Hey everyone, my name is Michelle Latinsky and I’m a Registered Dietitian with Jamison Vitamins. Thank you for joining us for today’s Facebook Live which is going to be all about cold and flu season. I’m going to share with you some cold and flu facts and then I’m going to walk you through my four tips to stay healthy this cold and flu season. We’ll also talk myths and facts so you know the truth about how to stay healthy. Please remember to like, comment and ask lots of questions throughout our live event. I’d also like to take a minute to introduce you to our Community Manager, Jo, who’s going to be your voice throughout this event. So please send your questions through to her and she’ll certainly pass over as many of them as she can to me. Those who tuned in will be entered to win one of two hundred dollar gift cards, so stick around with us right through until the end. Okay, let’s start off by discussing some cold and flu facts. First off, health officials are actually predicting a pretty bad flu season ahead of us this year. The thing about the flu strain is, it actually evolves and so there’s a different one circulating each year, and so whenever the vaccine is made, it has to be created in order to match the flu strains that are circulating this particular year. And, the strain that’s expected to circulate this year actually hit Australia pretty hard over the last few months, and that can be a pretty good predictor of what we’re going to see here up in the Northern Hemisphere. The flu vaccine is not perfect but on average it can actually cut your risk of the flu in about half so talk to your doctor to see if the flu vaccine is right for you. Okay, let’s talk about the differences between a cold and a flu. Colds are actually quite common and most adults get about two to five of them a year, so if you feel like you’re constantly sick in the winter season, it’s probably might be a cold. Typically you start off with a sore throat, usually that will last one or two days and then the nasal symptoms follow, so this is when you get the stuffy or the runny nose, congestion and also a little bit of a cough, and it usually lasts about one week. The flu itself is less common, but when it comes on, it’s quite severe and it does develop quite quickly. And, it’s characterized typically by fever and also those full body muscle aches so if you have the flu this is really when it’s gonna be hard to get out of bed and you’ve got to get a lot of rest. The common cold is actually caused by more than 200 different viruses, whereas the flu virus is linked to fewer strains. So while you can reduce your risk of the flu by getting a vaccine because they’re able to create one based on the flu strains that are circulating, it’s not possible to prevent a cold with a vaccine because there’s so many different viruses that are out there circulating. Antibiotics can also not to be used to fight a cold or flu virus and it’s because they’re designed to treat only bacterial infections. That’s why it’s really important for you to keep your immune system healthy and strong all throughout the fall and winter season in order to reduce your risk of developing a viral infection. There’s a lot of things you can do and I’m gonna run through all these tips today to help you stay healthy and strong all throughout cold and flu season. And also if you do get sick, there’s lots of things you can do to reduce the severity and duration of your symptoms. For those of you who are just joining us live now, please remember to send through your questions and comments throughout our live event for your chance to win one of two hundred dollar gift cards. We also have our Community Manager, Jo here with us today who’s gonna be sending through your questions through to me. So, Michelle why don’t we take a question? -Sure. -Denise Dion from Windsor, would like to know what is the recommended amount of vitamin C she should be taking during cold and flu this season. -Okay, so vitamin C is a you know, of course a wonderful vitamin and that can help to reduce not only the severity, but also the duration of your cold and flu symptoms. So typically for maintenance, I recommend that people get about 500 mg daily but during cold and flu season you can take up it to a 1,000 mg a day, and if once you actually feel the symptoms, you know really hitting you harder, you can even go up to 2,000 mg a day. Ideally, you want to spread your dose, if you’re taking a supplement take no more than 500 mg at a time, and spread it throughout the day so that your body is able to absorb the nutrients. Great question, thank you. Okay, so now let’s get started on my top four tips to help you stay healthy this cold and flu season. My first tip is to practice good hygiene and good hygiene starts off with hand-washing. I know it’s not the most, you know, exciting thing to talk about, but it’s really so important to keep your hands as clean as possible to prevent transferring cold and flu viruses. So what you want