The Supplements, Foods, and Habits I Use to Stop a Cold Before It Starts

Emma (0:00)

So, if I want to get through this year's cold and flu season, and I don't want to feel sick every other day, where do you think I should start?

Dr. Mark Hyman (0:06)

I can tell you that knowing what I know and what I'm going to do, I almost never get sick.

Emma (0:11)

How does that happen? What's going on?

Dr. Mark Hyman (0:12)

If you're eating a bad diet, if you're not exercising, if you don't sleep well, if you're stressed, if your nutrient levels aren't optimized, if your gut isn't healthy, you're going to be more likely to get sick. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Office Hours. I'm here again with Emma, one of the producers of The Dr. Hyman Show. And today, we're talking about something that comes up every single year as we head into cold and flu season. Emma, what are we getting into today?

Emma (0:32)

So every fall, I feel like I'm being bombarded with ways for me to boost my immune system. I've been told to take vitamin C, to take zinc, take this shot, buy this supplement. And it really made me think, can I actually boost my immune system?

Dr. Mark Hyman (0:46)

Actually, boost may not be the right word, but you definitely influence your immune system by everything that's happening. So if you're eating a crappy diet, your immune system doesn't work as well. If you're eating sugar, your immune system doesn't work as well. If you're nutrient depleted, your immune system for sure doesn't work as well. If you're low in zinc or vitamin D or omega-3 fats or selenium or many, many other nutrients that we need, your immune system may not work as well. If your gut microbiome is unhealthy, it's going to affect your overall health and can drive more inflammation. If you are not getting enough sleep, that affects your immune system. If you're not exercising, that affects your immune system.

If you're stressed, that certainly is affecting and suppressing your immune system. So absolutely, your immune system can be optimized by modulating the things that we know affect your immune function. So there's no doubt about that. The science on this is really clear.

Emma (1:41)

So if I want to get through this year's cold and flu season and I don't want to feel sick every other day, where do you think I should start? So if I'm trying to build a resilient immune system, what does that actually mean for me?

Dr. Mark Hyman (1:54)

For immune system and the rest of your health, the foundations are the same. So it's eating whole foods. It's not even ultra-processed food. It's optimizing your nutrient status, checking your nutrient levels. And this is what we do through function health. So you can check your vitamin D, you can check your omega-3s, you can check your zinc, you can check your iron level, you can check a whole bunch of things that affect your overall immune function. Optimize your sleep, because if you're not sleeping, your immune system is going to be affected. Optimize your stress, learning how to regulate your stress response. So meditation, yoga, breath work, whatever, like massage, whatever you can figure out how to do to really reset your nervous system, is really important every day. All these things play a role.

So start with those foundations of diet, exercise, sleep, stress management, and optimizing nutrient levels. Those are just foundational. Other things will affect you, like alcohol, probably not a good idea. Circadian rhythm disrupted is a problem. A lot of people have not regular sleeping and waking times. I think people who are having a lot of gut issues affects their immune system, so fixing your gut can be very helpful.

Sometimes people have underlying immune issues, like they have immune deficiency issues, and those can be identified and searched for and actually optimized. And then there's ways to really be taking things that can really help, like optimizing your nutrients. Like I said, vitamin D is probably the most important one, and most people are deficient or insufficient. The reference range for the lab is 30 It should probably be more like 45 to 60 or 70 And that probably, if I had to say one single most important intervention, that would be it. I mean, there was a great study in COVID where they looked at people who were low in vitamin D. They had a 75% higher risk of ending up in the hospital or dying.

That's big, okay? And those who had a vitamin D level over 50, this was the biggest really study, there were zero deaths, zero, not one. So that got my attention. And so I think it's important to just build those foundational things. And then, you know, if you tend to be someone who gets sick, there's a lot of great herbal formulas out there that I use. There's adaptogenic mushrooms. You might want to make sure you're getting adequate zinc and vitamin C on a regular basis. You make sure you're optimized your vitamin D, as I said. And then you basically have these foundational things.