Winter is just around the corner, and most of us will be spending more time indoors as the chilly weather starts to bite. The ‘snuggle season’ has its charms of course, with long cosy evenings and the pleasures of the festive season to look forward to. However, it can also be easier to catch a nasty cold or even a dose of the flu.
There are several ways you can minimise your risk of catching a cold or flu, including frequent handwashing with warm water and soap; avoiding close contact with someone who has a virus; and having a flu vaccine. It’s also important to take good care of your overall health and fitness to ensure that your immune system is strong.
How can you boost your immune system?
There are several ways you can boost your immune system, including taking regular exercise, getting enough sleep, eating a healthy balanced diet, and managing stress levels. One of the less well known factors in a healthy immune function is good hydration levels.
This is not just to ensure the body has enough fluids for optimal function, but also to maintain a good balance of electrolytes. These are essential minerals such as sodium, calcium, and potassium, they can become depleted if we lose a certain amount of bodily fluids through sweat or sickness. This is why athletes often use electrolyte tablets to support their health.
The role of hydration in our immune system
At the core of a well-functioning immune system is good blood circulation to supply fluids, oxygen, immune cells and nutrients to the body’s vital organs. When we are inadequately hydrated, blood volume is low and therefore the immune system is potentially weakened and our bodies are more vulnerable to infections.
When we are well hydrated, the mucus membranes in our respiratory tract are able to act as a barrier against viruses and bacteria. When the body is low on fluids, these membranes can become dry and less effective at filtering out pathogens. Therefore staying well hydrated can help to minimise our risk of catching winter viruses such as cold and flu.
How electrolytes support good hydration
If you’ve lost more than a regular amount of fluids, particularly after sweating during intense exercise, a vomiting or diarrhoea illness, or any other reason, drinking water alone will not help to replenish diminished electrolyte levels.
Electrolytes help to regulate fluid balance by maintaining the optimum concentration of water inside and outside the cells, ensuring that fluids and nutrients are transported properly around the body and reach the vital organs. This means we can recover from dehydration much faster, because the body is able to absorb water more efficiently.
How to manage hydration to support good immune function
For regular activity levels and your usual state of health, it’s probably enough to follow the usual advice of drinking six to eight glasses of water per day to stay hydrated. Avoid overdoing caffeine and alcohol, because these have a diuretic effect. If you are drinking on a night out, alternate alcoholic drinks with water to avoid dehydration (and a hangover).
Listen to your body: obviously, if you are thirsty, then this is a sign of dehydration. Other signs include tiredness, dark coloured urine, chapped lips and tight dry skin, feeling faint, muscle cramps, and a headache.
If you are busy or just tend to neglect your hydration, set reminders or use an app to prompt you to drink at regular intervals, and keep a bottle of water with you at all times. If you find plain water uninteresting and this affects your motivation to drink, try squeezing some fresh fruit juice into it for extra flavour.
Invest in a good quality insulated water bottle so you can keep water cool throughout the day wherever you are, making it more appealing and refreshing to drink.
If you’ve done intense exercise or been unwell, you may benefit from topping up with an electrolyte tablet, which can be quickly dissolved in water and ready to drink within a minute.
