Lack of Sleep Linked to 300 Percent Higher Risk of Catching Colds

Catching a cold? Maybe that's Mother Nature's way of telling you to stay home and get some sleep for a change. A new study conducted at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh has found that people who get fewer than seven hours of sleep a night are 300% more likely to catch colds.

This study, however, does not establish a causal relationship between a lack of sleep and catching colds. It more likely points to an underlying health stance by participants, where unhealthy individuals suffer both from suppressed immune systems and sleep disorders at the same time. Healthy people, on the other hand, were able to resist infections while enjoying better-quality sleep.

Resisting colds is quite easy for the nutritionally informed. When your body retains sufficient levels of both vitamin D and zinc, catching common colds is virtually impossible. I haven't caught a cold in more than six years, probably, and most hard-core natural health consumers who live on superfoods and raw foods reports virtually zero colds.

Interestingly, the people who catch colds the most often are those who get flu shots, indicating that flu shots may actually weaken the immune system, making recipients more vulnerable to future infections. It is well documented, by the way, that flu shots -- even if they work -- only protect people against last year's flu strains, not this year's flu. Thus, the whole basis upon which flu shots are promoted is temporally flawed to begin with. Unless you own a time travel machine, that is.

In any case, there's no question that getting eight hours of sleep a night is good for your health (and your immune system), but if you really want to avoid catching colds, probably the most important thing you can do -- especially during the Winter -- is raise your vitamin D levels. That can easily be accomplished by either taking vitamin D supplements (or fish oils) or taking a month-long vacation to Hawaii where you hang out on the beaches and soak up some healing rays.

Just be sure to take astaxanthin and lots of superfood antioxidants for at least 30 days before going, so that you are protected against sunburn. And throw out the sunscreen, folks, unless you want skin cancer from all the chemicals found in sunscreen.

By Mike Adams - http://www.naturalnews.com/