How to avoid winter sickness and/or cut it in half
A couple theories on why we get sicker in winter and food-based protocols on how to half-life a cold when it comes up
I got sick for about 30 hours a couple weeks ago, having undergone a rough chill taking the LIRR to Long Beach for PT, getting my spine zapped, waiting/walking, over the day, two hours outside—with me parka unbuttoned, walking from my place in Carroll Gardens to Atlantic Terminal and back. I felt rotten about having gotten a cold/flu—shouldn’t I not be getting sick? really, if this newsletter is so focused, and I am, about “health”—but after employing a few tricks/protocols I felt decent enough and beat it back… after a night’s sleep and a couple of dialed-in meals.
Acute health
Which is cool, and which also brings up the question of how and why individuals get sick at higher rates over the winter, and how it can’t always be entirely…. avoided. The answers behind why we get seasonally sick are not sufficiently answered, to me, by meritocratic health reporting and even studies—not a controversial/tin foil statement, the common cold spanks any doctor:
No antiviral agents are available that are effective for treatment of the common cold. Although an array of medications may be used to relieve symptoms, there is little scientific evidence to support the use of symptomatic treatments in children. Because the common cold is a self-limited illness with symptomatology that is largely subjective, a substantial placebo effect can suggest that various treatments have some efficacy. Inadequate blinding of placebo recipients in a study can make an ineffective treatment appear effective. (study)
though there are hints, like in this Atlantic piece, of how traditional diet protocols (like socks in vinegar) may help make people actually “acutely healthier,” or, in other words, get over a cold. Though this brings up a symptom/root argument that this newsletter (Chad science) is not about to step into today.
What about the … alt nutrition space? In that zone, there’s a wide range of ideas. One, brought up by Ella Henry in her fine Glow newsletter a week ago, was that individuals tend to get under the weather more often in winter because we’re not in tune with the much different circadian rhythm that occurs during this season. Winter, she notes, has shorter days, less light, and people have traditionally slept longer (11 hours, 14 in some Inuit societies)… and energy is… meted out. Henry includes good, normal and advanced advice (mostly food, some not) in another newsletter send for how to segue into these slower winter rhythms. Sometimes folks can’t hibernate or slow down, but the naturally let’s say slower pace of winter explains why dark health influencers push red light and vitamin D lamps more during winter—these things help us approximate a less seasonal life, even as seasons occur… spot-patching our health as we work jobs that don’t slow down in winter… we split the difference with different light environments and different food.
Another idea behind why we might get sick comes from George Ferman, who, to me, is the best, or in the top 3 for sure, individuals writing about health and interacting with it. (I agree with his philosophy, that the big things—food and light—have the biggest impact*, and I appreciate the depth and research he brings into his missives.) Specifically, Ferman writes (no links they’re email only) that eating more fibre (and using zeolites, which are binders; fibre also acts as a binder) can help nutrients get absorbed better in the winter. He says, roughly, in summer we move around and sweat more, which helps us release toxins quicker—which in double-blind language is tricky, but the Chad science means we cycle what goes into our body quicker when we sweat and eat more. (Not that controversial.)
*Speaking very, very generally, of course.
Effectively, each argue that the cold weather and lack of movement and sunlight act, together, as a governor, so to speak, on our health during winter. And if we want to be “healthier”—acutely, as in not getting a cold—then we up the citrus fruits, eat more nutrient dense food (in general), move around, get actual daylight… while not getting a chill. Without being a hippie this is something I think we all intuitively understand.
Sicky Nicky
And yet for the first half of January everyone seemed to be sick (also not science). So what to do if one wants to stanch this? The pat advice, first. The basics, the big stuff. Moving from fruits to seasonal winter ones—squash, citrus, pomegranates—and normal foods high in zinc, like oysters, red meat, eggs, dark chocolate—will raise one’s… vaguely… resiliency. (Study if you care.) I’ve segued this way a few years ago and get less sick, generally, during winters and also run hotter. (This is also the science behind Shorts Guys.)
But there are also a few things you can do to immediately stanch a cold when you feel it coming on. Mostly simple grocery store stuff, with some scientific (pill/freak) supplementation. I did these things when I felt murdered last week and it went away by morning. As well, a broader variation of these habits—ways of eating for when the weather gets colder, bars to hit every week—that up the resiliency in general and make it so that sick spells only generally happen when people tempt fate. Myself I always feel wrecked after my spine zap, but the cold/flu wasn’t as bad and went away after the plan was implemented. Sometimes you get sick. When you do, you can half-life it. That info’s below.
