The Livy Method Podcast - Maintenance & Mindfulness Live: Immunity Unlocked: What Really Works with Dr. Paul Hrkal - Fall 2025

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

In this special M&M guest expert episode, Odette sits down with Dr. Paul Hrkal to explore what actually supports a strong immune system, especially through cold and flu season. From simple environmental tweaks like using an air purifier and swapping furnace filters, to whole food strategies that build a solid defence (hello, garlic and ginger), Dr. Paul breaks down how small, consistent actions can have a big impact. They also chat about recovery foods, the right time to lean on supplements like vitamin D, C, zinc, and adaptogens, and why rest is often the most underrated immune booster. Whether you’re looking to stay healthy or bounce back faster, this conversation is packed with practical tips that work.You can find the full video hosted at:https://www.facebook.com/groups/ginalivymaintenanceandmindfulnessTo learn more about The Livy Method and our Maintenance & Mindfulness group, visit livymethod.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Gina Livy, and welcome to the Livy Method podcast. This is where you'll have access to all of the live streams for my 91-day weight loss program. With a combination of daily lives, guest expert interviews, and member stories, there is something new almost every day. Miss the morning live? Want to re-listen to one of our amazing guest experts? Well, this is the place. This podcast is hosted on ACAST, but it's available on all podcast platforms, including the one you're listening to right now, Spotify, Apple, and Amazon Music.

Your idea of banking without the noise happens here. Brought to you by RBC. Lock in, but don't burn out. Take a moment to pause and appreciate that being here now means you've crushed every obstacle in your past so far. That's 100% success rate. Your finances work the same. It's persistence.

not perfection that builds your financial future. RBC is here to help. Well, it has been a hot minute since we have had a guest expert join us here in the maintenance and mindfulness group. And who better than to kick things off again than our OG guest, Dr. Paul Herckel, naturopathic doctor. So Dr. Paul, you have joined us here in maintenance before, even though, like I said, it's been a hot minute.

you are probably the most familiar face over in the weight loss group. Many of our members know who you are, but I don't know if you know this. We have members that are doing our maintenance program that have not come from the living method who have lost their weight in other ways. So why don't you just introduce yourself quickly to those members or anyone else that might not know you

before we get into this juicy conversation of the immune system. Yeah, thank you for the welcome of that. Yeah, so as you already mentioned, I'm a naturopathic doctor. I've been in clinical practice over 15 years. As a naturopath, I need to get after why things are happening. And I do see the most complex of the complex often. But I've also managed and worked with so many people that have lost weight and are in the process of losing weight.

You know, really, I would say the crux of what I try to do with my patients is try to understand and get after why things are happening, the root cause of things. You've probably heard that most good. clinicians want to do that. But the difference is that as an atchopic doctor, I have the training and have the understanding of physiology and then what we can do from really helping our body's own physiology get there. Because I believe, Odette, the default mode for people is healthy. And sometimes when you've been in discomfort and symptomatic for so many years, people sometimes forget that. And so there's an innate intelligence in our bodies. And I think it's actually a perfect dovetail into our conversation today about immunity where things do

come up, challenges do come up and how do we improve what I would term resilience. And in this case, we're talking about immune resilience. And so, yeah, that's a little bit about me. And I hope to share that with you guys today. Yeah, I'm excited again at this. And I love that you said that you like to get to the root cause. Why do things happen to us the way that they do? Not, you know, not what are the symptoms of it, but where's it coming from in the first place? And, you know, our major, And our members here in maintenance, they're so savvy. They're so smart. They're ready for these deep conversations.

And we brought up the idea of, let's just talk about cold and flu season. We're like, oh, it seems like such a simple topic. But, you know, let's just really understand how we can take care of ourselves. Because like you said, when you're feeling so good, you know, like our members are now or and then all of a sudden you don't feel well, it almost seems like it's a bigger impact. So we want to help people, you know, feel good as this cold and flu season comes around us. But first, let's get into why is it cold and flu season? Why is it this time of year? What makes this cold and flu season?

Like, I remember, you know, being as a kid, and I've said it to my own kids, like, don't go aside with your hair wet. You're going to catch a cold. Don't forget to wear your jacket. You're going to catch a cold. So what, why is this cold and flu season? Why now? Like, why, what is it about this time of year?

Yeah. So in the northern and southern hemispheres where there's the seasonal changes, you'll see that there's an increase in viral infections in the fall time. So we're right into that season right now and in the springtime. So in natural medicine, we learned back when I was in medical school is that, you know, this is this change of season comes with changes in our environment and also in temperatures. And that does impact our bodies. So there's a couple things.

I want to point out, number one is that the obvious is that we are not spending as much time outside. and we are moving indoors. And what happens is we start flipping on that heat, that furnace system, and you start getting more circulation of air. And that air recirculation often doesn't allow for, you know, or increases the concentrations of viruses and things that we might pick up. So that's definitely number one. Number two is the actual sunshine itself.

