As the weather gets colder, it’s common to see an increase in flu and colds, but there are several factors at play beyond just the drop in temperature. A lack of sunlight, poor dietary habits, and increased consumption of alcohol and processed foods all contribute to weakened immune systems. To stay healthy, it’s essential to maintain Vitamin D3 levels, even during the winter, and to be mindful of what you eat and drink. Adding supplements like methylated B vitamins, Vitamin E, and CoQ10 can further support the body’s defense against seasonal sickness.

In addition to proper nutrition, hydration is crucial, especially in colder months when dehydration can sneak up on you faster. Drinking plenty of water helps flush out toxins, while maintaining a balance of electrolytes like magnesium and potassium ensures your body functions optimally. Probiotics from natural sources such as raw milk and fermented foods also play an important role in keeping your gut and overall health in check. Small adjustments in diet, movement, and hydration can go a long way in staying healthy throughout the colder seasons.

Highlights of the Podcast

00:04 – Introduction to Cold Weather and Sickness

00:45 – Importance of Sunlight and Vitamin D

01:45 – Impact of Sugar, Alcohol, and Processed Foods

02:45 – Supplements for Immunity

04:40 – The Misunderstanding About Fats and Cholesterol

06:40 – Probiotics and Fermented Foods

08:49 – The Importance of Hydration

11:10 – Electrolytes and Water Retention

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:04] It’s starting to get cold. This is our. This might actually be fall for us in Texas. Usually we have a false fall where it’s nice and cool and then gets hot again and then gets really cold. I will say, here’s the thing. When it starts to get cold, everybody starts worrying about flus and colds. It’s flu and cold season and all that fun jazz. The reason people get sick. There’s a couple of reasons. There isn’t ever really a reason with the body. It’s always multifactorial, so keep that in mind. But a couple of the reasons people start to get sick when there’s less sunlight and sunlight really does affect you from a health standpoint in a lot of different ways. So factor that in. You don’t really the problem is you’re like, you need more D3 when it’s when it’s dark out. Not really. I mean, how many times are you guys out in the sun in a bathing suit all day long? Almost never. So you’re going to need the same amount of D-3 that you needed in the summer. But when you looked outside, the sun was out, but you didn’t go outside. So, you know, like I said, 5000. I used 400 pounds of body weight, you know, like I’m to 15, I take 15,000.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:14] I use a day, 5000 breakfast, lunch and dinner. Make sure you’re taking the K two with it. The one I take is the one on the plus one to store the D3 K2. It’s good stuff. The other big issue is that we start eating and drinking a lot more. So drinking alcohol. So you’re eating a lot more sugar, a lot more processed trash drinking, a lot more alcohol. And that’s going to create the the biggest reason why people get sick this time of year more than anything else. You know, it’s always funny because like the Halloween parties and Halloween candy and, you know, we’re all drinking and we’re all hanging out, we’re all doing all this fun things. And, you know, November rolls around or have more wine and all the fun stuff, all the hot toddies and all the fun stuff. And it’s awesome. It’s good times, right? You know, we’re drinking lots more beer and stuff like that. We’re watching football and all that type of stuff, and then we start getting sick. I wonder why the more toxins we bring in the cigaret we get.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:02:14] So if you’re trying to stay from getting the flu, don’t get a flu vaccine. Get less trash in you know, make sure your supplements are up. Your methyl on a B, vitamins are up. If you want to if you are so. A lot of people are talking about methylated folic acid. So we’re talking about, you know, the MBti of H r stuff. And yeah, you definitely want to take a methylated folic acid because the other folic acid are usually trash. But all the all the B vitamins need to be methylated like when you’re taking your B’s fully methylated complex B’s is the way to go. So when I take is one of the pillars of this website, the superior B and it’s pretty. Strout Like, I’ll take one of those twice a day and I’m going to go breakfast, lunch. So keep your method B’s up. The reason you keep your method of B’s up is because a lot of the liver function, the thing that cleans the blood, cleans the lamp and keeps you healthy, runs on methylated B vitamins B2B6 specifically B six. Those are big ones as far as creating nutritional function.