How not to get ill

I haven't had a cough or a cold for almost 3 years.

This is quite a long post about all the things I do to stay well. If you are one of the lucky people who seem not to get sick, then you may want to skip it!

Disclaimers first: Obviously I am not a doctor or any type of medical professional, but I am the owner of a human body, complete with a brain. I use this brain to make decisions based on the evidence of my eyes and ears and my own experience, and that is the basis of what follows.

Violetta Valery (La Traviata), who had Consumption (tuberculosis)

I’m writing this because a few years ago, during a deep dive into colds, flu and respiratory tract infections, I was presented with the very simple idea that it is, in fact, possible to mount a counter-attack on evil bastard bugs ‘at the door’ of the body, and in doing so, prevent them from travelling down to the lungs….duh!

I started focusing on prevention in January 2023 and I haven’t been unwell since; That’s almost three years with no illness. I say this as someone who used to get two fairly serious respiratory tract infections pretty much every year, for which I would always need antibiotics.

The thing that woke me up to this concept (I really am very slow indeed) was something I read which likened the mouth to an open wound. Yes, it’s a disgusting thought, but a very effective one, because we try, don’t we, not to leave an open wound unwashed and without some sort of anti-septic… If you apply the same logic to the mouth (which is a direct doorway into the body) then you really can do a lot to weaken whatever is trying to get in on the threshold as it were.

So yes…it’s granny wisdom, but here, for what it’s worth, is everything I do to keep myself lurghy-free and functioning.

Before I begin, I’m going to presume that you are brushing between your teeth with those little tiny brushes at least once a day before bed. Literally just poking the thing between each tooth, particularly the ones at the back, to remove any trace of food left there. If you don’t do this, then start immediately and you’ll probably understand by sniffing at the tiny brush why you are getting ill so easily.

Here is what I do The minute I feel a tickle in my throat…

1. GARGLE

First, make sure you are properly hydrated by drinking a large glass of water. Then get half a mug of warm water and add a desert-spoonful of salt and a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda, swill to dissolve and gargle. Gargle for as long as your breath will allow, several times until the last drop of that stuff is gone, and with the last mouthful, swill it around your mouth as you would a mouthwash before you spit. Let that saltiness sit in your mouth for at least 15 minutes, killing the bastards in your mouth.

Do this at least twice a day. It’s a real faff, because at this point you’re not feeling ill, you just have a slight tickle in your throat, but it’s worth it, because you’re creating a very inhospitable environment for the thing that wants to multiply at the back of your mouth and make its way down to your lungs.

If you’re already feeling ill, coughing and spluttering and you may already have a headache or a temperature, GARGLE ANYWAY. It will shut the gate to anything new that tries to get in and make recovery quicker.

2. SLEEP

If you are able to sleep, focus on that. Anything you can do to get a better sleep is permitted at this point, including decongestants to unblock your nose at night. Sleep should come first and foremost (after gargling). I have spent the last year making a serious effort to prioritise good quality sleep, and I have made the following discoveries:

a. Reading the whole entire internet before bed is not conducive to a quality night’s sleep. Putting your phone or computer down, an hour before you want to sleep, and reading a book instead, makes an enormous difference. I know this because….

b. I’ve been tracking my sleep with a Whoop device. It tracks how many hours I’ve slept, along with how much time I spend in light, deep and REM sleep. It calculates the hours of sleep I get versus the sleep it thinks I need (which is calculated using data it collects all day long) and comes up with a ‘score’. This score has become immensely useful to me, as it helps me to pace myself if I need to recover from a poor night’s sleep, and challenge myself if I get a good one. You may well ask me why I don’t just do that anyway…my answer is that sometimes, especially when you are sleeping poorly, a bit of non-emotional science-based, factual messaging that you need to take it easy on the stressful stuff can be thoroughly better-making. It removes all the agonising thoughts about how one ought to be doing more, and replaces them with a simple message like…ok forget the enormous list and do only the two most important things…the rest can just wait until tomorrow.

The sleep thing is just a tiny part of the whole Whoop experience; I also find it hugely useful for planning exercise that is efficient rather than just exhausting and boring, and general insights into the question “Why am I so bloody exhausted when I really haven’t done very much today”, which is usually because of something called ‘at-rest stress’. So it’s a rabbit hole, but an interesting one. I’m not planning to wear a Whoop for the rest of my life, but at the moment it’s serving me extremely well, and teaching me things I didn’t know. Worth thinking about.

c. I’ve been going outside to get morning light. I feel like this has gone from being seen as a rather woo old wives tale idea, to pretty settled science in the past five years. Here is a link to a recent study showing morning light and its positive effects on circadian rhythms, and you may also want to listen to the wonderful Andrew Huberman who explains what happens in your brain when you go outside and let the morning light into your eyes; (basically it sets off a chain of beautiful, biological events which ultimately signal the body to go to sleep twelve hours later…GENIUS! Who knew?!) Important: you need to be OUTSIDE…taking in morning light through a window won’t cut it…not enough lux.

