7 Tips For Staying Healthy During What Looks To Be A Horrible Flu Season

“These are all good to know!”

— Dr. Dale

From 7 Tips For Staying Healthy During What Looks To Be A Horrible Flu Season

With cold weather comes flu season, and this year isn’t looking too great when it comes to avoiding the sniffles—at least if the US follows in Australia’s footsteps.

It’s been one of the worst flu seasons in Australia—and since what happens in the southern hemisphere often informs what the US can expect come fall, it’s time to prepare yourself to fight a strong flu strain.

Experts are saying that with nearly 170,000 cases of lab-confirmed influenza this year compared to less than 91,000 in 2016, it’s been one of the worst flu seasons in the land Down Under.

And since what happens in the southern hemisphere often informs what the US can expect come fall, it’s time to prepare yourself to fight a stronger flu strain.

One strain in particular has been popping up the most in Aussieland, and it’s a tough cookie: H3N2 virus. There’s “every reason to expect that we could have a severe flu season this year,” Robert Atmar, MD, told Today.

To make sure H3N2—or any illness—doesn’t keep you from enjoying pumpkin spice everythingor new, buzzy fitness studios, start focusing on giving your immune system a boost now with these helpful tips.

These 7 immune boosters will help prevent the flu from getting you down this season.

1. Stock up on anything and everything fermented

There’s never been a better time to get your hands on some bacteria-boosting kombucha, kimchi, pickles, tempeh, and other fermented foods, which boosts good gut bacteria. Considering that your gut is the largest part of your immune system, you want to keep it healthy, so start eating probiotics on the daily to stop this flu strain in its tracks.

2. Add immune-boosting foods into your diet

There are many immune-boosting foods from which to choose. Having a diverse range in your system is a doc-approved way to help build a strong immune system, which can act as a shield to the flu. Consume a hefty dose of vitamins, like beta-carotene from papaya and carrots, vitamin C from kiwi and berries, vitamin D from mushrooms, magnesium from avocados—you know, all sorts of goodies you probably already devour anyway.

3. Add turmeric and ginger into your pressed juice

Amp up the superfoods in your diet by adding some all-star ingredients into your morning juice or smoothie. Keep some ginger and turmeric on hand, which are both known to fight  inflammation and help give the immune system a much-needed boost.

4. Start taking relaxing, hot baths

Baths help you de-stress and can improve sleep—basically nonnegotiables for maintaining a healthy immune system. Major health benefits aside, is there really anything better for your well-being than settling into a mermaid-themed soak after a long day?

5. Meditate on the daily

Like taking a relaxing bath, meditating is great for the soul—and, arguably, even better for your immunity. Settling in and shutting off your mind on a regular basis helps relieve stress and anxiety, calming your nerves and giving your immune system strength to fight off an infection. In fact, this might finally be a reason to give “dog breathing” a try.

6. Try a echinacea tincture

Tinctures are basically tiny bottles with droppers that are full of super-concentrated compounds from natural sources that help with stress, sleep, and so much more. But for boosting the immune system, echinacea’s your best bet: A couple drops a day can naturally fight off viruses before they even start. (And heal you up 30 percent faster if you do get sick.)

7. Keep up with a consistent workout schedule

Whether you’re a yogi or a runner, making sure you get in some physical activity on a regular basis is not only great for your physical and mental health, but working out also lowers stress, which builds a stronger immune system—and not having to spend all your hard-earned money on tissues.

These gut-healthy recipes are basically a makeover for your digestive system. And to really benefit your health, here are the supplements you should be taking at every age.

7 Surprising Things That Have Gluten in Them

“Gluten is everywhere! Please read if you’re allergic or intolerant.”

— Dr. Dale

From 7 Surprising Things That Have Gluten in Them

In case you thought eyeball mites and spinning-induced injuries were the scariest wellness-related things you’d read about this year, you can now add “secret gluten lurking literally everywhere in your home” to the list. As it turns out, simply cutting out the usual pasta and pizza isn’t enough to leave you totally protected. Between unexpected foods, beauty products, and even the actual stuff that makes up your house, there’s a long—and pretty surprising—list of things to watch out for if you’re gluten-sensitive.

“If you have celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, even the smallest amount of gluten is enough to cause a reaction,” says Meghan Telpner, a nutritionist and the author of UnDiet. “A slow trickle of gluten from unexpected sources can make us feel unwell and can contribute to digestive issues, inflammation, and impaired immune function.”

If a product in your home is truly 100 percent gluten-free, it will probably brag about it on the label with some sort of sticker. Most states have allergen laws that require companies to clearly state if something “contains wheat” or “contains gluten,” but it’s also a good idea to learn the names of gluten-containing grains.

If you don’t have any sensitivity to gluten, having it present in your food, home, and products is really NBD. But even so, says Telpner, “it’s important to be aware of what’s in our food, period. What we eat fuels our bodies on a daily basis and sets us on the path to wellness.”

Read on for all of the unexpected places gluten may be hiding out in your home. (Spoiler alert: It’s in the walls.)

1. Drywall (and other building materials)

Besides the annoying background noise, there’s another reason why home renovations can be particularly irritating—especially to those with gluten allergies. According to healthy home expert Lisa Beres, wheat gluten is often used to make drywall, and it can become problematic when the dust starts swirling around during construction. It’s also found in particle boards and glue, but you wouldn’t notice it unless your walls were being hacked apart. If possible, look for building products that use cornstarch or some other thickening agent instead, and if you’re doing work in your home, stock up on masks and an air purifier, just in case.

