Staying well in the winter can often be a daunting task, especially for those of us that are on the go and busy. Although it is true that we do tend to get sick from exposure to bacteria and viruses when others around us are sick, it is only a small part of the picture. We are complicated biological beings with a variety of stressors that act upon our immunity. Diet, exposure to cold wind, exercise, sleep quality, emotions, environmental toxins all seem to play a role in weakening our immune systems enough to succumb to whatever we have been exposed to. Many of us live our lives blaming others for giving us a cold or flu without ever considering our own unwitting role in the process.
Consider a few things before you jump all over what I have just said. First, when someone you know gets sick and they lovingly give you the cold, is it always the same symptoms that they had or is there often a difference in the symptom picture from person to person. If there is a difference, doesn’t that make you wonder why the same virus or bacteria doesn’t produce the same symptom picture? Secondly, others in the same family often with the same exposure, don’t even end up sick at all! Additionally if you take a swab from the back of the throat of the person that never got sick, culture it in a lab, he/she will will have almost every bacteria that is known to man – and feels fine! My belief is that exposure will only lead to illness if your immunity is low, and then if it is low enough, exposure to any of the stressors we talked about above will lead to illness.
