It’s that time of year when the summer draws to a close. The nights get longer and the temperature begins to drop. Most importantly (for parents), it’s the time when kids go back to school and older kids go back to college and university…
… but why is that relevant to a health and fitness blog?!
It’s relevant because at the start of term, schools, colleges and universities are a bit of a bug factory. Hundreds, potentially thousands of people mixing for the first time in weeks and months. In close contact with one another, spreading different strains of bugs.
Add on top of that the disruption in summer routines, added fatigue from the extra learning, the extra parties and late nights amongst those in university and college. It’s a perfect storm for viruses to spread - in fact in uni there’s even something known as ‘fresher’s flu’, where students pick up a bug for all of the reasons mentioned above.
How to protect yourself from the school bugs…
We know that immunity has been high on the agenda for the last 18 months and a lot of the tried and trusted methods work. In this case though, there’s more to immunity than protecting yourself - you’ve got to create the best possible shield around you and your family.
By enhancing the immunity of your children too, you protect both them and yourself. If they have a strong and robust immune system, it will stop them picking up the bugs. If they don’t have them, they can’t bring them home and pass them on to you. It’s a case of creating a bigger protective shield around you and your family.
These evidence-based tips will help you improve your immunity as schools, colleges and universities return…
Immune boost nutritionally…
We know deep down that a healthy diet improves our immune systems. What we also know is that there are particular vitamins and minerals that support healthy immune function. In particular we know from research that Vitamins A and D are particularly useful when it comes to supporting immune function. This means we should look to increase or consumption of foods containing vitamin A, and making the most of the sunshine by getting outside to stimulate vitamin D production.
When the sunshine drops, or getting outside isn’t a viable option, take supplemental vitamin D3 to keep you healthy.
Vitamin A is found in the following foods…
Eggs
Oily fish
Fortified low-fat spreads
Milk and yoghurt
Offal
It’s also a good idea to help support the rest of your nutritional health with a broad-spectrum multivitamin supplement, mostly because of the minerals which have been shown to boost immunity.
Get plenty of sleep
And overlooked but vital element of protecting immune function is sleep. There’s barely a physiological process that isn’t improved or enhanced with adequate sleep. What the research shows is that sleeping enough helps to regulate immune function via a few different mechanisms, including regulation of inflammatory markers.
You can ignore the advice of you have to sleep 8-10 hours per night - we’re not all built the same. Some people need as little as 7 hours to fully recover, others need more than that. You’ll know what adequate sleep is for you, but it’s important that you get enough sleep.
Making hygiene a priority
It’s a good idea to maintain the high standards of hygiene that have become normalised over the last few months. Regular use of hand sanitisers and the like is a good idea and the research backs this up. Keeping your hands clean, keeping your keyboard and other bits of kit clean - even keeping your phone clean can be helpful.
We don’t fully appreciate how long bugs can last on surfaces, so taking a few steps to make sure they’re killed off with help to reduce transmission and spread of infection. Other ideas include not sharing pens, pencils and the like. It might sound like overkill, but there is enough evidence now to suggest that it’s a good approach to take.
Exercise frequently… and well!
Exercise improving health is no secret and that isn’t about to change. A bit like sleep, there are no physiological processes that aren’t enhanced with a solid exercise regime backing them up.
By training at AdMac Fitness we’d guide you towards optimal health and fitness with the help of our expert personal trainers. We’re East London’s premier personal training studio, where you can be assured of excellent service and guidance from experienced and professional PTs.
If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!