Superpower your immune system with echinacea and a holistic lifestyle

Have you tried various herbs and supplements to boost your immune system during the cold and flu season only for the results to be disappointing? There are hundreds of products advertised for the cold and flu often with basic vitamins and cheap ingredients. Before you waste any more of your money, let’s shift gears a bit and discuss what’s truly an effective solution that concentrates more on lifestyle and less on supplements and incorporates one of my favorite immune-boosting herbs, Echinacea.

A holistic approach to illness prevention is way more effective than just relying on a handful of supplements to get you through the germy season. Plus it will do more than just prevent you from getting sick; it will support your general health and wellbeing too. With a little more awareness and self-care this season, you can have a better chance of staying healthy. And even if you do catch something, your body will overcome it quickly. Support your immune system with what I like to call the core fundamentals to health with an extra layer of protection.

Echinacea as the Herbal Holy Grail
Although there has been a great deal of research done on Echinacea, the results are conflicting. Some show a significant reduction in cold symptoms as well as cold prevention while others do not. It is for this reason I wanted to review what I look for in a high-quality Echinacea supplement because they are not all created equal.
Echinacea, also called purple coneflower, has been commonly used for the prevention of colds and flu for hundreds of years. However, most consumers are not aware that Echinacea products vary considerably in their phytochemical makeup due to the plant material used, method of extraction, time of harvest, and overall quality of plant and seed (1). It’s definitely worth your time, money, and health to know what to look out for when purchasing Echinacea. If you’re not getting the results you had hoped for with your Echinacea, then it may be the brand. It’s also best to take Echinacea throughout the cold and flu season rather than at the first sign of symptoms or one to two weeks before travel. Here are some key characteristics to look for when purchasing Echinacea and my go-to brand:

• Select Echinacea angustifolia and Echinacea purpurea, preferably a combination of the two, to treat colds and flu as these two species are cited specifically for their immune properties. In one study they found that the extract that had both Echinacea purpurea and Echinacea angustifolia is richer in phenols and total flavonoids (2).
• Choose products that contain the root rather than the aerial parts of the plant as they contain higher amounts of alkylamides, which are the immune modulating property of the plant (3, 4).
• Look for preparations that list alkylamide content for dosing and for product comparison as alkylamides appear to be bioavailable compared to the caffeic acid derivatives of the plant (5,6).
• If the product does not give detailed information as to what part of the plant was used as well as the genus and species, then avoid it.
• The brand I recommend and have great results from is by Standard Process called Echinacea Premium as it contains all the above.

Holistic Lifestyle
I get it; we’re all busy! Convenience seems to be the going theme these days if you’re human, but often what is compromised is our health. And that goes for supplements. I always tell my clients that you cannot supplement an unhealthy lifestyle. If you have a toxic body and all you do is supplement hoping for a quick fix, then the results won’t be ideal. Instead, spend your money and time on what works.

• Whole Foods Diet: This is definitely at the top of the list because food is what your body runs off of. If you feed it an artificial, processed diet, your output will likely be subpar, and your immune system will not have what it needs to do its job effectively. Just take a look at the ingredient list of some of the foods that you eat. If you don’t recognize what’s in the label, your body won’t either. It’s also important to avoid added sugars because consuming too much lowers immunity.You can still leave room for treats and indulgences, but a majority of your diet should be from whole food sources. This is food that is close to its natural state as possible:
  
  • Fresh fruits and vegetables. Mix it up and include a variety of leafy greens, cruciferous, and other non-starchy and starch vegetables.
    
  • Healthy fats found in nuts, seeds, fatty fish, whole eggs, and avocados, as well as other sources like Ghee, real- preferably raw- butter from grass-fed cows, extra-virgin coconut and olive oils.
    
  • Intact grains like quinoa, oats, millet, spelt, buckwheat, brown rice, barley, and whole wheat.
    
  • Unprocessed, preferably grass-fed, organic, meat that is baked, grilled, broiled, and roasted.

 

• Sunlight- We were not meant to be indoors all day as Vitamin D is essential to health. While getting out in the sun for 10-20 minutes a day can help to boost your own natural production, this may not be feasible or not enough for some. Vitamin D is well cited in the literature that supports the notion that the lower your Vitamin D levels are the higher the risk for illness. I always recommend going into the colder months knowing what your Vitamin D levels are so that you can adjust your dose for Vitamin D accordingly. Supplementing with Cod Liver oil is a great way to supply a natural source of Vitamin D. However, if you’re deficient, then you may need to supplement with Vitamin D3 at a dose that can be anywhere from 2,000-10,000 IU per day depending on your blood level.

• Sleep: One way to burn yourself out quickly is by cutting hours from your sleep. If you’re not getting adequate sleep, then your immune system is taking a direct hit. Studies show that those that don’t get quality sleep or enough sleep are more prone to getting a cold or virus. Most adults need between 7-9 hours of sleep. It’s important to factor in how long it takes you to fall asleep too so that you can plan to get your full amount. If you don’t feel rested the next day after 7 hours of sleep, you may want to experiment by increasing your sleep by increments of 30 minutes to find what works best for you as we’re all different.

• Exercise- There are numerous health benefits to exercise, but specifically on the immune system. Exercise is a wonderful way to naturally boost the body’s ability to fight off the cold and flu. Some people may enjoy exercise more than others, so if you’re one of those that can’t seem to get into the groove of a workout routine, maybe it’s time to reevaluate what it is that you love. Do you enjoy working out indoors or outdoors, with groups or alone, in the morning or evenings? Once you find what makes you happy, try sticking with it for as long as you can, then reevaluate and adjust it as needed.

• Stress Management- Why does illness seem to creep in right when we put down our defenses? This is because cortisol is released during periods of stress, which negatively impact our immune system, especially if it is prolonged. The above can help to mitigate the effects that stress plays on the body, but it’s also important to take time out for yourself so that you can add balance to your chaotic life: have dinner with a friend, incorporate hot soaks in the tub, work on that project that you love but have found excuses to put off.

• Water- Clean water is essential to health. However, most tap water is contaminated with industrial and agricultural pollutants as well as fluoride, which have a direct impact on our health. Be sure that your water is filtered using a high-quality water filter that filters this junk out. Most filters that you can place in your refrigerator door, a pitcher in your fridge, or on your faucet do not fall under the category of high-quality.

• Increased awareness- Many people try to override symptoms that manifest in the body with either drugs, caffeine, or both to keep going. But it’s important to tune into these subtle clues that the body gives to address the cause of the symptoms, so they don’t lead to other imbalances or lowered immunity. For example, symptoms such as fatigue, muscle tension, and headaches often are tied back to an imbalance in one or more of the core fundamentals to health that can be corrected naturally once addressed. These symptoms can also closely be related to food sensitivities too, so an elimination trial with your diet may also help uncover the cause.

And last, even though this is not part of the core fundamentals of health, frequent hand washing with plain soap is one of the top ways to prevent the cold and flu. According to the FDA, plain soap is just as effective as antibacterial soap at eliminating germs. Also, in 2016 the FDA banned 19 antibacterial additives in over-the-counter wash products including the most commonly known ones, triclosan and triclocarban. This is because manufacturers could not prove that these ingredients are safe for long-term use (7). So it’s best to skip antibacterial soaps altogether as they are likely doing more harm than good.

Sources

1. https://www.gaiaherbs.com/articles/detail/8/A-Research-Review-on-the-Short-and-Long-Term-Use-of-Echinacea
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6130640/
3. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308814699001296
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4441164/
5. https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/10/10/1242/htm
6. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2710.2003.00530.x
7. https://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm378393.htm