Lofty Matters

Did you know that experiencing a cold or the flu can actually be beneficial to your health? Colds and flus can actually help you stay healthy in the long run.

Experiencing a cold or the flu once in a while can help rid your body of your weakest cells. The viruses that cause the common cold and the flu mainly infect a person’s weakest cells…the cells that are already burdened with excessive waste products and toxins. These are cells that you want to get rid of anyway so that they can be replaced by new healthy cells.

So in reality, a cold or flu is a natural tool that allows your body to purge itself of old and damaged cells that without a viral infection would take much longer to identify and eliminate.

However, there are times when you would really just prefer not to get sick. Here’s how you can very likely prevent a cold from developing:

• As soon as you experience a sore, tickly feeling in your throat (precedes a full-blown cold) gargle with warm salt water. To gargle, take a mouthful of warm salt water, look up at the ceiling, and gargle aggressively. You could also tap at your throat (Adam’s apple) with your fingers while you gargle to help the warm salt water to trickle deeply into your throat.

• Gargle like this several times with a glass of warm salt water and repeat several times throughout the day.

Warm salt water is able to remove viruses from the tonsils and adenoids that are in the back of your throat. The viruses that cause colds and flus usually get caught by your tonsils and adenoids before they spread throughout the rest of your body. Your tonsils and adenoids are very important parts of your immune system because of where they are located. Being at the entrance of your breathing passages, they serve as a first line of defense against undesirable airborne microorganisms.

By the way, this is why it is best not to have tonsils and adenoids removed. Chronic swelling of tonsils and adenoids is best remedied by reducing your sugar intake, adopting a minimally processed diet with plenty of fresh plant foods, and supporting your immune system by getting plenty of rest, exercise, and exposure to sunlight and fresh air.

Cold salt water would also help to remove viruses from your tonsils and adenoids, but warm salt water will be more effective. Warm water likely helps to melt the fatty coating that protects the viruses that cause colds and flu.

Worst case scenario…what if you gargle for all you’re worth but still end up getting sick?

Get lots of rest, drink plenty of fluids, and take comfort in knowing that countless viruses are at work destroying your weakest cells. And don’t forget to blow your nose as often as it runs; this helps your body get rid of what its trying to remove.