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As we come to the end of the summer season and school begins with a long awaited excitement of seeing friends again, sharing holiday news and other celebratory moments from the last six weeks, the weather also slowly begins to get colder as the sun changes its location in the sky, and the days become shorter.  This is the time when our immune system needs a little boosting to manage the change and avoid falling victim to often circulating colds and flu.

How can you boost your immune naturally to avoid or minimise the impact of the all too familiar seasonal bugs?  Immunity is compromised in many ways – poor eating and lifestyle habits, mental/emotional and or physical stress and over exposure to the elements through inappropriate dress for the weather.

Reported in the BBC news headlines this morning is the fact that antidepressant use, based on a doctor’s prescription is increasing dramatically in school children. The UK has seen the fastest rise in the prescribing of antidepressants and other mind-altering drugs to children, a new study of nine countries shows. In total, there were 950,000 prescriptions issued between April 2015 and March 2018.

Earlier this week, I received a call from a lady who was frantically trying to find a cure for her son’s hay fever (allergic rhinitis). His main symptoms were streaming eyes, sneezing, mucous, thick head and the inability to sleep well. Nothing from the chemist was touching it.  This call spurred me to share some ideas for treating hay fever naturally.

The familiar symptoms of hay fever are caused by the release of histamine and other inflammatory chemicals usually worse in hot weather.  Hay fever can be an atopic condition, meaning there is a hypersensitivity to developing a certain reaction to that stimulant, often occurring when immunity is lowered.

The dictionary defines stress as “a pressure or tension exerted on another object; a demand on physical or mental energy; or forcibly exerted influence usually causing distress or strain.”    In short stress is any factor, positive or negative that requires a response or change. Medical research recognises that chronic ongoing stress can lead to illness, aggravate existing disease conditions and accelerate aging.

Many diseases have a foundation of stress.  43% of adults suffer adverse health effects from stress.  75-90% of all doctor appointments are for stress-related ailments and complaints.