to do is, wash your hands with soap for a good 20 seconds you want to lather up for a good 20 seconds and then rinse with warm water. It’s really really important to do this throughout the day. I happen to have two little kids at home who are constantly bringing germs home, so if any of you have little kids and you know it can be difficult to get them to wash their hands, there’s a couple things you can do to make it a little bit more exciting for them. I try and buy those colored soaps or the fruity scented hand soaps so they get really excited about using it and then in order to get them to continue lathering, washing their hands for a good 20 seconds before rinsing sometimes I get them to just sing a song, something like ‘Happy Birthday’ for example, for 20 seconds and then they know it’s time to rinse. -So it’s someone’s birthday every day at your house? – Yeah, welcome to mom life. When your kids get home whether it’s from daycare, school, you want to make sure they wash their hands before they do anything else and same thing with yourself. If you get home from work or the mall or taking public transit, wash your hands right away. If you don’t have access to a sink, soap and warm water, you can also use an antibacterial hand sanitizer. Certainly, it doesn’t replace good hand washing but works great in a pinch. If you have to cough or sneeze, ideally you want to use a tissue and if that doesn’t work, you can do what I call the ‘sleeve sneeze’ which literally looks like this any sneeze right into the crook of your arm rather than doing it in your hands because that’s the first way you’re going to transfer germs to other people. I know it’s a bit of a tongue twister ‘sleeve sneeze’ you can try saying that one three times! But it does work and again you want to avoid rubbing your eyes your mouth or your nose with with your hands because certainly if there are any germs on them that’s the first way that they’re going to get into the body, and you know promote illness or infection. So, let’s do a little bit of myth-busting here before we move on Jo let’s say you’re out at the mall doing some holiday shopping and you need to wash your hands, do you use the air dryer in the bathroom or the disposable paper towel? -Well I try and be environmentally cautious so I would err on the side of an air dryer. -Okay that’s what a lot of people think, so first off, it’s important to note that bacteria can be spread a lot more easily from wet hands than dry hands so in addition to really washing your hands well, you also want to make sure to dry them very well. I know that air drying is a lot more environmentally friendly option but the truth is using disposable paper towels are superior to using the air dryers. First off, they dry your hands a lot more thoroughly and secondly they remove bacteria more efficiently from your hands. Air dryers can actually spread the germs around -Oh, I wouldn’t have thought. Well, Joy Mulder wants to know if you can use too much hand sanitizer? The thing about hand sanitizer, so some bacteria is actually good for us okay so you don’t want to be using it constantly throughout the day as I mentioned.
Ideally, you want to wash your hands with soap and warm water whenever possible. But, you can certainly carry an antibacterial hand sanitizer with you on the go you know but use it in moderation like everything else. Some bacteria is is good for us which we’ll talk about a little bit later on our Facebook live today. Great, okay so let’s move on to my second tip for staying healthy and strong this cold and flu season, and that tip is to get plenty of sleep and also to manage your stress. Getting sleep is really important to prevent a cold and flu because it gives your body a chance to rest and recover and also helps to keep your immune system feeling strong. The first thing you want to do is establish a bedtime routine, okay so bedtime routines are not just for children, they’re great for adults, too, and you want to do things like going to bed at the same time, ideally every night and also waking up at the same time every day including weekends, you know certainly everyone’s entitled to a little bit of a sleep-in on the weekend but you don’t want to disrupt your routine too much from during the week. Aim for seven to nine hours of sleep every night and the other thing you can do is skip the screens before bedtime so you know your cell phones or your tablets, because the blue light that they emit can actually disrupt your sleep. So try and put them aside 30 to 60 minutes before you go to bed the other thing is if you want to use a little bit of a special treat, you can use essential oils so something like lavender is a really calming and relaxing scent that’s great to use at bedtime. You can either put it in a diffuser or you can take a little you know spritzer bottle just like this fill it with water and a few drops of lavender essential oil and I like to spritz it on my pillow or even just a little bit in the air.
