Wintery Conditions
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/ Categories: WELLNESS, 2022

Wintery Conditions

Winter weather dries out the air. It makes it easier for contagious respiratory illnesses—like COVID, the flu, and RSV—to travel between people. It also affects our skin and lips. Here’s a quick run down of some things you can do to fight back against both the serious and more minor conditions that affect us this time of year. 

Get vaccinated. I know. We say this all the time. Because it’s true. Vaccines keep serious illnesses from becoming serious. When you get vaccinated you spare yourself weeks of illness, and you decrease your odds of spreading a potentially deadly disease to someone more vulnerable.

Wash your hands. Wash your hands with warm water and plenty of soap for 20 seconds frequently throughout the day, especially before and after eating or preparing food; after using the toilet, changing a diaper, or helping a child with using the toilet; and after blowing your nose or catching a cough or sneeze. See a complete list of handwashing moments at cdc.gov/handwashing.

Wear gloves. Wearing warm outdoor gloves in cold weather protects skin from extreme cold and wind and the drying that comes with it. Wearing rubber or latex gloves for water-related chores, like doing dishes and heavy cleaning, prevents the water and chemicals from stripping important skin-protecting oils from your skin. 

Eat a healthy diet. Nutritious food is an important part of maintaining our immune system and the moisture in our skin and lips. A variety of proteins, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables will provide vitamins A, C, D, and E; zinc; and selenium, all of which help to keep skin and the rest of your body healthy.

Moisturize your hands and lips regularly. After bathing and before bed are good moments to apply moisturizer and lip balm. Target the hands, lower legs, elbows, and lower arms, which get particularly dry, especially as we age. Lotion can keep skin from drying and cracking. Cracked skin can become itchy, stinging, and inflamed and is more vulnerable to infection.

If skin is already in need of healing, moisturize with an ointment. Then, put on a pair of cotton gloves overnight. Dry patches that persist could be a sign of a more serious condition. Consult with your doctor.

With these steps, we can keep our skin and lungs safe from conditions that afflict us when the temperature drops.

Dagmar Tobits, MD, is a primary care and family medicine physician at SVMC Deerfield Valley Campus in Wilmington, VT. The practice is part of Southwestern Vermont Medical Center and Southwestern Vermont Health Care in Bennington. 

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How to Maintain a Healthy Immune System

There are so many things that we have little control over. We can't control what genes we get, how old we are, or what viruses are circulating in our environment, but there is a lot we can do to prevent illness. Remarkably, many of the same habits that protect you from diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease also help your immune system fight infections.

Most viruses can't hurt you until they get inside your body. So, we can help our immune system if we avoid viruses and cut off the ways they travel. Viruses can spread through the air, but not usually for very far. Keep your distance—at least 6 feet—from others, and be a good neighbor by wearing a mask in all public areas.

Viruses that cause the most common illnesses—respiratory infections, including the common cold, flu, and the new COVID-19—travel into the body through your mouth, nose, and eyes and make their way to the areas they infect, like the lungs. The best way to break this chain is to clean your hands frequently, and don't touch your face with hands that have touched anything else. In addition, you can reduce the number of viruses in your environment by cleaning frequently touched objects with a bleach- or alcohol-based cleaner.

Vaccinations are your next line of defense. Immunizations, like the flu shot, introduce a small and harmless part of a virus or bacteria. The vaccine gives your immune system an opportunity to make antibodies against the virus. A vaccinated immune system responds more quickly and effectively when illnesses are introduced. What's more, when we all get vaccinated, we decrease the likelihood that anyone will get sick. If you are unsure about whether you or your children are up to date on their vaccinations, call your primary care provider’s office.

Your third line of defense is living a healthy lifestyle. It is clear that the same things that help the rest of our bodies function also improve the strength of our immune response. Likewise, things that hinder our bodies' ability to function compromise the immune system.

Regular exercise might be the most powerful way to maintain a healthy immune system. By increasing heart rate and blood flow, we allow the cells and substances of the immune system to move through the body freely and do their job efficiently. Similarly, things that slow the movement of cells and substances, like smoking or drinking alcohol in excess, may decrease the body’s ability to function and decreases the immune response, as well.

Getting adequate sleep may also positively affect the immune response. Chronic sleep deprivation has been shown to decrease the beneficial boost in immunity from vaccinations.

Our emotional state, too—whether we are stressed, lonely, or depressed, for instance—affects our immune response so much that a relatively new specialty called psychoneuroimmunology now studies the connection. One pioneering study, conducted in the early 1980s, found that college students operating within a stressful 3-day exam period had fewer of the cells that fight tumors and viral infections. In simple terms, the students almost stopped producing immunity boosters and infection fighters.

Finally, physicians have concluded that eating a mostly plant-based diet—including fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, whole grains, and lean protein—supports overall health and may also support immunity. Nutritious foods include important vitamins that the immune system needs to function, such as beta carotene, vitamin C, vitamin D, and zinc. Note, however, that supplements that claim to improve immune function have not yet been shown to do so to the extent necessary to protect against infection and disease. It is better to eat whole foods that are rich in vitamins rather than take supplements.

Always consult with your provider before making changes to your exercise plan or trying a new supplement and if you have any medical concerns. Physicians and the other professionals working in their offices also provide help for developing a plan for a healthier life. Call your primary care office or 802-447-5007 to find a primary care provider.

Healthy habits, like those that protect your body from disease and infection, are not always easy to adopt or maintain. Perhaps knowing just how important they are to maintaining a healthy immune response will provide the extra motivation necessary to make them a priority.

Kim Fodor, MD, is an internal medicine physician at SVMC Internal Medicine.

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