think is a great motivator for sticking to what is sometimes a boring routine of eating right and exercise.

Using dietary supplements can also fall into this category. I have been using supplements for so many years now, it’s almost hard for me to think back to how I felt before using them on a regular basis. I know it wasn’t good (nearly nodding off at the wheel while driving is not a pleasant experience), but now on a day to day basis I feel pretty good so I don’t see a dramatic change as soon as I pop a pill in my mouth. Actually, most people shouldn’t see a result that soon unless they are using something of dubious origin - but that’s another topic.

So, for all of the supplement users out there - keep it up. Heck, even upgrade! Your day to day may only improve a little bit, but when everyone else is getting sick and you’re not - you can take pride in your own actions.

Pride - another great reason to boost your immune system.

I have been thinking lately about the subject of what kind of “things” you can pick up when you are at the gym. That ends up being the place where I spend the most time touching other objects that other people have recently touched.

When you add to it that people are working out and perspiring, that increases the likelihood of coming into contact with someone else’s bodily fluids. This is one of the ways that cold and flu viruses can be transmitted.

I really don’t want to raise any alarms here, it’s just a fact of living in society that we come into contact with minute amounts of mucous, saliva, and perspiration on a daily basis whenever we come into contact with something someone else has touched. This happens whether we want to or not, whether we like it or not. It’s not just at the gym either - whenever we go to the grocery store or even get our mail, someone else has come into contact with the shopping cart or our mail before we have.

Fortunately, most of us have an immune system that works pretty well. If not, we would not be able to live normal lives and survive. There are those who have severe immune system deficiencies who have to take extraordinary steps to avoid any kind of bacteria or virus - think “boy in the bubble” syndrome.

Of course, there are some simple steps you can take to improve your chances of not catching anything contagious. Wash your hands often, especially after using the restroom. I know some people go overboard on that one, but I won’t go into that here.

When I’m working out at the gym, I try to avoid touching my eyes, nose or mouth. These are the major places where bacteria and viruses can enter the body. Typically a gym will provide clean towels for your workout, so use one of those to wipe your face when necessary.

Be sure to wash your hands after your workout. If you don’t then you increase the possibility that you will transmit anything picked up at the gym to the steering wheel in your car as you drive home, and then to anything in your home that you may touch before you take a shower.

More gym tips

Even though delivery of flu shots has been delayed to many areas of the country, it’s not too late to get one - that is if you are one of the people that plans to get one.

The official recommendation is that seniors, medical professionals, and those who take care of small children should get the shot.

However, personally I am one of a group of people that really does not enjoy the idea of getting shot that is going to make me feel sick anyway. I’ve never had the flu, so I guess I can’t say how miserable I might feel if I ever got it, but I take other measures to make sure my immune system stays strong enough so that I don’t need to partake in the annual ritual of feeling poopy now to avoid possibly feeling really bad later - maybe.

I do things like exercise, (try to) get enough rest, and supplement my diet to help all of my bodily systems (including my immune system) to work more effectively. In the past I’ve found that even if I come down with something that has been particularly virulent (it’s going around and everybody is getting it) my symptoms are not nearly as bad as anyone else’s and I get over it much sooner.

In addition to using a good protein supplement, a comprehensive group of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, beneficial bacteria and enzymes (wow, that’s quite a list :)) I use an immune system booster that has been shown to be powerful enough to reduce the amount of virus in people with hepatitis C, reduce allergy symptoms (by helping the body to determine what is an invader and what is not) and even reduce PMS and menopausal symptoms. I’m not really sure how that last part works, but there evidence for it.

Basically, I feel confident enough in my body’s ability to fight off illness that I don’t intentionally get myself ill (as the flu shot does for most people) just to possibly fight off something that I would likely be able to fight off anyway.

But for those that do feel the need to get “the shot”, you should do it before the middle part of December, at the latest. It takes about 10 days for the body to produce the antibodies for the particular strain of flu that is predicted to be going around by then. The end of December and all of January are the peak times for the flu virus to spread.

Back in the early 90’s when I attended the University of Washington, my biggest concern was getting decent grades so that I could get through the engineer program and get a decent job afterwards. I really didn’t have time (or the inclination) to hang out with those who were into body piercing or ubiquitous tattooing.

Now that piercing and tattooing has apparently become more mainstream, one unfortunate hazard is apparently becoming more commonplace. It turns out that hepatitis C is easily transmitted by sharing body jewelry and getting tattoos done with non-sterile needles.

