Navigating the Winter Season | A Pharmacists’ Guide to Cold and Flu Defence!

Winter is certainly upon us now, as we feel those colder temperatures, darker mornings and shorter evenings, we may also start to notice the return of cold and flu season.

As a Pharmacist, I am often asked “How can I prepare for this cold and flu season?”, and I’m sharing my top tips below, and I’ll link some of my favourite products I’ll be stocking up on this winter too!

As much as we might like the answer to be to take a magic pill and your immune system will be perfectly supported, there is nothing that can replace a healthy, balanced lifestyle. I know that phrase is thrown around an awful lot in the media, so it might be useful if I provide my definition of what a healthy balanced lifestyle would be (although it is certainly not a one-size fits-all, there are some general themes you can follow).

If you are doing the following things, I would consider this to be doing your absolute best when it comes to having a healthy and balanced lifestyle (bravo to you if you can tick all four off – I try my best to most weeks)!

• Getting enough sleep (different people function on different amounts of sleep – for me, 8 hours is optimal). 
  • Star product recommendation: In Winter, I can often find it harder to distinguish between when my active day ends and my restful night-time routine begins. I find scents always help me to switch my focus and this one from Tisserand Sleep Better Pillow Mist is the Bee’s Knees!

1. Exercising moderately (at a moderate to vigorous level) in whatever way you find enjoyable, for 150 minutes a week (30 minutes, 5 times a week, 50 minutes, 3 times per week), and preferably getting extra movement throughout the day, whether on your commute, walking on your lunch break, doing housework. It is important to. Not only get your 30 minutes daily, but to also not spend the rest of the day sedentary – moving about throughout the day is great for your health. 3. Nourishing your body with the nutrients it needs (more on this in my next point), but generally we know what our body needs, and which foods and drinks are less helpful for our health.
2. Taking time to rest (not just when sleeping), and managing your stress levels in a healthy way that works for you, is also very beneficial for your immune system. Being able to talk about your feelings, whether with a trusted friend, family member, partner or therapist, can help to lighten the load. When cortisol, also known as a “stress hormone” is running chronically high, it can wreak havoc with our immune system, as we often notice when we are most stressed we can fall ill.
3. Staying on top of health check up and vaccines: If you are due a health check with your GP or in a hospital, it is important to keep up to date with these, and to ensure that if you have been recommended by a relevant healthcare professional to get a vaccine, such as the flu vaccine, to get it whenever it is due. You can book a flu vaccine with McGorisks Pharmacy here

While these are some of the ways I define living a healthy and balanced lifestyle, that may look different for you, and equally it may not always be within your control to get that balance. For example, new parents are generally going to be sleep deprived. It’s about trying the best we can with what time and resources we have available, and being kind to ourselves in the process. Each of our health journeys should be approached as more of a marathon than a sprint.

Probably the most common question I’m asked at this time of year, is around the best supplements to take to support immune health. I will always preface this by highlighting the importance of getting the basics right, as mentioned above, but I do have some hero products I find myself recommending often, and here they are:

Vitamin D: The Irish government recommends that people in Ireland aged 12-64 should take a 15 microgram Vitamin D supplement from October to March, due to the lack of sunlight we get this far north of the equator. Vitamin D has an important role to play in supporting the immune system, as well as helping to maintain normal muscle and bone health. Some people may be prescribed higher doses than this, in which case theey should follow the advice of their prescriber.

Star Product recommendation: This PharmaPlus 1000IU Vitamin D soft capsule is easy to swallow, easily absorbed, and created by Pharmacists.

Multi Vitamin Supplements: When it comes to recommending vitamins, my motto is always to only take what we need when we need it, and of course, to always check first with your GP or Pharmacist before taking any new supplements if we have any medical condition or are taking any other medication (or supplements for that matter). There are times when we feel as though we could use an extra bit of nutritional support, and with Pharmacists being the go-to experts for a lot of people when It comes to supplements, a team of Pharmacists in Ireland set about creating the immune supplement they had always searched for.

Star product recommendation: PharmaPlus Active Immune is my go-to all-round immune supplement for a number of reasons (disclaimer – I am a brand ambassador, but it is for the following reasons):

Active Immune contains evidence-based ingredients proven to help support the immune system, in the optimal therapeutic dosages.

The Pharmacists who designed the product made sure to leave out ingredients which do not have a proven benefit (this is just as important as what they have left in)! For example, I often see iron in a multivitamin product, where this is not recommended for the general population to take. It also comes in two great-tasting flavours making a tasty daily supplement drink!

These have been some of my top tips when it comes to preparing your body and mind for the Winter season, based on some of the most common questions I have been asked as a Pharmacist. I hope you can take some of these tips and tricks away with you, and look after you and your health this Winter.