Back To…..Germs?

It’s that time of year already….summer was a flash in the pan, and now it’s back-to-school.  We see endless pictures on social media of kids getting onto school buses, heading away to college, or lining up for their first day of preschool. 

It’s ok, I’m guilty of adding to that barrage of photo moments too.  We’re all excited to get back to a normal schedule, but every single one of us parents is also wary of the so-called “cold and flu” season that seems to accompany our kids’ journeys back into the hallowed halls of learning. 

Well…at least I used to worry about it.  Now I have an immune system support arsenal, and I’m about to share it with you.

I walked into parenting pretty blindly the first time around.  I trusted whatever our pediatrician said as if it were gospel. Never really thought to research or question anything until my son had an adverse reaction to something most kids are given.  Coupled with the fact that I have a family history of autoimmune disorders, my son’s immune and nervous systems took a pretty big hit and he spent almost every week of his preschool years sick and battling other issues.

As soon as he would get over one bug, he’d be hit by another.  Sleep deprivation took its toll on all of us.  I was tired of hearing the pediatrician tell me that there was nothing I could do other than let each bug pass on its own and to to give my son cough medicines that did nothing, and to treat his mild fevers with Tylenol or Ibuprofen. 

I wanted answers, I wanted proactivity, and I wanted my kid to stop getting sick all of the time. So, I took matters into my own hands and met up with a Naturopath, who within 24 hours helped get rid of a terrible and persistant bronchial infection my son had had for weeks, and started on my road to holistic health recovery.

I found out that, while it is impossible to make ourselves immune to everything, there are things we can do to proactively strengthen our immune systems, helping lessen the severity and duration of these bugs, if not avoid them completely. 

While I am not a doctor, and I always urge everyone to talk to their healthcare providers before taking supplements, etc…. I am happy to share what I have discovered works for my kids and I. Lord knows, I wish someone had given me all of this info back in the day.  I had to spend years of sleepless nights in front of the computer to piece it all together!

What I’m sharing today is what I do as a preventative.  I’ll post a Part 2 another day detailing  what I do should one of us get sick in order to move the pathogens out of our systems as quickly as possible, resulting in very light symptoms and shortened duration. 

With this combination of  “stuff” my kids have managed to have perfect attendance records for the past 4 years of school, and I have avoided getting sick even when one of them has gotten a little cold.  It’s also helped prevent one kid getting sick even if their sibling is under the weather.

Our bodies are amazing and can do incredible things when we allow them to, and when we give them the right support.  I’ve said it before…when you have a top of the line sportscar, you don’t just give it low grade oil and fuel, right?  Gotta be just as picky with our bodies!

So…what do I have in my healthy living arsenal?  A low-sugar rule, Thieves Essential Oil Blend, turmeric, raw honey with cinnamon, Vitamin D, Vitamin C, probiotics, and plenty of water.

The number one thing is definitely my low-sugar rule. I know it doesn’t make me the sweetest mama in the world, but I am totally ok with that.  Healthy kids are what I am aiming for…not winning the role of  Sugar Plum Fairy. When it comes to a healthy immune system, sugar is Public Enemy Number One. 

If you want to read a little more about why this is true,  you can check out my post, Not So Sweet Mama.  I promise, it’s worth a read, and you might find yourself hiding the Halloween candy too!  In a sugar-free nutshell, that sweet stuff feeds pathogens, and lowers your immune system. 

Eat too much of it and you’re going to get sick more often and for longer periods of time. Cut it out or down, and you’ll get the consolation prize of a much kinder cold and flu season.  Definitely worth it, in my humble opinion!

The second thing in my holistic bag of tricks is Thieves Essential Oil Blend.  I have used many versions of this essential oil and the only one that works every time without fail is made by Young Living. This is the oil that turned me on to EO’s in the first place.  I became a independent distributor because I am so passionate about how well this and all the other oils I’ve tried and use work. 

Thieves has been a game changer for my family.  I only wish I had known about it when my kids were babies.  This alone could’ve kept me sleeping and sane throughout all of those years of constant illness…but better late than never, right?!  Rather than rewrite exactly what is in Thieves and why it works, I’ll have you head on over to another of my earlier blog posts, Letting Thieves Into Your Home.  It’s a good one! Thieves oil works synergistically with your body to help it ward off pathogens and infection. It works. It’s amazing. Everyone needs it.  Subtle enough? 🙂

If you decide you want to try this immune system supporting powerhouse, you can find it here: Thieves Essential Oil Blend by Young Living.