2. Lipstick and powder

Yep, gluten could be in your makeup bag. “Avoid lipsticks and other products that are applied near the mouth, since they can be accidentally ingested,” says Estee Williams, MD, a board-certified dermatologist at Madfes Aesthetic Medical Center in New York City. “Also, be careful with powdery products, since they can become aerosolized and ingested.” Unless your makeup is marked with a gluten-free label—like those from certified gluten-free brands Afterglow and Gabriel cosmetics—it may be inflammatory to you if you’re gluten-sensitive.

3. Skin care

If you’re gluten-sensitive, reading the labels on your skin care is just as important as reading the labels on your food. That said, it’s not a problem unless you get it in your mouth…which can happen with moisturizers and lotions. “There is no data that topical gluten exposure can cause or aggravate celiac disease unless it is applied to the skin and then accidentally ingested,” says Dr. Williams. Beware of anything in your products that may have been derived from wheat, like vitamin E (tocopherol), triticum vulgare (wheat bran), secale cereale (rye seed extract), hordeum vulgare (barley), and avena sativa (oat bran), which should be listed in the ingredients.

4. Canned soups

Many canned foods are mmm, mmm… gluten-filled. According to Telpner, they’re often made with wheat-based thickeners, so your best bet is to stick with grandma’s homemade chicken soup (or one of these digestion-friendly recipes) instead.

5. Spices

You may want to think twice before sprinkling cinnamon on your PSL. “Many spice mixes contain gluten as an anti-caking agent,” says Telpner. Since you’re generally using such a small amount of a spice, there may not be enough gluten to make any real difference—but it’s something to watch out for if you’re having a gluten reaction you can’t explain.

6. Sauces and dressings

See ya later, Thousand Island. According to Telpner, many store-bought sauces use gluten as a thickening agent, so read labels carefully. Or better yet, upgrade your daily greens by making your own.

7. Deli meats

Add this to the list of reasons to steer clear of processed meats: While meat is generally safe on a gluten-free diet, ready-to-eat or ready-to-cook options can contain glutenous flours, bread crumbs, or wheat-based sauces. Vegan lunch date, anyone?

Don’t Just Sit There, Do Something!

“It’s so important to stay active! Great read.”

— Dr. Dale

From Don’t Just Sit There, Do Something!

Sedentary behavior—or as those of us outside of academia like to call it: “sitting,” “couch potatoism,” or “binge-watching Game of Thrones with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s”—has long been linked to a host of rotten outcomes: obesity, depression, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, and lousy health over all. (Honestly, you could sit and read scientific papers on this for days on end: Pubmed, the NIH’s archive of biomedical literature catalogs 4,386 papers on sedentary behavior published just since the start of 2016.)

But a new study published yesterday in the Annals of Internal Medicine (which, unfortunately, is available only to Annals subscribers), sheds new light on the issue and sounds a loud, clanging alarm bell about the lasting health risks of prolonged sitting. And, yes, it’s worth sitting and reading this one.

Keith Diaz, an assistant professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, and colleagues at five other institutions, somehow managed to convince 7,985 people aged 45 and older to wear an Actical accelerometer (made by Philips Respironics)—which measures physical movement and energy expenditure—on their right hips for more than 10 hours a day over a stretch of at least four days. (Most people wore the device for at least six or seven days, Diaz told me in an interview this morning.) Then the team retrieved the devices, crunched the stored data, and determined how often the study subjects actually got off of their butts during that period and for how long—whether they were at home, at work, or someplace else.

Overall, during a typical 16-hour waking day, the four groups spent an average of 12.3 hours being sedentary—with the mean “bout” of uninterrupted butt time being 11.4 minutes.

But then Diaz and crew divided this giant couch-warming cohort into four different quartiles based solely on movement (that is, non-sitting) patterns—and they waited several years to see whether mortality outcomes differed between the groups.

Differ they did.

After a median four years of post-study follow-up, those in the least sedentary quartile (sitting a mean 649 minutes a day in typically 6.5-minute bouts) had a dramatically lower rate of death from all causes than those in the most sedentary group (835 minutes at rest, in periods of relative motionless averaging just under 20 minutes each).

Not surprisingly, those who were more active also tended to be younger, have less body mass, and have fewer health issues (diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease) in general. To account for those differences, the research team did several post-hoc analyses where they controlled for these and other factors (smoking, alcohol consumption, region of residence, education) with three different statistical models. In each case, those who sat the least—and for the shortest periods of duration—had the lowest rate of death from all causes.

Indeed, this duration of couchification is the most telling aspect of the study: Those who got up more frequently—presumably, even to stand and fetch the cable remote…or a glass of water in the kitchen, let us hope—were less at risk. (“Persons with uninterrupted sedentary bouts of 30 minutes or more had the highest risk for death if total sedentary time also exceeded 12.5 hours per day,” observed David Alter, a Toronto researcher who was not involved in the study, in an accompanying editorial.)

So why is prolonged, unbroken sitting so dangerous? Diaz (who uses a standing desk, take note) says he and his colleagues hypothesize that it might interfere with glucose regulation—encouraging a pathological transformation in muscle tissue that may have parallels to diabetes: “The muscles stop working like they’re supposed to and they stop taking up glucose like they’re supposed to,” he says. (That paper is in the current issue of the journal Circulation—and, unfortunately, is also blocked to non-subscribers.)

Whatever the mechanism of action turns out to be, however, the message is clear: Get off your damn butt, and do something.