Can Stress Make Your Flu Symptoms Worse
Influenza can hit you like a freight train, with aches, fever, chills, headaches, fatigue, digestive, and respiratory symptoms. While stress does not cause the flu, it can put you at a higher risk for contracting the influenza virus, and it may also make your symptoms worse. How does stress factor in, and what can you do to lessen its effects? Here is what you should know about managing stress, from taking Brillia Health supplements to improving wellness, for a boost in your overall health.
A Word About Your Immune System
Organs, tissues, and cells unite to make up this disease-fighting superpower within your body. Multiple medical research studies have demonstrated that stress can weaken your immune response, which leaves you vulnerable to chronic health problems as well as acute infections like the flu. It makes sense that controlling your stress through lifestyle changes, therapy, and prescription or homeopathic anti anxiety meds may bolster your body’s response to illness.
What Stress Can Do
Stress stems from an innate response to address potential physical threats, that fight-or-flight response responsible for a rush of adrenaline. In today’s world, people do not have to outrun a predator, but the body still reacts in similar ways to other concerns or big changes, which can include grief, financial worries, and even joyous events like a baby or a new home. Without a break in that stress response, it can take its toll on your body, leading to heart disease, digestive issues, anxiety, depression, and yes, a weaker immune system. When the flu virus gets past your body’s line of defense, it may not be able to stop the symptoms from making you feel lousy for longer than if you were in optimal health.
Tips for Relieving Symptoms
Some flu symptoms may not seem out of the ordinary, especially headaches, fatigue, and sleep problems, while others, such as fever, chills, and congestion, are clear signs of an illness. How do you address your stress to protect you from the flu? Better self-care is the answer, so try some if not all these suggestions:
- Eat a healthy diet of whole foods, especially vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, and whole grains
- Make moderate exercise part of your daily routine
- Get enough sleep to give your body a chance to heal
- Limit alcohol consumption
- Stop smoking
- Try meditation or other relaxation techniques
- Seek counseling to address the root of your stress
- Manage anxiety through therapy and/or medication
You may have noticed these tips are not flu-specific, but rather, they are meant to address the stress that leads to a greater risk of flu infection. You should also wash your hands often and receive a flu vaccine annually if you are able to, as this preventative may also boost your immunity to prevalent seasonal flu strains.
A Good Backup Plan
It does not hurt to have supplies on hand as the flu season begins, just in case. Over-the-counter treatments such as pain relievers and homeopathic cold/flu prevention medicine are smart to stock up on, especially if demand is high during winter. The bottom line is that the better you take care of yourself and manage your stress, the better your body can also take care of you when the flu comes around.