The second thing I love to use and swear by is turmeric.  Yep, that stuff that makes your rice go yellow.  That simple, little, aromatic herb.  It’s a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent that I take daily, and give to my kids as well.

When they were younger, I would add a capsule into their apple sauce or yogurt, but now they swallow capsules and tablets without issue, so less mess for me….and it works beautifully.  When taken daily, turmeric boosts your immune system by ramping up the immunomodulating capacity your body has. 

Turmeric and its naturally occurring curcuminoids have been shown to be an effective anti-viral, anti-microbial, and even anti-carconogenic compound.  Basically this little herb is like armor for your immune system….and who wants to go into battle without armor??

The third thing I love using to bolster our immune systems is a teaspoon full of raw honey with cinnamon every morning.  My kids have it with their breakfast, and since it tastes good, there’s never been a complaint.  Raw honey has been used for centuries as a curative and is chock full of nutrients and enzymes that our bodies crave and need. 

In a study done by the American Journal of Chinese medicine, cinnamon was shown to slow the growth rate of a variety of bacteria and fungi, such as, but not limited to, e. coli and staph.  The combination of the these two natural products creates a immune boosting treat that may seem like one of grandma’s old remedies…but it definitely has worked for us!  Hey, you already know what they say about grandmothers’ and their chicken soup, right? 

By the way, more and more allopathic doctors are starting to recommend raw honey as opposed to cough medicines, as honey actually helps shorten the severity and duration of coughs…whereas the cough meds you buy over the counter are pretty much useless.  I’m always so happy when usually non-holistic doctors start seeing how helpful Mother Nature can be!

Vitamin C and Vitamin D are two vitamins that I make sure the kids and I take on a daily basis.  The kids get a whole foods based multi-vitamin every morning, but the C and D in those aren’t enough to actually make a difference.  We also don’t get enough of these vitamins in our foods, because of how depleted our food sources are in America due to poor farming practices.  So…I supplement the three of us with whole foods based C and D. 

The kids’ pediatricians have always been impressed with their levels of Vitamin D.  This always suprises me because I guess I just assume everyone has decent levels of it, especially here in sunny-all-year-round Los Angeles. Not the case. 

Every time I have been told that most kids and adults, yeah even in California, are deficient in this essential, immune boosting vitamin.  As for Vitamin C, it is another powerful antioxidant which kicks your immune system into gear and helps it ward off infection.  For us moms and dads….it helps our bodies continue producing optimal levels of collagen…so we don’t have to age as fast as our kids seem to want to make us!

Next we’ve got probiotics.  Study after study has shown that 70-80% of our immune system is based in our gut. When our gut biome is healthy, we are healthy and able to fight off infection more effectively. When it’s not healthy, then neither are we.

The epithelial tissues in our intestines naturally form a barrier against pathogens, and that tissue is dependent on our gut flora being at optimal levels. Without good gut flora, the epithelial tissues begin to weaken and have a difficult time regenerating.   Taking probiotic supplements is a great way to get the good stuff into your body, as is eating probiotic rich foods like kefir, pickles, yogurt, kombucha, kimchi, and sauerkraut. 

A lot of people only take probiotics when they are sick or on antibiotics, but the trick here is to take them daily in order to keep our bodies on even keels.  Don’t wait until you’re already feeling awful!

Last but never least, is to drink plenty of water. Water is life…and it keeps our bodies flushed of toxins and working optimally.  If you can alkalize your water with citrus essential oils or slices of cucumber and lemon, even better!  I love adding Young Living’s lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit essential oils in my water because of the alkalizing effect and because, well, it just tastes better! 

In the winter, I have a hard time drinking enough water because I’m a weather wimp and get cold too easily….so what I do is drink herbal teas, or just warm up water and add some honey and lemon to it for taste.  My daughter loves decaf green tea with honey, and my son drinks water like its going out of style regardless of the weather, so we’re keeping on top of our hydration year round.

Once again, I’m not a doctor and not prescribing anything to anyone. I’m just sharing what I have learned over many years of research, trial, and error. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to work with some of Oregon and California’s best integrative doctors and learned a lot from them along the way.

I hope some of these tips help and if you have any questions please drop me a comment below!   I have a few other amazing immune boosters that I’ll share in Part 2 which will cover what to do once you feel like you’re about to get sick…or your kids start those preemptive sniffles!  On guard, moms and dads!

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