3. SAUNA + COLD SHOWER

There is some evidence that you can give your immune system a kick up the arse through heat and cold exposure. Here is the study, but basically, I took this information and adapted it to my life. Whenever I can, I take a 15 minute sauna, followed by a cool (not cold!) shower, and I think that this somehow keeps my immune system on its toes, because I’m shocking my own body on the regular. The study would have me work up to three fifteen minute sauna sessions with a minute or two cool-down in between, but I don’t have time for that; instead I’m planning to go up to a higher bench once I feel ready. Please don’t mistake a sauna for a steam room. I would definitely stay away from those; you want dry heat, zero humidity.

Supplements and medicinal foods

1. Bone Broth

You can buy it, so you don’t have to make it. Any bone broth will do. I add lemon juice and fish sauce to jazz it up, but bone broth throughout the day is, I find, a very workable proxy for all the lemsips filled with painkillers and chemicals. Bone broth is side-effect-free, and although there are no peer reviewed human studies to show that it is anti-inflammatory, or anti-bacterial or anti-viral, I’m not sure that we really need them, particularly if said bone broth is administered by someone who loves you. A cup of bone broth with some marmite toast if you’re hungry is just comforting and nourishing, and for that reason it is BOUND to make you feel better. In my humble opinion, that’s evidence enough, and it’s a no-regret move. I drink it to prevent illness, which is to say that I drink it whenever I make it, which is often, but also I use…..

2. AG1 supplement

We shouldn’t have to take supplements; all of the vitamins and minerals we need should be in our food, but sadly that’s not the case any more. I used to take lots of different vitamin pills throughout the day, before I switched to AG1 in January 2023 and I’ve been using it every day since. I started using it at the same time as I got wise to the salt-water gargling thing, and I haven’t been sick since. I’ve felt like I’m about to be ill at times, but it’s never once turned into the dreaded infection. So yes, rightly or wrongly, with zero evidence except that of my own experience, I take the green powder religiously every single day. I take it on holiday with me, and if I feel even slightly under the weather I take two doses a day. It seems eye-wateringly expensive at face value, but then you do the maths with all the cost of all the supplements you’re replacing, and you feel better, and also, if someone came and offered me freedom from the horror of being stuck in bed fighting for breath for this price, I’d gladly hand it over. GLADLY.

3. Collagen

I put collagen in with my green powder drink, every day. I do this because there is good-ENOUGH (though not perfect) evidence that supplementing with collagen can have positive effects on skin elasticity, bone health and muscular repair, and there is very little down-side. Yes, I get it in bone broth anyway, but I like the powder because I can take that every day.

4. Kimchi

Kimchi is fermented veg. I add it to most meals because gut-health. It stands to reason that a fully functioning gut is a prerequisite to a healthy body…I don’t need studies to tell me that. Kefir is another good source.

5. Flaxseed

I add two heaped spoonfuls of ground up flaxseeds to my AG1 drink in the morning. Without going into too much detail, it works wonders for the digestion, and good digestion, and regular bowel movement is vital to a healthy immune system.

6. Extra Vitamin C

Although the AG1 has plenty of vitamin C, I always add more if I’m feeling ropey or about to come down with something. Get the effervescent things that fizz and dose up.

7. Creatine

I originally started using creatine because I heard that it helped with brain function and had a good safety profile. This double blind, placebo controlled trial showed a significant improvement in the memories and improved intelligence test results in vegetarian adults (who don’t get much creatine) when they supplemented with 5 grams a day for six weeks, compared with placebo group. If you wanted to get 5 grams of creatine from food, herring would be the best candidate, and you’d have to eat a kilo of it every day…so that’s why I supplement with it.

But for the purposes of staying well, supplementing with creatine when you’re doing resistance training also assists in muscle formation…and muscles are what provide the body with amino acids, and amino acids are needed to produce an immune response. It’s just obvious that those with less muscle mass do less well when their bodies are under pressure. I would like to say that my brain function has improved since I started taking creatine, but I’m not sure it has. My muscles, however, have grown, and that is why I put it here as a helpful thing. I would caveat this though, by saying that you need to up your protein intake as well…and that is a whole other post which I am happy to write if there is the appetite for it - just say below!

Enough. I hope this was useful to some of you. The most important bits, (morning light, sleep, salt) are low-to-zero cost measures. For the rest, I have put all the links in a new section of my shop called ‘Health’, and some of those links earn me a small commission, just so you know. You should also know that I use all these things daily myself and none of them have been ‘gifted’ to me. These are just the products that I use. Other options are available!

x Laetitia