Page 18 - Florida Sentinel 1-19-18

Health
The vast majority of microorganisms are neutral. And a few are called pathogens, meaning they make us sick. A pathogen can be a bacteria, fungi, or virus. The good news is we have our own defense force, constantly patrolling to find and destroy the bad guys. The pathogens that cause all colds and flu (influenza) are viruses.
Viruses are hard to deal with because there are almost no drugs that can treat the cause of colds and the flu. Antibiotics don’t work—they only kill bacteria. The best way to deal with colds and the flu is to not get sick in the first place.
To avoid illness, you need three things.
First, block or remove the virus before it gets in your body. One example: wash your hands!
Second, make your immune system as powerful as it can be, and third, kill the viruses directly.
These latter two strategies will also help you recover much faster should you become ill. The intelligent use of dietary
supplements can be a powerful weapon against these illnesses. Here are some to add to help build your immune system and help you recover:
Vitamin D
2,000 IU (or more) of Vitamin D can make a huge difference when you are sick.
Additionally, children with a previous history of asthma had a sig- nificant reduction in asthma attacks when supple- mented with vita- min D.
Sleep
Sleep is incredibly important for preventing and recovering
from colds and
influenza.
Aside from
feeling tired and
run down, re-
searchers have
found that
sleeping only
four to five
hours a night
leads to up to a
70 percent reduction in natural killer cells, white blood cells that fight infection.
Stage four sleep is also the time you make most of your human growth hormone, which is used in the repair and rebuild mode the body enters in deepest sleep. That is one reason you are so sleepy when you are ill—your body wants you to shut down so it can get busy with the business of heal- ing you.
Elderberry
Elderberry acts against viruses in two ways. First, it neutralizes virus particles so that they cannot enter host cells. Viruses cannot reproduce outside of cells, so keeping them out means they can- not replicate.
Second, elderberry causes the immune sys- tem to activate, which can help control the spread of a viral infection.
Elderberry can be even
more powerful when it is
taken with zinc, mixed bioflavonoids, and vita- min A.
Propolis
Propolis is collected and transformed by bees prior to being used in the beehive for fortification and protection. In fact, propolis means “Defender of the City.”
Propolis is antiviral,
which is great news for a
cold or flu, but also pos-
sesses some antibacterial
properties as well. This
means that propolis may
be useful for preventing
secondary infections trig-
gered by a cold or flu—like pneumonia—which are usually bacterial.
PART II
Anything TOO LOUD Is BAD
Sound is measured in decibels -- normal conver- sation is about 60 decibels. It's best to keep the volume in your headphones and around your hearing below 75 (about as loud as a vac-
uum cleaner) to be safe. And don't listen for more than a couple of hours at a time. You're more likely to lose hearing as you age if you're around loud noise a lot. Hearing loss is linked to thinking problems and even brain tissue loss.
On Your Gadgets Before Bed
The “blue light” given off by electronic gadgets like phones, computers, and TVs can mess up your sleep. And some stud- ies show that too much of any kind of
nighttime light might be linked to cancer (espe- cially breast and prostate), diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. Calm yourself before bed. Keep your bedroom dark and quiet for better sleep.
PAGE 6-B FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 2018