Polar Bear Medical Blog

During these cold winter months many of us tend to become stressed out and rightly so. Winter brings a great number of things that leave even the most cool-headed man feeling stressed out. There’s the lack of sunlight, and the drop in the temperature, but there’s also holiday shopping for family members and making New Year’s Plans. After all that there’s always that exercising and dieting you seem to find yourself needing after all the turkey and stuffing. Just talking about it gets me all stressed out. However don’t worry, there are things you can do.

1. Holy Basil Batman! - Stressed out? Maybe you should try some Holy Basil. Holy Basil is an herb that has long been used as a natural remedy for a variety of ailments. The popularity of the herb is most likely due to its anti-inflammatory effects, antioxidant properties, and its success in relieving stress.

2. Breathe – Yes, we all breathe every day, but doing some deep breathing is a great way to get rid of some of that tension. Take a quick 5 minute break during your day to just stop everything and just breathe.

3. Yoga – Doing yoga is a great way to blow off steam while getting some physical activity involved. Yoga can help you clear your mind and just make you forget about whatever is troubling you. And to all the guys who might think yoga is too “girly” just remember that many of the top male athletes are doing yoga now too, including MMA fighters, hockey players, football players, and basketball players.

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Well if you are like most people and you do not particularly enjoy being sick then continue reading. However, if you do enjoy being sick, then I would suggest some immediate psychiatric help. Anyway, for the normal person there are ways to better your chances at fighting off the flu.

1.The first step is to optimize your vitamin D levels. Vitamin D will help you fight off almost all infections and a lack of vitamin D is often the real cause behind the seasonality of the flu. Maintaining a good level of vitamin D all year will help you stay flu free.
2.Avoid sugar and processed foods. Although sugar is sweet and tasty, it doesn’t help very much with defending your body against the flu. It’s like that creepy guy your mom told you to stay away from because he drives around in an ice-cream truck that has no ice-cream in it. Though it is very hard not to have sugary foods, sugar actually decreases the function of your immune system almost as your drinking it. Obviously your immune system is important for fighting off the flu so try not to have too much.
3.Get enough rest. When your body is tired it is harder to fight the flu, it’s as simple as that.
4.Have effective tools to address stress. Stress is well, stressful. Stress is not good for your body and can lead to some serious medical problems. Also if you are too stressed out you are more susceptible to the flu and less capable of being able to fight it.
5.Exercise. When you exercise the circulation throughout the body increases. Therefore, the different parts of your immune system are also better circulated and that means there is a greater chance that you immune system can find and destroy an illness before it really spreads.
6.Wash your hands. Because there is bacteria basically everywhere, washing your hands quite frequently will help you prevent illness. And although most people think antibacterial soap is a good alternative to soap, it actually does much more harm than good. Don’t settle for antibacterial soap, get the real thing and make sure you wash for long enough.

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