The H&F Winter Survival Guide

Want to avoid this season’s round of colds and Ì“flu? Here’s how to identify your risk factors and find the best remedies for you

- Eve Boggenpoel

It’s the season of sniffles. Drizzly days and cold easterly winds form a backdrop for jammed public transport, long hours at the office, packed festive parties and school-playground bugs doing the rounds, so it’s little surprise the chances of catching an infection are pretty high. Indeed, last year’s prolonged winter saw a considerable spike in respiratory illness – with three times more people dying of flu than the previous year – so what can you do to avoid a slight sniffle developing into something more serious?

‘It’s important you do all you can to combat illnesss at the first sign,’ says Dr Simon Feldhaus, senior physician and the Aeskulap Clinic in Brunnen, Switzerland. ‘The shorter the infection, the better shape the immune system will be in to counter infection at the next exposure. Every time we shorten the illness, we reduce the exhaustion of immune defence.’

Read on to discover if you’re at risk of falling foul of winter bugs and infections this year, and how to minimise your chance of becoming ill.

WHAT’S YOUR RISK FACTOR?

UNDER PRESSURE?

Stress has a massive impact on your immune system. Whether you’re burning the candle at both ends, working long hours or experiencing relationship problems, when you’re under pressure, your body releases cortisol, key to the fight or flight response. While this stress hormone initially boosts your immunity and limits potentially threatening inflammation, when stress continues over an extended period, inflammation levels go up and levels of your immune system’s T cells, which help to control your immune response, fall. Not what you need in the winter months.