10 tips to stay healthy this cold season

Dr. Mignonne Mary

It’s that time of year again– the changing of the seasons. That time when your office mate is sneezing and spreading the love. Your boss is coughing and hacking up a storm, then reaching for the snacks in the kitchen. Your better half is in bed with the flu … the bed you sleep in, too. Ugh, germaphobe alert! Determined not to get bogged down this year by a dreadful cold like I usually do, I did a little research to find out how I could stave off those awful things.

I interviewed Dr. Mignonne Mary, owner of The Remedy Room, a health and wellness clinic offering IV therapy in New Orleans, to get some advice. Dr. Mary practiced as a private physician for 12 years before opening The Remedy Room. She had some good tips to share, like why you should consider keeping silver around. Yup, silver! Here are her 10 tips on how to stay healthy this cold and flu season.

1. Drink Up. If cells are not hydrated, they can’t function properly. We’re made of water. All life begins with water.

2. Prevention is Key.Washing hands is optimal over hand sanitizer. It must be hot water. It takes 20 seconds or longer to get bacteria off of your hands.

3. No Touching. No hands to the eye, nose or the mouth; 80 percent of viruses are getting into our bodies from our fingertips. Use Lysol to wipe down EVERYTHING — handles, phones, clickers, door knobs, computers, tables, especially if you’re working in close spaces. Sneeze inside of your shirt. Sneezing produces 100,000-200,000 aerosol droplets, which can attach to dust particles and can stay present in the air for weeks..

4. Diet: No Sugar, no Junk. There’s definitely a correlation to your diet. If you don’t have a good diet, then your immune system is not going to work properly. I think the reason people get sick around the holidays is because there’s such a drastic increase in the amount of sugar they take in. That sugar competes with Vitamin C to get into the white blood cells to fight infection and free radicals. The more sugar you have, the less your body is able to fight for your immune system. Sugar helps promote the growth of bacteria, fungus, etc. If you’re sick, or you feel like you’re getting sick, cut the sugar drastically.

Eliminate the junk food. No processed foods. I push people toward the comfort foods, like soups and broths that have a lot of trace minerals —elements that come from the earth that help you to function and help your cells to function properly. Have home-made soups, not canned soups. Always avoid alcohol and caffeine when you’re sick.

5. Get Your Vitamin C EVERY DAY. I highly recommend that people supplement with vitamin C every day. (1000mg a day) It’s important to have multiple doses throughout the day, rather than one large dose a day. If you feel like something is coming on, I would take it every hour. Vitamin C through IV is better than oral because the vitamin C goes directly to your cells. You can get vitamin C by grabbing some of these quick fruits or veggies: orange (1=70 mg), grapefruit (1=88 mg), red pepper raw (1=226 mg), mango (1=60 mg), kiwi (1=74 mg), broccoli raw (1/2 cup=93 mg).

6. Pump up the Vitamin D and Zinc. Add these to your supplements before cold season arrives. I’d rather a patient take tiny doses more often than a whammy dose twice a day. I would say take another 2000 IU’s (international units) of vitamin D a day while you’re sick. Fatty fish, like tuna, mackerel, and salmon. Foods fortified with vitamin D, like soy milk, cereals, cheese, egg yolks, lean beef and lamb offer good amounts of vitamin D. Nuts and beans, such as chick peas, cashews and almonds contain zinc.

7. Get Your Omega 3 Fatty Acids. At least 1000 mg-2000 mg a day helps to heal the outside of the cell membrane. If the cell is not healthy, all of the above nutrients won’t get in and out of the cell. Fish such as halibut, herring, mackerel, oysters, salmon, sardines, trout and fresh tuna are the best sources of omega 3 fatty acids, but walnuts and edamame also contain omega 3 fatty acids and make for great snacks.

8. Up Your Glutathione. The mother of all antioxidants, glutathione kills free radicals, helps your body’s immune system to fight infection, and reactivates vitamin C. The body naturally produces glutathione, but poor diet, pollution, toxins, medications, stress, trauma, aging, and infections all deplete your glutathione.

9. Silver Hydrosol. Nothing can live in the presence of silver. It’s a natural anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal. In the past, people used silver mugs and plates, because it was safe from bacteria. You can take safe amounts of silver hydrosol as a supplement, too. (Dr. Mary recommends “Argentyn 23”: http://www.natural-immunogenics.com/pdf/Argentyn23Brochure.pdf)

10. B12 Shots or IV Therapy. If all else fails, go for the B12 Shots or IV Therapy. Intravenous therapy is the infusion of fluids directly into a vein — a fast route to hydrate the body and replenish lost vitamins and minerals. By using IV hydration, all of the administered nutrients are absorbed immediately into the bloodstream.

This post originally was published on the #IDEAinsider blog. Summer Suleiman is a writer and blogger for NolaVie and #IDEAinsider. You can reach her at summer@ideavillage.org.