Good Health During Winter

8 Tips how you can strengthen your immune system and prevent colds

In the course of their life, everyone suffers from colds 120 to 200 times. Given an average duration of five to six days, this makes two to three years of our lives that we are afflicted by sore throats and runny noses. However, you should remind yourself that with some caution and care you can reduce the risk significantly. 8 tips how you can boost your immune system and avoid traps for catching a cold.

The average person’s daily habits lack natural weather stimuli such as wind, cold or heat. Therefore you should not shy away from being active outside, even in unfriendly weather – of course always wearing suitable clothes. Additionally, “therapies” such as sauna or cold showers in the morning help to keep your body’s defences awake.

1. Warm and waterproof clothes are a must during outdoor activities.

2. Go out in the fresh air. It strengthens your immune system and can even help against a full-blown flu.

3. Mind the right temperature and humidity in rooms inside. In a living room or office, the temperature should be around 22 °C, in bedrooms around 18 °C. Heated air has a lower relative air humidity than colder air, which is why overheated rooms seem to be dryer. Here, air humidity can sink under 30%, ideally it should be 50%. Only then can the mucous membrane of the nose keep up its moisture which wards off viruses.

4. Relaxation and stress reduction: Regular meals, enough sleep, positive thinking and the avoidance of stress and burdens are important for the body’s own defences.

5. Regular visits to the sauna, kneipp treatments and cold showers in the morning (ending with cold stimulus) train the vessels and the cardiovascular system as well as the ability to adjust to high differences in temperature. Moreover, the body releases endorphins as a consequence to the heat stress that raise your mood.

6. Cardiovascular training at least two times a week for half an hour. Good are sports like walking, jogging or cross-country skiing, but also skiing is beneficial. In the cold winter air the body learns how to adjust his temperature.

7. Enough sleep. If you sleep too little you deprive your body of the possibility to regenerate properly.

8. It goes without saying that good nutrition is crucial for a strong immune system. Many minerals and much fibre, trace elements (selenium, zinc) and vitamins (A, B, C and E) should be eaten even more during the cold season.

Many of the factors that are important for a strong immune system are present in the Schlosshotel Bergschlössl. Exercise in the fresh winter air, relaxation in the cultivated wellness area, a stress-free atmosphere and healthy sleep in the comfy rooms – in the charming Schlosshotel right in the centre of St. Anton am Arlberg you experience a piece of luxury in the Austrian Alps.