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:03:16] So creating the ATP free right to run on and to keep you healthy. One of the more powerful antioxidants, Koku ten is going to be a big player in that. Now, if you have anyone in your family’s ever had heart issues going to get a CTI C.T. angiogram or a calcium C.T. and then the cardiogram first off and then recap bring your koku ten cookie tins, a major antioxidant. So does two things for the heart, right? Primarily, it helps the heart to produce more ATP in aid is going be a big player in that as well. So if you want to bring your energy up as well, they’ll be really great. But it also is a very powerful antioxidant. The reason that we have plaque in our arteries isn’t from the amount of cholesterol we have. That’s nonsense. Ali So statin drugs make you super sick. It’s from reactive oxygen. Stress is from oxidative damage to the lipid peroxidation to the damage to the cholesterol. Antioxidants are push back against that. They push back these the free radicals that create that issue. So Cuckoo tends a big player in that vitamin E is a big player in that eating clean fats, eggs, steak, brisket, like, you know, avocados, stuff like that. You know, the the seed oils, the high omega sixes are really, really terrible for you. You know, it’s funny because we were like, Yeah, but seeds are natural. They are. And you should eat them like sunflower seeds, eat them.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:04:40] They’re great for you when you, when you, when you compress 100,000 of them to get enough oil to to consume, obviously you’re not going to eat 100,000 sunflower seeds. So that’s where the damage is. It’s too much of that one thing. It’s something omega six from seed oils. Seeds are bad for you. They’re not. It’s the giant amount of seed oils that you’re consuming, massive amounts more in your body. Would whatever naturally bring in that’s the problem. Or then obviously the fake oils like canola oils and all the, you know, all the margarines and that type of trash, you got to get rid of that. Those fats are killing you. Get those out. Again, we got to look at when we look at our food, it’s not that it has chemistry. It’s what the chemistry is. Right? The glycemic function of our carbohydrates, it’s the it’s the quality of the fat, the type of fat that we’re consuming. Not that it is fat. You know, for the longest time, people were, you know, all you can’t have fat that makes you fat. Not necessarily. A lot of the fat is really, really important, like the cholesterol that makes your brain work. That’s super important. The cholesterol that makes your heart work. That’s true. Been warned. The cholesterol that makes all your hormones, that’s pretty important. Those are LDL cholesterol. So I know, I know medical science is totally the horrible and terrible.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:05:58] Yes. What if you restrict those? Guess what happens? You have dementia issues. You have low hormone issues. Right. Doesn’t heal, regenerate very well. And so, yeah, everything your body starts falling apart. So shocking. The thing that your body creates for to run half your body, would you reduce those numbers? You don’t run as well shocking any who get those things. Yeah so that’s the stuff that’s going to keep you healthy not flu shots and more drugs but actually get those things that probiotics are fantastic as well. My favorite way to get probiotics is from fermented foods, not from supplements. We have a great one. I so I take the probiotics in, my kids take the probiotic that’s on the Sea Horse Wellness Store. But that’s because I don’t like fermented foods and I can’t I don’t have access to really good raw goat milk kefir. I need to go live on farms and see that. Me But raw goat milk, kefir, raw milk, both fantastic for probiotic function. One of the reasons they try to get rid of raw milk is because it’s so good for you. So raw milk is great for you. Fermented fruits and vegetables and stuff like that. Fantastic sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha. I like that type of stuff. Great for your gut. Definitely got you guys going to increase those. The problem is the ones at the store oftentimes aren’t really there. Lots of sugar and those lots of things you don’t really want. So if you can make it at home, have a buddy, make them, those are great and reduce your glycemic. Function.