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by Dr. Trevor Holly Cates, ND

With the holidays around the corner, busy home, social and work schedules can send stress levels through the roof. Combined with cold and flu season this time of year, it’s important to keep your immune system strong to prevent getting sick at a time when nobody wants to feel feverish or congested.

While we generally enjoy the holidays, they can be stressful. An important factor in keeping your health and your wits is getting a good night’s sleep. Sleeplessness can lead to daytime irritability, drowsiness, difficulty concentrating, and immune system suppression.

If you are tossing and turning, there are things you can do to help relax into sleep naturally. Enjoy a healthy, low-stress holiday season this year with the following tips.

Tips for reducing stress and improving sleep this season:

• Avoid excess food and drinks before bedtime. Shoot for an early dinner, and choose fresh fruit over sugary treats. If you still decide to indulge in a slice of pie or cake, consume these sweet treats just after dinner rather than just before bedtime.
• Instead of a cup of coffee or hot toddy after dinner, enjoy a cup of herbal tea to help you relax in preparation for sleep — hops, passionflower, lemon balm, wild oats, chamomile, and valerian are a few herbs traditionally used to help promote relaxation.
• For a sedating effect, you can listen to soothing music or take a warm bath with a few drops of chamomile or lavender oil.
• An individual homeopathic medicine or a combination homeopathic such as Hyland’s Calms Forte can be taken before sleep or upon waking during the night to help relieve nervousness and restlessness and create an overall natural sedative effect.

Holiday parties and visiting with friends and family can also bring an increased amount of exposure to viruses that cause the common cold or flu. Keep your immune system strong this season with natural solutions.

Tips for protecting yourself from the common cold and flu this season:

• With all of the hand shakes at holiday parties, be sure to wash your hands often with soap and water, and try not to touch your eyes, nose or mouth since that is often how the viruses enter the body.
• Improve your nutrition by keeping your intake of fresh fruits and veggies high, and hold off on excess sweets and alcoholic drinks.
• Take a high quality daily multi vitamin and mineral supplement to ensure adequate nutrition.
• Participate in moderate daily exercise (30 minutes a day), which has been shown to help boost the immune system.
• Minimize your intake of alcohol and sugary and processed foods during the cold and flu season.

Be sure to contact your healthcare provider if you develop symptoms that continue for more than a few days or worsen despite treatment.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 10:21 pm and is filed under Cold and Flu, Stress, Sleep. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.