It’s relaxing if you do have time for a nice warm bath before bed you can also use something like a scented candle and then again that the scent will help calm and relax you before bed. If you’re struggling to get that seven to nine hours of sleep each and every night, I know it can be a challenge on a regular basis, this is where a melatonin supplements can be a really good option. So melatonin is a supplement that actually helps to reset your sleep-wake cycle and also allows your body to get into that deeper sleep, and that deep sleep is really needed to restore and help heal your body which is especially important when you’re feeling sick. If you do need a little bit of extra energy during the day, a vitamin B12 supplement is also great. So, you use the melatonin in the evening and B12 in the morning for a little bit more energy during the day. Okay, so we’ve talked about getting plenty of sleep the other part of this tip is to manage your stress. Stress can be both mentally and physically draining and it also depletes essential nutrients like the B vitamins, which can compromise your immune system and actually make you more prone to getting cold or flu. For example, to minimize the effects of stress again, you want to really aim for that seven to nine hours of sleep each and every night, get some exercise and also find a way to deal with any frustrations or stress that you’re feeling. And there’s a lot of different things you can do you know, different things work for different people so again it may be writing in a journal, it may be doing some meditation, it might be reading a book talking with a friend, even stepping outside and getting a little bit of fresh air and sunshine during the colder months, can really do wonders to help elevate your mood and and really lower your stress levels, which is important to prevent you from getting sick. So, I’ve heard you can sweat out a cold is that true? -So, a lot of people think that the truth is while exercise is great for helping to boost your immune system, it’s actually at its lowest after a really intense workout so certainly you want to get regular, moderate exercise to keep your immune system strong, but you don’t want to do any intense exercise because that can actually increase your risk of getting sick. The reason is that many parts of your immune system actually change after you do a really intense workout and that effect can last anywhere from a few hours up to a few days during that time when your immune system is down or compromised, that’s exactly the time that a virus is gonna basically attack and cause you to get sick so, again exercise of course is really important in the long term but you want to hold off on any tough workouts if you feel a cold coming on. And, a great way to think about this is whether the symptoms are above the neck or below. If you’ve got symptoms above the neck, so again the stuffy nose feeling a little bit congested or you have a bit of a cough, you can do some gentle exercise, but if you’ve got any symptoms below the neck, and I’m talking things like the you know, fever or the real full-body muscle aches which might indicate the flu, really hold off, rest and allow your body that opportunity that it needs to recover. If exercise is an absolute must for you, I know it’s difficult for a lot of people to not do anything, then you want to incorporate the more gentle exercises, so things like yoga during this time again just to allow your body that chance to rest and recover. Okay, for those of you that are just tuning in right now, please remember to keep sending us in your questions and your comments throughout the live event there’ll be two winners drawn at the end for each one of you will win $100 gift card. And, we’ve got our amazing Community Manager, Jo, here today. She’s your voice during this live event and she’s going to be passing through a lot of your questions Jo, should we take one now? -Sure. Carol Dube wants to know if she takes a vitamin b-complex for more energy, will she get enough B12? -So, it all depends on the potency of the the B complex vitamin because there are different potencies, so if she’s taking a lower one she can certainly look at adding something like a B 50 complex, she may want to add a little bit more B12 or B 100 but again, the B vitamins are water-soluble so you can definitely go a little bit higher because your body once it’s absorbed and use the vitamins up you know it needs more, it’s not something that you hang on to. So for anyone out there, I always recommend just talking to your health care professional or your doctor to see about the exact potency that’s right for you, but certainly there are cases where you could use both together. Okay, let’s move on to my third tip for staying strong this cold and flu season. My third tip is to eat the right foods and eating the right foods also includes staying hydrated which brings me to my first point. You want to stay hydrated because when you’re not getting enough fluids or enough water into your system, that’s the time when viruses can enter and cause illness so you definitely want to keep hydrated by drinking eight to twelve cups of water a day. I find it easiest just to keep a bottle of water on my desk fill it up and then I only have to fill it a couple times throughout the day and that way I know I’m getting the eight to twelve cups of water that I need daily. Tea and soups are also really great so those hot fluids can alleviate any sort of nasal congestion when you’re feeling a little bit stuffy and if your mom or your grandmother ever told you to eat chicken soup when you were growing up they were actually right so in addition to that you know, the steam you get from soup which helps to alleviate nasal congestion, there’s actually a specific compound found in chicken soup that also helps to alleviate any of that nasal congestion. So, you’re getting that one-two punch not only from the hot soup but also specifically from having chicken soup, so certainly go ahead and have a hot bowl of chicken soup if you’re not feeling great.
