Stay in the Game – Have a Cold/Flu Free Season

Treating athletes is a rewarding and interesting aspect of natural medicine. The dedication to fitness and training many athletes demonstrate provide great examples of how dramatic the effects of lifestyle are on overall health. Along with complex, but predictable needs in the area of injury prevention and rehabilitation, fuelling strategies, and recovery systems, athletes frequently come in and say something like:

“How do I stay healthy throughout the season? I can’t afford to get sick!”

While taking a sick day at the office, or skipping a day of classes when you come down with a cold or flu is an option, missing a big game or sacrificing training time can be much more costly to an athlete. Although moderate exercise increases immune function, intense training has been shown to negatively affect the immune system. So what types of strategies can we offer to minimize the risk of losing time to illness?

Prevention Strategies

Most people start to think about getting sick right about the time they actually get sick. A much better practice is to do whatever you can to avoid getting sick in the first place. Here are a few tips to avoid getting sick and keep training and competing.

Hygiene – It seems incredibly simple but wash your hands, never share water bottles or towels, and avoid touching your face.

Sleep- Not only is sleep an essential part of the 24 hour athlete’s life, but lack of sleep puts you at risk of illness, and makes recovery much more difficult.

Nutrition- You likely would not (and should not) consume an ice cream float, bag of chips, or couple slices of pizza before a big game, and your immune systems feels the same way. Proper protein intake is essential for strong immune function, while simple sugar consumption can really put a damper on your immune defenses. A few grams of table sugar negatively impact your immune function for 4-6 hours. Bottom line, make sure you eat protein at each meal and avoid simple sugar.

Supplementation- Athletes love supplements. I have had more than a few show up at the office with a bag full of different supposed body-building, energy boosting, libido promoting, life enhancing supplements looking for guidance. We will save the rant on sports supplements for another article, but there are a few strategies for promoting immune function that are effective. It’s always better to fulfill your micronutrient needs through diet, but as this is not always possible supplementation can be helpful.

• Zinc- Most people do not meet their daily requirement of zinc. Food sources include lean meats, yeast, almonds, milk, and various seeds. On a side note, zinc is important for wound healing, another crucial function in keeping you training and competing.
• Vitamin C- Loads of fruit and vegetables are packed with vitamin C, and your best strategy is to eat a wide variety, including fruit and veggies of as many different colours as possible. Along with its importance in immune function, Vitamin C plays a role in adrenal health (think energy), and helps to maintain and repair connective tissue.
• Ginseng- Siberian ginseng has shown to decrease the risk of getting a cold/flu and to decrease recovery time if you do happen to get sick.
• Probiotics- There is ample evidence pointing to the role of intestinal microbes in immune function. One of my favorite pro-biotic studies (how geeky does that sound) showed that athletes on a probiotic regime were less likely to get sick over a season than those on placebo.

Treatment

Although the best way to deal with getting sick is to just not get sick, inevitably we all end up with a cold at some point. At this point the strategy doesn’t change much, it comes down to sleep, proper nutrition, and more sleep. I generally advise individuals to avoid the use of over the counter cold medicines if possible. These medications can help decrease cold and flu symptoms but can actually prolong the duration of your cold. Chicken noodle soup, plenty of warm fluids, and a little rest goes a long way.

Stay in the game in this cold and flu season. Take care of yourself, eat right, sleep right, train hard – be a 24-hour athlete.

Dr. Brock McGregor BSc ND
Naturopathic Doctor
McGregor Naturopathic
www.mcgregornd.com

McGregor Naturopathic is located in Infinity Medical in Chatham. Brock deals with a wide variety of health conditions, and has advanced training in sports nutrition.