Personal preventative maintenance

I have been a little preachy recently so I thought I would throw in so easy advice as a return to the purpose of this site. Since it is September 1st, it is time to prepare for winter. I am not talking about planting winter veggies or having your furnace checked (which is time to do those things too), I am talking about preparing your body. To have warmer extremities it is time to really up you Omega 3 fatty acid intake. However does this work? Omega 3 FAs make the membranes of cells more flexible so red blood cells high in Omega 3 FA can squeeze through narrow capillaries better and keep you fingers, etc warmer. Since it takes a ~120 days to turn over all your red blood cells, you need to start now to have a good supply of Omega 3 rich ones by the time cold weather arrives. As an added benefit flexible red blood cells cut down on headaches. You can get Omega 3 FAs from cold water fish like salmon, or as I do in capsule form, from fish or flax seed oils.
Also begin increasing your magnesium, zinc and selenium (inorganic selenium is best, since all the seleno amino acids used for seleno-proteins are produced by the body so they can be loaded specially on to tRNAs) uptake since the immune cells that will protect you this winter are also being to be made, and the metal cofactors are best incorporated during differentiation. If you are worried about the toxicity of these metals (which you shouldn’t be) at least take recommended dose on top of your normal dietary intake. Increasing your antioxidant and B vitamin intake is good too since it is better to have a strong immune system before immunogenic challenge, than after. Oh if you think about it up your intake of foods that contain vitamins D, A and Tryptophan since these nutrients are most effective from natural sources (it’s a long story). The vitamin D will help with bone density since you get less sun in the winter, extra vitamin A helps low light vision, and lots of Tryptophan means efficient indole production, which might help ward off seasonal depression and insomnia.

Yes, I know it is weird to think about body preventative maintenance, but your body is a biochemical machine and knowing the seasonal nutritional differences can help it run better.

If nothing else, start taking a gender and age specific multivitamin now and for the rest of your life. Yes, you do need it! No one’s diet is so healthy that it wouldn’t help.