Cubicles are germ breeding grounds, and your desk has more germs than the bathroom stall. Holistic living expert Cynthia Stadd gives us some ways to stay healthy and save our sick days this winter.

Everyone in my office is already coming down with colds and various sniffles and coughs. Do you know of any Chinese medicine or holistic means of warding off winter colds and flus and to boost my immunity? What do you do to keep healthy through the winter?

Ahhhh, winter. Time for peppermint treats, hot chocolate and for some, the winter sniffles! Holistic traditions are rooted in prevention, so this is a very fitting question. 

But what is prevention, really? In most natural health circles, it simply boils down to the basic things you do every day—the fundamental routines—that ensure homeostasis, the body’s natural tendency to want to stay balanced. This means both what you do on a regular basis, and what you don't do. Clarified further, that means stay away from extreme foods, drinks, substances and patterns that throw your body out of whack, and reinforce daily the “non-stressful” ones that work for you. Only you know what that is for you in each category of food, drinks, sleep, and social outings. 

For example, some people can stay quite harmonious on 5 hours of sleep, while others want to pull their hair out by 3 p.m. of the next day after that much sleep! Some women I know can eat brownies every night and truly feel great the next day without any mood swings, while others have one night of sweets and they feel like they have a hangover the next day. These are the “extreme” behaviors (again, extreme is relative) that can keep your immune system down and set the stage for a cold germ to take over.

So generally, a few possible extreme choices that could throw you off are:

• Too much sugar, salt, or alcohol

• Overeating in general

• Lack of sleep

• Intentional isolation, or the opposite (being out of your home too much). Again, you know how much is too much for you

Common non-extreme choices that when continually reinforced tend to keep things humming along:

• Green vegetables every day

• Raw garlic (one clove a day)

• A nice mix in your diet of easily digestable foods such as fruit, soups and plain whole grains like brown rice and quinoa

• A small amount of sweets every day instead of overloading at parties

• Washing hands a bit more than usual

This is not rocket science—staying clean and strong enough to not get sick. Always remember your natural state is to be in homeostasis!  If you are not, something (such as a food or lifestyle pattern) could be pulling you out of it.