We all love the holidays. Friends and family. Gifts. Gatherings. Celebration. Office parties. Gratitude and thankfulness.
But aside from the long list of positives, the holidays can have a powerfully negative impact on our health. We are all aware that right now, it’s “Cold & Flu” season. You’ll notice people coughing incessantly around the office. Your kids come home with it. It just spreads like wildfire this time of year.
People also struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) this time of year, which is a seasonal type of depression where the sun is up quite a bit less so the days are shorter, it’s colder, and people just tend to feel down and sluggish and unmotivated.
Rheumatoid arthritis tends to really flare up during the holidays. And heart attacks—particularly deadly ones—spike not only during the holiday season, but they tend to spike on Christmas and New Year’s Days even more.
These “holiday health hiccups” can have a negative impact on your ability to enjoy this season, so let’s address them head-on and make sure you are the best you can be this year!
Cold & Flu
You can be in a room full of sick people who cough and sneeze in your direction and not get sick. It’s all about how strong your immune system is. So what about the holidays kills your immune system?
Sugar is a big one. A blood glucose level of 120 or above reduces the effectiveness of your immune system by 75%. This blood sugar level is really not that uncommon. The front line against bacteria and viruses in your body is a type of cell called a phagocyte. They are the white blood cells that actually attack the pathogens. And they require a lot of Vitamin C to work. But here’s the funny thing. Glucose (sugar) and Vitamin C look close enough on a molecular level that phagocytes, when looking for Vitamin C, will grab the glucose instead—which makes them much less effective.
Stress lowers immunity. And we’ve all heard about stress and the holidays. 40% of Americans report having greater levels of stress during the holidays, and that goes more for women than men, and it goes more for people in the lower middle class as well.
Stress releases a hormone called cortisol—that has many effects on the body—but one of which is that it counteracts inflammation. When stress becomes too regular, the body becomes numb, in a sense, to cortisol, which means it doesn’t counteract inflammation. Inflammation goes up, the immune system becomes overextended from being on high alert too often. It’s just bad.
So, to combat cold & flu season, don’t get a vaccine. Keep the sugar out of your life. And I realize that’s easier said than done during the holidays. But if you see that plate of Christmas cookies, it’s really up to you if any of them make it to your mouth or not. Just say no to sugar!
As for stress, it’s tough to make sure it doesn’t happen. But you can manage it, get it to recede. Perhaps the best way I’ve found is daily meditation. Use guided meditations for stress on YouTube and just listen and do what they say. They’re 10 or 15 minutes and they have a huge impact. Go on walks, do things that you enjoy but you always think aren’t as important as the stressful things. Plink away on your guitar. Build a birdhouse. Just find an outlet.
Also, drink plenty of water, get zinc supplements, get chiropractic adjustments, get enough sleep, eat probiotics and fermented foods and get your Vitamin C and D. These will all boost your immune system.
Seasonal Affective Disorder
One in four Americans are affected by this ailment.
It’s simply a function of not enough sunlight. But just getting more sunlight isn’t necessarily the answer. You certainly can get a sunlamp. They are often used to treat depression among psychiatric patients, even aside from anything winter related. Furthermore, they inhibit the release of melatonin in your brain, the chemical associated with bringing you down to a sleepy state–which is often a contributor to depression.
Just like with the cold & flu: Protect your immune system. Feelings of depression often follow a bout of the cold or flu. You can do this by drinking enough water, eating healthy foods (particularly vegetables and dark, leafy greens), getting enough exercise, which brings us to…
Get enough exercise. If you generally exercise outside, but it’s too cold, consider a gym membership. The YMCA offers income-based memberships if finances are a concern. Exercise releases endorphins, which are chemicals that reduce your perception of pain—including emotional pain. Plus, being healthier and fitter makes you feel good in general, and look better, both of which boost your self-esteem and feelings of control over your life.
Crank up your favorite music. There was actually a study in 2013 where listening to upbeat music was shown to improve the mood of participants. But who needs a study to tell you that? We all know good music makes you smile.
Make plans. It’s known that simply planning a vacation—maybe to somewhere sunny and warm—can elevate your mood, particularly during the winter months. It can be as simple as researching bed & breakfasts in a place in which you’re interested, or comparing airline prices. It gives you something to look forward to, which is essential in life.
Rheumatoid arthritis
Arthritis, particularly rheumatoid arthritis flares up during the winter. No one is exactly sure why, but it must have something to do with coldness, because when people with RA warm up, they tend to feel better. So during flare-ups, put on gloves, warm your joints and cozy up to the fire or a significant other.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition, meaning it is caused by inflammation. What happens is, over time when a person eats pesticide-soaked foods, takes medications, and eats a lot of sugar, their small intestine becomes permeable—which basically means there are tiny holes in the intestinal wall.
You may have heard of it as leaky gut. The problem is, food particles leak into your bloodstream—they’re not really big food particles—but they’re big enough that your immune system attacks them.
So what if you’re eating chicken wings. You get some skin, some meat and some connective tissue. Your immune system attacks these things over and over and over throughout the years until eventually, it notices that the connective tissue in your joints looks basically the same as the connective tissue it’s been attacking from the chicken wings you’ve been eating all these years. Then, it attacks your connective tissue as well. Your immune system sees you as the enemy. That’s not good.
So what do you do?
You’ve got to avoid and/or fix the inflammation and leaky gut. That means: organic fruits and veggies, grass fed beef, free-range chicken, wild-caught fish, stay away from the meds—even things like aspirin and benadryl contribute to leaky gut.
Seek natural remedies, such as anti-inflammatories like ginger, turmeric, berries, fatty fish, broccoli, avocados, green tea and dark chocolate.
Holiday heart attacks
During the last six weeks of the year, there is a 5% increase in deadly heart attacks. Some explanations point to the cold weather. The coldness constricts blood vessels, making it even more difficult for blood to flow through vessels that are already clogged with plaque.
But still, get this: The day with consistently the most heart attacks is Christmas Day. The second most is December 26th, right after Christmas. And the third-most is on New Year’s day. Simply being cold wouldn’t explain that. Plus, heart attacks still rise in places like Miami and Los Angeles where it isn’t even cold during winter.
A study in the heart-related journal, Circulation, theorized that people might feel terrible, like something is wrong with their heart, but they will forego getting any treatment because they don’t want to interrupt the holidays.
That could be. My recommendation is that, regardless of the time of year, if you feel that you’re having a health emergency, seek help regardless of what time of year it is.
Other than that, again stress plays a role. That seems to be one of the common factors in all of these “holiday hiccups”. Just try to reduce and manage your stress.
Again, don’t use the holidays as an excuse to do things you know are bad for your heart, such as eat a lot of sugar, drink a lot of alcohol and eat a lot of sodium while you veg out for an entire vacation.
If you can make the kind of choices that help you avoid these “holiday hiccups,” there’s no reason this can’t be one of the best, most fun times of the year and your biggest worry will be how to spread all the love around without leaving anyone out.