A healthy diet overall is one of your best bets for staying healthy during cold and flu season and I’m going to walk you through a few of my favorite foods to eat during this time of year. So, the first one is yogurt. Yogurt is a really good source of healthy bacteria called probiotics which are not only great for keeping our digestive system healthy but also our immune system. And the reason for that is, that a large portion of our immune system actually lies right within our digestive tract. Yogurt, certainly a healthy option, the challenge with it is it doesn’t necessarily contain the high levels or the therapeutic levels of probiotics that you need in order to keep your immune system strong, and this is where a probiotic supplement comes in which can be taken daily to help replenish a lot of that good bacteria that keeps your digestive and your immune system healthy. Probiotics are also a really great option if you are taking an antibiotic, so if you if your doctor does prescribe an antibiotic for a bacterial infection, one of the ways in which antibiotics work is not only depleting that bad bacteria that’s grown and cause an infection but it also depletes the good bacteria or those probiotics, so again, you want to take a probiotic supplement to keep your immune system strong. Secondly, oatmeal is another one of my really, a great food I like to rely on during cold and flu season. So, I’ve got this great recipe for these breakfast oatmeal jars. Today, I’ve got apple cinnamon here, but there’s lots of different flavors you can make and you can find the recipe over on our website at jamiesonvitamins.com/staystrong. The reason I like oatmeal is it’s a great source of B vitamins, fibre and also other nutrients that keep your immune system strong. So, this is a really quick and easy breakfast, great for the whole family. I love it, my kids love it, and it’s a nice alternative to overnight oats so you don’t necessarily have to you know, you can make several of them at once and they don’t have to be stored in the fridge and then the morning of when you’re ready to eat it for breakfast you just add some boiling hot water and let it sit about 10 minutes and it’s a nice hearty breakfast especially during the cold fall and winter months. Okay, also your deep orange fruits and your dark green leafy vegetables are wonderful for keeping your immune system strong, they are packed with nutrients such as beta-carotene and also vitamin C which are really important for keeping your immune system healthy. You can use fresh or frozen produce, so a lot of times people will ask me you know, they don’t feel good about using frozen, is it as healthy as fresh, but absolutely in the winter months when there’s not an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables available, certainly frozen is a great option and it can easily be incorporated into things like soups and stews pasta and stir-fry. I’ve got a butternut squash soup here I love to make, that recipe is also found on our website and it uses just a few simple ingredients and again soup is really great, this is packed with immune immune-boosting beta-carotene so it’s a wonderful option that the whole family can enjoy. We’ve talked a little bit, so in addition to beta-carotene, there’s also some vitamin C and we touched earlier on vitamin C and the importance of taking a vitamin C supplement during cold and flu season and again vitamin C is really great because it helps to reduce not only the duration but also the severity of your symptoms. If you are feeling sick, stir-fry is another great option I like to make for dinner, so in addition of being packed with all those colorful veggies that are great for your immune system I also like to prepare them with ingredients like onions, garlic, ginger and mushrooms, which not only add a lot of flavor to the dish but help to boost your immune system. As well they have their own immune-boosting properties and then finally another really important nutrient for cold and flu season is vitamin D. Vitamin D again is important for naturally boosting our immune system and most people think of it as the sunshine vitamin because we can naturally produce it when we’re outside and exposed to sunlight. The challenge is during the dark winter months so that’s from about October to March, there’s not enough sunlight here in Canada for us to produce the the vitamin D that we need and even though a lot of people think they get enough vitamin D during the summer months if you happen to wear sunscreen, which is certainly important for skin cancer prevention, that sunscreen will block the UV rays that we need from the Sun in order to produce vitamin D which is where a supplement can come in. In the diet, you can find vitamin D in fish mushrooms and also milk, so all of our milk in Canada is fortified with vitamin D, about a 100 IU per cup. However, the recommendation is that we get a thousand IU of vitamin D daily, so you’d have to drink ten cups of milk every single day in order to get all the vitamin D that you need. Not something I necessarily recommend and that’s certainly where something like a vitamin D supplement comes in. Really, really important for keeping your immune system healthy throughout the winter season. -So, Michelle, my family lives by the