Never Fall Sick

Wellness experts reveal immune-boosting secrets that may make you one of those lucky few that never fall sick. Try one – or even better – all of these tips, and you may join the immunity club come flu season.

Holistic

For me, laughter is the best medicine as it really improves circulation. So, laugh with others, laugh at yourself and laugh out loud!

– Dr Ting Choon Meng, GP, T&T Family Health Clinic & Surgery

I am a strong believer of plant essences and herbs. For daily maintenance and an immune booster, take a glass of warm water with a freshly squeezed lemon. This is a great acid and alkaline balancer. It eliminates the mucus in the system and is a great way to start the morning. For colds and flus, an eucalyptus shower gel under the hot shower clears the respiratory tract and nasal path. You can also apply a drop of oregano on the feet when you have early symptoms of cold and flu. Oregano is a natural infection fighter that can kill off viruses and bacteria.

– Cynthia Chua, managing director, Spa Esprit Group

Being happy and maintaining an optimistic outlook on life helps to keep us healthy as our immune system seems to in better shape to ward off colds, flu, headaches and other bodily pains when we are in a happy frame of mind. One way to achieve happiness is to help others – it gives us a good feeling to have people think well of us when we do a simple act of kindness or consideration.

– Elizabeth Nair, chief psychologist, Work & Health Psychologists

Diet

Zinc increases the body’s immune cells that fight against infections and people who experience frequent infections often have low zinc levels. It also plays an important role in digestion, blood sugar balance and skin health. Zinc can be found in animal foods such as meat and seafood, and is also present in sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

– Yondi Lee, holistic nutritionist, Ascension Healing

It’s true that having enough vitamins and minerals are important for health. Look for minerals with “-ate” at the end. For example magnesium which is important for muscle function and good sleep can come in many forms. A low quality form would be magnesium oxide which has only 5 percent absorbability, is super-cheap and easy to produce. A good quality form would be magnesium aspartate (see the -ate ending?) which has 11 times more absorbability! So, if you are going to be eating supplements, choose a high quality multi-vitamin supplement.

– Jonathan Wong, coach/owner, Genesis Performance Center

People with too much toxins in their body tend to have the following manifestations – obesity, water retention, constipation, bad smell in the mouth, strong smell of stool and urine, fatigue, heaviness of the head and a thick greasy coating on the tongue.To detox, add 30g of hawthorn berry and 30g of salvia root to 600ml of water, boil concoction and drink as tea. However, it’s best to consult a physician if you’re not feeling well rather than self-administer herbs.

– Yu Zhe Kai, senior physician, Eu Yan Sang TCM Clinic

If you find yourself having recurrent flu, prolonged cough or frequent headache, and your doctor cannot find an obvious solution other that symptomatic treatment with medications, you may have delayed food allergy. This type of food allergy is sometimes also known as food intolerance. Some examples of foods which often cause these symptoms include commonly-consumed items such as milk, eggs, wheat and soy. An effective and efficient method to identify your food allergy is via blood test for these allergies. A much more tedious and pain staking method is to subject yourself to an elimination diet, and by a process of reintroduction of foods and observation, you may be able to zero in on these foods.

– Dr Stephen Lee, Specialist in ENT Surgery, Raffles Hospital