A survey conducted at an (unnamed) Midwestern university found that of the 610 students asked, 75 percent participated in these risky behaviors. What’s more , 27 percent of them did not realize hep C could be spread through IV drug use (the most common method) while 77 percent did not know that it could be spread through intranasal cocaine use. That’s something that would never had occurred to me - I am so far out of the loop with that culture!

Now here’s an interesting note: 53 percent of those surveyed said that they had shared pierced jewelry. I’m wondering how much of that percentage includes earrings? Again my personal exposure to the “piercing culture” is pretty limited, so I would be surprised that there would be that many people piercing anything besides ears. Hmm…

“We were surprised at the proportion of undergraduates who were inadvertently putting themselves at risk for hepatitis C,” Dr. Thomas Shehab (one of the people working on the study), of St. Joseph Mercy Health System, said in a prepared statement.

“In addition to well documented traditional risk factors, we are concerned about students who may be putting themselves at risk for this serious disease with even something as simple as sharing pierced body jewelry,” Shehab said.

He and his colleagues were also alarmed that few of the students’ doctors had talked to them about viral hepatitis/HIV risk factors.

“The majority of the group had been to the physician for a health care maintenance examination in the last three years, but during that visit, most had never been asked about behaviors that put them at risk for serious infection,” Shehab said.

If you’re a mouse, this could be bad news for you.

In an interesting stretch between results found in rodents and possible affects in humans, U.S. researchers found that jet lag or rotating shift work shortens the life span of mice.

First of all, I want to find the jet setting mice. What kind of work are they doing? The heck with cheap labor overseas, now have to compete with mice for shift work?

But I digress…

This was just too funny to pass up. Here’s the rest of the article, published by Medical Research News:

A team led by Dr. Gene Block and Dr. Alec Davidson from the University of Virginia, looked at how old and young mice were affected by changes to the usual balance of “day” and “night” over an eight-week period.

They found that aged mice undergoing weekly light-cycle shifts similar to those that humans experience with jet lag or rotating shift work, experienced significantly higher death rates than did old mice kept on a normal daylight schedule.

The findings may not be a such a revelation to those who regularly experience the exhaustion which results from flying from one side of the world to the other but it does provide new insight into how the disruption of circadian rhythms, the natural cycle of light and dark, can impact on well-being and physiology, and how those impacts might change with age.

The researchers were prompted to take a closer look at jet lag and mortality after an earlier but unrelated study found a surprising number of old genetically altered rats exposed to a six-hour advance in their light cycle died after the experience.

For the new study the researchers examined the mortality link in earnest by looking at how young mice and old mice did when subjected to two different types of light-cycle shifts.

In one regimen the mice experienced a six-hour forward shift once a week, so they had less time in the dark; in the other, mice experienced a six-hour backward shift so had more time in the dark, while a “control” group of young and old mice did not experience any schedule shifts.

It was found that the young mice generally survived well under the various conditions but the light-cycle shifts had a marked effect on the survivorship of the old mice; while 83% of old mice survived under the normal schedule, 68% survived under the backward-shift regimen and only 47% survived under the forward-shift regimen.

Previous research has also linked changes in light schedule with death in animals, but these results indicate that there may be a different effect on mortality depending on the direction of the schedule shift; forward or backward.

The researchers also found that chronic stress, measured by daily corticosterone levels, did not increase in the old mice experiencing the light-cycle shifts.

They say the underlying cause of the increased mortality is not yet clear, but could involve sleep deprivation or immune-system disruption.

Scientists believe the body’s physiological reaction to time change may be a complex one and previous research has indicated that circadian clocks govern physiological rhythms in a great variety of tissues in the body, and that different aspects of the physiological clock can adjust to schedule changes at different rates.

The researchers speculate that the internal lack of synchrony among different physiological oscillations may have serious health consequences that are exacerbated in aged animals.

Experts say as there is an increasing amount of cross-time zone travel, and of a ‘24-hour’ society, more research, on animals and humans, is needed in order that the risk can be properly assessed.

The research is published in the November 7th issue of the journal Current Biology.

On a more serious note, people really do need to take care of themselves. Getting plenty of sleep (apparently during the right hours) allows the body to rejuvenate and heal itself. We need sleep for recovery, so don’t try to be the tough guy (or gal) and try to get by with less than what you need.