staying ‘starve a cold, feed a fever’ is that the right way to go about things? -A lot of people think that. The truth is, it’s just really important for you to eat when you’re sick, whether it’s water, juice, those hot liquids or food, all of that is going to help your body fight off a cold or flu infection by keeping your body hydrated and nourished. Now, I understand when you’re feeling sick a lot of times people just don’t have an appetite so you don’t want to overdo it. But, certainly don’t withhold food thinking that it’s going to make things worse. The reality is, the saying should be ‘feed a cold and feed a fever’ because you always want to keep your body hydrated. Drink more than you think you need you know when you’re feeling sick and also replenish the nutrients that you need through food and then of course supplements can fill the gap as well. If you’re not leading, why don’t we turn it over to you if there’s a couple more questions. Sure, Susan would like to know if you can take melatonin on an evening basis? -Right, so melatonin over here again, really helps to set your whole sleep-wake cycle and allows you to get into a deeper sleep so you want to take a melatonin supplement in the evening. I recommend it about 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime so it’s not something that you’re going to take and it’s going to cause you to fall asleep right away, it just helps to promote you know, that healthier sleep and get you into that deep sleep you need but I certainly wouldn’t take it during the day. I would take it in the evening before that time. Another question? Sure, let’s see here. Lindsey O’Hare from Toronto would like to know if children should be taking supplements or vitamins or if they should stick to children’s multivitamins. -Okay, so for kids again, I have two young kids as well so it’s always a question of you know, should they take supplements or should they get it through food? Anytime we’re talking about children, I always recommend talking to their pediatrician or doctor to see what supplements are right for them. But you can certainly talk to your child’s doctor about taking a multivitamin particularly early if they’re a picky eater and may not be getting all the nutrients they need through the diet alone. I give my kids a probiotic supplement daily especially with them going to school and picking up germs, I find it really helps to keep their immune systems a lot stronger, so I give them a chewable one because they’re quite little and I also give my kids vitamin D again because just like adults unless you’re drinking several cups of milk daily, even though they have milk, they don’t have enough to get it through the diet so those are sort of the three supplements I like to look at for children. But again, I always recommend in addition to trying to eat a healthy diet, to talk to their doctor about supplements and then of course all the other tips we talked about for kids.
So practicing good hygiene, getting lots of sleep is important for kids too. Okay, Now we’ll move on to my fourth tip for staying healthy and strong this cold and flu season, which is to incorporate natural supplements. So, if you have practiced good hygiene, you’ve gotten plenty of sleep, and you’ve managed your stress levels, you’ve eaten the right foods and you still feel the symptoms of a cold or flu coming on, you don’t have to worry, there is still hope. Just in time for cold and flu season, Jamieson is really excited to introduce a new product called Cold Fighter. Cold Fighter is the perfect solution for when you first start to feel those signs of a cold coming on, so again it’s you wake up and you’ve got that sore scratchy throat, dry throat, a little bit of a stuffy nose because you want to do everything you can to stop a cold in its tracks before it gets worse. Again, as a mom with two little kids, I you know they’re constantly bringing germs home and I find I’m really susceptible to getting sick so this has been the perfect solution for me. Cold Fighter contains four natural ingredients, so there’s echinacea, ginger vitamin C and zinc, all of which work together to fight those first signs of cold and flu symptoms. So, echinacea is a natural herb that really helps to boost your immune system. Ginger, a lot of us think about for you know helping to soothe an upset stomach but it’s also known to help reduce cough and congestion. And, zinc and vitamin C are also really important for keeping your immune system strong. Cold Fighter comes in two formats so you can either take one chewable or one softgel daily and again it’s the perfect addition to your the routine that you’re already following for cold and flu seasons helps stop a cold in its tracks when those first signs keep coming on. Okay, so those are my four tips for staying healthy this cold and flu season. Jo, are there any last questions we want to cover before we wrap up? Sure, Sarah wants to know if oil of oregano is a good supplement to add to our regiment? So, oil of oregano is great again if you’ve got symptoms of a sore throat it’s got antibacterial, antiviral as well as antioxidant properties, so definitely a wonderful addition, particularly if you’ve got a sore throat. Anything else? Ya, are there any vitamins or supplements to take if