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:07:29] So like when you’re looking at your carbohydrates, just Google it gi of whatever the food is. And if it’s high, don’t eat it. Or if you’re like, Yeah, this is delicious. Fine. Factor that it so like no, it’s going to cause a lot of big insulin rush. It’s going to create a lot of problems in the body, a lot of inflammatory stuff. So don’t eat it all the time. We’re like, Hey, I’m going to have this, you know, at night, every other day for like the month of October because it’s Halloween and fine, fine, like, get it in, but offset that stuff as well. Right? Like, so take in, you know, a little extra fiber to kind of block some of the absorption of it, take in some some extra nutrients to kind of make sure that your body has extra chemicals to deal with the bad chemicals. Because the way your body deals with bad chemicals is it breaks apart good stuff so it can hack through it and help to correct the nature of the bad chemicals that you’re taking in. So, you know, increase your methyl to B6 for your liver milk thistle tumor. That’s how this stuff is really, really going to help kind of push you on the other side. Naturally, Carol, a lot of this lives is are you getting into good chemicals to help the nature and offset the bad chemicals that you’re bringing in every day? So those other things the other big thing is, is I know it’s not necessarily a nutrition thing. Get up and move.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:08:49] The more you move, the more your body can move around that toxic stuff that’s in your body and the more it can kind of process through it. So getting up and moving can be really beneficial and drinking water. So we talk about this a lot, but the reason the way that we talk about how like, if you drink too much water, it’ll help your body lose waterway, you’re like, I don’t get it. So I have this water that’s stuck in my body. If I drink extra water and all comes out. Yeah. So what happens is that your body starts creating all this waste, right? And a lot of the ways your body creates is acidic. Well, the way that your body deals with that is it holds more water to change the osmolality or the concentration. So think of it this way. You have a four ounce glass of water and you put a bunch of salt into it, like three tablespoons of salt into it, and you’re like, Wow, that’s really salty. You take that same thing, pour it into a gallon container, fill the gallon jug with water, you taste it. You’re like, That’s not nearly as salty. That’s basically what your body’s doing. So by giving your body clean water for it to put that salty stuff in and then flush out through urine and sweat and fecal matter as you’re doing that, you you decrease the amount of waste that’s in your body. Thus the body requires less water to buffer the waste that’s in your body. So it releases the water that it was holding. That’s how drinking water helps your body lose water by detoxifying the body through the natural pathways, the body use.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:10:07] So you get a lot more water in your. It’s always funny because, you know, that’s one of the big things during the winter, people have chapped lips and they’re like, Yeah, when it gets cold balance, get chapped. No, no. When you get dehydrated, your lips get chapped. When it’s cold out, it sucks the fluid out your body a lot faster. So you oftentimes will need more water during the winter than you do during the summer because the summer has humidity. So keep that in mind. If you normally drink X amount of water and during the winter your skin gets a little ashy and your lips get a little chapped. That’s because you’re dehydrated. Drink more water than you normally do, and that will start calming down. Now, sometimes you manage to drink a giant amount. So if you live in a really dry place and it’s really cold, you’re going to have those issues. This is the same reason if you ever look at your pool in the winter and it looks like it’s steaming, that’s the water being sucked into the air. That’s not it steaming. It’s literally the water being sucked into the air. And so it sucks it out of the pool is sucking out of your body, too. So drink how much water. Now, you might not want to drink a giant amount of water for your bed.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:11:10] We all understand that. But as soon as you wake up, hammer the water and like throughout the day, get the watering in the water, it it’ll really, really help kind of offset a lot of these dehydration issues. The soreness, the pain, the sinus issues, the chapped lips, the dry skin. It’ll help out a ton. So get those stuff in that water and it’ll help. Obviously, retaining a lot of water, you’re going to have your electrolytes. So your your sodium chloride, your magnesium, your potassium, like all of those micronutrients are really, really important to get those things in. And that’ll help you guys stay substantially healthier throughout the season. So and all of this, by the way, works just as well for your kids. That’s for the adults. So get this stuff in your kiddos too, and I’ll help now. Thanks for your time. You guys have any questions drop in the comments or questions at Chalmers? Want to stick up?

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Dr. Matt Chalmers

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only. Before taking any action based on this information you should first consult with your physician or health care provider. This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions regarding a medical condition, your health, or wellness