Lately there’s been a lot of talk in the news about colds and the flu. Unfortunately, the news has a bad habit of using scare tactics to persuade people into getting flu shots. What you may not know is that the human body actually has natural mechanisms in place to help fend off the common cold or flu. In this week’s article we’ll discuss these natural abilities and some negative impacts of flu shots and medication for dealing with a cold/flu.

Throughout the ages, humans have relied on their body’s natural immunity to fight sickness and disease off. Common practice in today’s age, though, promotes medication usage to deal with symptoms instead of allowing our body to naturally fight it off. There is a downside to this approach. If we allow ourselves to keep relying on medications to help when we’re sick, our bodies will become accustomed to this crutch and lose some of that natural ability.

There are many factors that contribute to us getting sick, stress and lack of sleep are two common reasons. Have you ever noticed yourself getting sick after a long stressful week where you had little sleep? I know we have all had this happen at least once in our lives. The reason why this happens is that our sympathetic nervous system is running at full capacity (we call this the “fight or flight” response), which kicks our adrenals into high gear. This in turn keeps our adrenalin pumping so that we can better handle the stress and lack of sleep. When our body finally gets time to slow down it doesn’t know how to react to the situation so it ends up weakening our immune system. This reaction allows us to be susceptible to sickness.

One way to help build our immune system is through chiropractic care since it allows our body to better adapt to stressful situations. Chiropractic care has been shown to boost our immune system by at least 40% when it’s immune compromised. If you’re feeling a little under the weather, we definitely recommend that you search for a local chiropractor.