It's the most wonderful time of the year. I decided I should interrupt the series I just started - What You Need to Know About Functional Medicine - for a more timely one. That is, “How to Survive Cold and Flu Season.”
The short version of this entire series is, “take time for your wellness, or you will be forced to make time for your illness.”
You wouldn’t know cold and flu season as “the most wonderful time of the year” if you turned on the news or opened up the average newspaper. You'd think it was "triple-pandemic" season. Or whatever they come up with next to frighten the public into taking whatever they decide to sell them next.
Reality check: humanity has been coping with flu/acute upper respiratory illness season since the dawn of time.
The real question, whenever confronted with a threat (real or supposed), is "what should we do about it?"
Mask up? Lockdown? Shut yourself in?
If all of that, plus vaccination, worked, then why exactly did total mortality in the United States INCREASE from 2020 to 2021?
I'm just asking. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
I won't bore you all with a defense of freedom, because if you've read my book, Dying to Be Free, you've already heard it. Besides, I'm honestly tired of talking about it.
What I want to talk about now is what really matters when it comes to cold and flu season.
First things first, what's a cold? What's a flu?
You know the symptoms, but do you actually understand the process?
Let me tell you a quick story that should make you think differently about colds and flus.
I recently had a patient living in a dormitory at college, who WOULD NOT STOP GETTING SICK.
It was exhausting. For her, for me, and for her family. It made me feel like a failure - after all, I am almost sick of repeating the words of Hippocrates, "the greatest medicine of all is teaching people how not to need it." Yet there I was, week after week, month after month, adjusting her supplements and herbs up and down. It got so bad at one point that I thought she needed to see a surgeon to rule out an abscess.
Yikes.
What was my conclusion in this case? Allergy testing came back positive for some molds. She lived in an old building that was very large and had central air. This means lots of places for mold to live and hide, and lots of time for it to get there and set up shop.
My main therapeutic recommendation in this case was for the patient to remove herself from the shared housing.
Finally, with the help of a note attesting to the medical necessity of this, she got out.
And you know what?
She hasn't called me with a cold or a flu since!
I am, of course, delighted that she's feeling better.
What's the point of this story?
If you're living in a sick environment, you're going to get sick and keep getting sick, no matter what you do as far as supplements, mindfulness, coaching, exercise, and so on.
What makes our modern buildings sick?
Sir William Osler (MD) said, "Patients need rest, food, fresh air, and exercise - the quadrangle of health."
Modern buildings are extremely "tight." They don't breathe well. If you're allergic to, or if you have downright toxic stuff in your home like mold or petroleum toxins (think furniture, carpet, etc), you've GOT to either move, clean up, or properly ventilate your home.
You need fresh air to be healthy, yet too many modern people are neglecting this key component of health. My favorite tips for this? Take three, ten minute walks each day. Open your doors and windows as much as possible. Keep a humidity monitor in your home. Keep the humidity below 60% to prevent mold growth. Get your home inspected, including the HVAC system and ductwork.
You'd be shocked how many people have problems with indoor air pollution.
Most doctors chase respiratory problems around with steroids, beta-agonists, antibiotics, and other drugs.
Yuck. What a terrific waste of time, when sometimes it's as simple as cleaning out your ducts, HVAC system, or opening your doors and windows more often.
There's also a place for allergy testing, since with sublingual immunotherapy, we can actually TREAT your allergies to everything from dust mites to pet dander, in the comfort of your own home. You can apply for a consultation with my team to learn more about this.
People also need healthy, wholesome food. In the winter, people fall into maladaptive dietary habits and patterns. I help them to overcome these by actually testing their nutrition, so they know what they really need to eat. We figure out what foods they are allergic or sensitive to, and we figure out how they need to cook, how often they need to eat, and more, so there's no more guesswork when they open the fridge, no more disappointment when they step on the scale, and no more confusion when they go to the grocery store.
Last, but not least, you need to be aware of how your exposure to electromagnetic pollution may be affecting your health. Many of us still wonder about the timing of the peak in all-cause mortality that we saw in the Spring of 2020, and the roll-out of 5G. It's almost as though massively increasing the density of microwave and radiowave radiation actually had a significant impact on human health.
Independent fact checkers have concluded that this is REALLY inconvenient for the business model of Big Tech. Pay no attention to the fact that these corporate giants are 100% immune from any liability relating to their products, thanks to the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
Why would you go to the trouble of passing legislation to protect yourself from lawsuits, if your product was SAFE?
We've seen this play out of the corporate-America playbook time and time again.
In nature, those who learn and adapt, thrive. Those who remain stuck in outdated strategies get old fast and die young. Electromagnetic pollution is the new smoking. The people stuck in the strategy of trusting the government and big corporations to protect their health have their heads in the sand. There is nothing new under the sun and these entities are not interested in your wellness - they are interested in your complacency, compliance, and continued consumption of their products.
But anyway.
Osler lived in a time before electricity, let alone modern wireless technology, so I would add to that a clean electromagnetic environment is vital to good health. This is even MORE important in the winter, when people are spending less time outside than in any other season. I'm also adamant about having a healthy emotional environment, because I've seen stress derail people's health overnight.
But what do I DO about all of this? How do I protect myself and what are concrete actions I can take RIGHT NOW to be healthy?
Dr. Stillman's Guide to Biohacking contains all the vital gear recommendations you need to incorporate into your daily and seasonal routines.
My book, Dying to Be Free, contains TONS of my best advice. Pick up a copy here.
And now... I'm launching a new series. It's a series of posts on how I approach acute illnesses. This will be an e-course (when I have time to post it), or you could just go ahead and subscribe to the premium version of this Substack for $20 per month. The latter is obviously a lot cheaper.
What's the value of this course?
It's the distillation of 20 years of study and 8 years of practice, from rural hospitals to tertiary care hospitals, from ICUs to telemedicine clinics, and it incorporates the best of functional AND conventional medicine.
This series will run the next week or so. I figured I should interrupt my other series, What You Need to Know About Functional Medicine, since it's the start of cold and flu season.
Until next time, be well,
Dr. Stillman