As the seasons are changing and many of you are trying to fight off that welcome-to-fall sniffle, I thought it would be great to bring back one of my most popular blog posts (I have updated it with some new information):

The 10 Best Natural Way To Fight A Cold: 

1. The Basics:

• Drink plenty of water–about half your body weight in ounces–each day.
• Eat a clean diet full of vegetables (green and orange ones are particularly great this time of year), animal protein (pastured & grass-fed is ideal) and low sugar fruit like berries, apples & pears (limit to 1-2 pieces per day).  Limit your grain intake to one organic non-gmo serving per day. Avoid added sugar as this suppresses the immune system. Interesting fact: 1 teaspoon of sugar suppresses the immune system from 2-6 hours!!
• Sleep 7-8 hours each night. Ample sleep is especially imperative as we head into the colder weather.

2.  Use Your Neti Pot.  At the first sign of a cold do a nasal rinse with bottled or purified water, at least once a day but twice per day is ideal. If the Neti Pot isn't for you, try this: get some eucalyptus essential oil from the local health food store, and to a pot of boiling water add 5 drops and then steam over the hot water. The eucalyptus will open your sinuses right up!

3.  Take Extra Vitamin C & D. Both of these vitamins are best when they come from food sources, however supplementing during cold season isn't a bad idea either. Try for 5,000 ius of vitamin D daily (1 teaspoon/8 capsules of cod liver oil pills with give you around 2000iu's).  To get some extra Vitamin D, take a few drops of this brand. And for the vitamin C, aim to get in about 3,000-5,000 mg/day. Get your vitamin C from fruit like blueberries and oranges and veggies like bell peppers and kale.

4.  Eat Garlic. Garlic is a potent cold and flu fighter. Thanks to an oily compound called allicin garlic has antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties. For the ultimate cold fighting beverage, dice up a clove or two and add it to a mug of hot water along with freshly squeezed lemon, a few shavings of fresh ginger and a 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne. 

5.  Drink hot water with fresh squeezed lemon juice. If your body can't handle the garlic, or you have a hot date on your agenda, skip the garlic in the above recipe and drink 3-5 mugs per day of hot water w the juice from half of a lemon squeezed into it. Add some ginger and clove to it for extra cold fighting bang.

6.  Take Cordyceps. This is one of my favorite all time immune enhancing fungi. I recommend it in capsule or tincture form. This is my favorite brand.

7.  Take Probiotics. These natural good for you bacterial strains are one of the best immune enhancers put there. A great way to get probiotics in is thru eating fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha and greek yogurt. In addition I recommend that you take one ir two capsules per day of probiotics made by MegaFoods, HMF or Garden Of Life.

8.  Eat homemade chicken soup AKA bone broth. For those of you who know me well or are a patient of mine, you know that I am all about bone broth! It is the ultimate in immune enhancing.  Follow my favorite recipe and boost not just your immune system but your overall health.

9. Exercise. This is to keep your immune system up- if you are sick, rest up and listen to your body. But for optimal health you should be exercising 3-5 days per week for 30-45 minutes.

10. Meditate. Daily. 5-15 minutes of daily meditation will keep you healthy–mentally, emotionally & physically. Check out my video on how to meditate & take some much needed mental downtime as 60-90% of all doctors visits is for a stress related disorder! For guided meditation, great app to try out is Headspace.

Good luck fighting off your winter cold this year!  Share this post with whomever you think could benefit!