you already have a cold to speed up the duration of a cold or must it run its course? -Again, this is where a lot of you know we can certainly talk about prevention or dealing with a cold once it’s already come on because sometimes even when you do all the right things that still comes on. Vitamin C is great for helping to reduce the severity and duration of your symptoms so again rather than fighting a common cold which typically lasts about a week, if you don’t do anything to treat it, vitamin C may shorten it by a couple days and then again my new favorite Cold Fighter, which I find really really helps when I’ve got those first when you wake up that first morning where you’ve got a sore throat coming on cold fighter is an excellent addition to your routine to help stop a cold in its tracks. Want to take a couple more? Sure, let me just have a look. They’re moving so fast thank you so much for all of your comments! Let me just get to the top here. So Amy Elliot would like to know should she use a multivitamin or a mix? So it looks like she’s looking for, should she use all of these or is a multivitamin a good solution? -Okay, so a multivitamin is a great foundation to help fill the gaps in the diet so if you’re not eating a perfectly healthy diet on a daily basis, a multivitamin is you know certainly an essential product you want to take as a good foundation to make sure that you’re getting all of the essential nutrients you need on a daily basis. These products that we’ve talked about so something like B12, vitamin C, vitamin D, you could take in addition to the multivitamin not just to necessarily address any gaps in your diet but specifically to address symptoms of a cold or flu. Sounds good, thank you so much for tuning in today and to all of my tips for staying healthy this cold and flu season. So again, it’s practicing good hygiene getting plenty of sleep, managing your stress levels, eating the right foods and also taking natural supplements. I hope you’ve picked up some tips and tricks that are gonna help you stay healthy this cold and flu season and help your family stay healthy as well don’t forget if you want to break down of any of my top tips and recipes from today’s livestream they’re all available on the Jamieson website at jamiesonvitamins.com/staystrong.
Jo, do we have time for a couple more questions before we close off today? Let’s have a look here. What is the dosage for vitamin D? So it looks like Lindsay would like to know since it’s dark and cold in the winter time, what’s the best amount she should be taking? -So, ideally you want to get a thousand international units of vitamin D daily and again that’s because it’s really difficult to get all the vitamin D you need through diet alone, so again with milk having only a hundred international units of vitamin D per cup you’d have to drink ten cups of milk every day in order to get that you know the minimum amount of vitamin D that you need and there’s you know or certainly be eating fish all the time or lots and lots of mushrooms so it’s a supplement is definitely the way to go. You can talk to your doctor about taking more, some people like to take two thousand international units in the darker winter months but definitely talk to your doctor about the amount that’s right for you. So, let’s take one more before we close off today. -Kathleen Ozland from Toronto would like to know is it possible to cure the flu? So, you can certainly get the flu vaccine in order to reduce your risk of getting the flu however as I mentioned the vaccine is not perfect, so each year there’s a new vaccine that’s put together with the different strains that are expected to be circulating that year but again it’s never perfect because we don’t know exactly what’s going to turn up here so getting the flu vaccine will reduce your risk of getting it by about 50% but certainly there are other preventative measures you can take in order to reduce your chances of getting it but once you do again all of these things can help speed up the duration and severity of the symptoms but not necessarily make it go away completely Okay, so thank you to everyone who sent through your questions and comments today you know I had a great time talking about all these amazing tips to help you stay healthy this cold and flu season and I hope you picked up some tips and tricks for yourself, Our Facebook team is going to be randomly selecting two winners today to win one of two hundred dollar Visa gift cards for anyone who said through comments and questions during our livestream today so please keep an eye out on our Facebook page the winners will be announced soon If you missed any of the information that was shared here today or you tuned in a little bit late, the full video will be available after our live stream on our Facebook page so you can go check it out there right after this. If you want any more information please visit the Health Hub over on our website atjamiesonvitamins.com, you can also sign up for our Club Health newsletter for more tips more recipes and exclusive savings for members. Thank you so much for joining us stay healthy and have a great day.
Nature’s Way Sambucus Black Elderberry Gummies with Vitamin C and Zinc, 60 Gummies
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