Avoiding the flu, naturally

Your neighbors on both sides of your house are sick with the flu, as are the folks across the street. Ditto for a handful of your workmates. It may feel as though the latest round of influenza is closing in on you. But even under such daunting circumstances (some people are even going so far as to call this latest nationwide flu attack a “pandemic”), one can follow measures that have a reasonable chance of helping you avoid the flu bug by boosting your immune system. NaturalNews.com offers these helpful tips:

• Eat lots of fruits and veggies: Make sure that you eat a wide variety of vitamin- and mineral-packed fruits and vegetables. During flu season, increase your intake of vitamin C—such as naturally occurs in citrus fruits—for extra virus-fighting benefits.

• Eat garlic daily: Besides having a reputation as being good for warding off vampires, garlic is praised for its antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties. Eating two cloves of garlic per day is the recommended flu-season dose.

• Eat ’shrooms: Mushrooms (we’re not talking the psychedelic kind) are great for increasing the activity and production of white blood cells, which fight infection. Maitake and shiitake mushrooms are said to be the best for immune-system boosting.

• Exercise: Thirty to 60 minutes of daily exercise can give your immune system extra oomph. For instance, people who walked regularly for 12 weeks reported half the number of colds and sore throats as less-active folks, according to an Appalachian State University study.

Go to www.tinyurl.com/noflubug for more tips.