So there's lots of studies showing that our body's immune system functions better when we are exposed to more outdoor, sunshine, and natural light. And so that's actually over and above vitamin D. Vitamin D is one of the things that we make when sunshine hits our skin, and it absolutely does have some immune benefits. But there's actually benefits to sunshine over and above that, just being exposed to those UV rays in a healthy way. So we have the air, we have the sunshine, and then we have the change in temperature.

And this goes back to, like, I remember my grandma saying the same thing you just said to your kids, where it's like, you're going to catch a cold if your hair's wet. And I used to want to like gel in my hair back when I had more. And we ran out there anyways. And that's like it, that was an old school thought of like if you get a chill or that change of temperature that impacts your nervous system. And your nervous system is what can help control our stress, fighting, resilience, hormone. Maybe some of you have heard of a guy named Wim Hof, the other guy that does the breathing, and he's like, he's known as the ice man. And he's, he's from the Netherlands, I believe, and he does these trips. And all around the world takes people hiking, uh, and dips into these

cold, icy Arctic waters. Basically like, he's on a permanent polar bear dip mode. And what because he's done this like breathing technique and, and, and he's exposing himself to cold, what they found is that you can actually override that detrimental shock of cold. So it's not, science has basically dispelled that, that kind of myth, but generally we're not doing that type of breathing that he, that really is his secret sauce. That improves resilience. But you know what? If you're interested, you can absolutely look it up and try to implement it. But bottom line is that cold is a bit of a shock. So that is another thing. And then I'm, I'm also going to say one other thing. And that is the change in circadian pattern. The days in order,

there's more darkness. We, right now in front of me, I have one of these light boxes on. So for 20 minutes, I'm exposing myself in the morning to try to get that natural light. It's kind of a gray overcast day. That sometimes changes our sleep patterns. And sleep has a huge role to play on immunity. So, you know, that's a long-winded way of answering your question about that. There's There's multiple factors, but that change of season with the temperature and air and lack of sunshine and being more indoors increases the virulence of viruses. Okay, so you said there you've got this light on, right? And you've got this, you sit with it for 20 minutes or so.

Like, is this something that can make a difference? Like, you know, when we talk about the environment and there's more air and its temperature changes, what do you think our members could take away from this? So it's a dark gloomy day. it is where I am here to, you know, is having something like that light, can it make a difference? Maybe is it, is it changing the air quality of our home? Like, is it as simple as maybe having a dehumidifier on or being, you know, more in tune to what the actual temperature in the houses? What do you think, you know, our members can take away from that in terms of their

environment and making it, you know, optimal for them? Yeah. So, I mean, there's a, there's a lot of things we can take out of that because, you know, we can go directly to things that are right up my out of like supplementation like so obviously not having the sun exposure you can go and go somewhere warm and that's what a lot of people love doing i'm going to write that down doctor's orders go somewhere warm yeah i so you can also supplement with vitamin d to get part of the benefits and you know definitely go and talk to your doctor get tested to see if you're low i had a patient yesterday that they were in their 40s and uh sorry they had levels of vitamin d in their 40s which is very, very low. And so we're working with them to try to build up their levels. And sometimes

even on retesting, the levels haven't got up to the ideal spot, which is over 75 in Canada or over 30 in the U.S. But even for me, optimally, is over 100. And so that's one supplementation tool that kind of offsets the sunshine piece. Because the reality is, is that even if you're walking outside in the fall, and it's sunny, but it's cool, you're not making vitamin D. The sun angle is not good enough. So that's a really important thing that people don't understand is that the only time you make enough vitamin D with sun exposure is in the summer months. Again, I'm talking for people that are in the northern U.S. and Canada, and it's somewhere between 11 and 2 Odette. The sun angle is not good enough at 5 when it's sunny and you're hanging

out by the pool. Okay, so that's number one. Number two, you mentioned the light box. That is not so much a direct role on immunity as it does on mood and kind of brain function. So I'm doing this to wake my brain up, to be able to offset the change in darkness. There's less light and there's less natural light. So this is one way of getting that light into your brain and that actually turns on a lot of systems and pathways in your brain and improves mood. So that's a very simple thing that people can do very inexpensive. An air purifier is a really good idea. So in the winter months, I have an air purifier. We'll put it in the in the rooms of the kids when they're under the weather. And then there's also what's called a humidifier. So one of the things that happens

is you turn that furnace on and you start pulling the moisture out of the air. And that changes your mucous membranes, your nose and your throat and drives out and then allows more viruses to interact with that mucous membrane. And so that is an easy way to do that. And those are available again, all multiple retailers. And so you can find something that works for you. And so I would say those are probably some of the practical things that maybe you could do in your house. Definitely if you haven't already change your furnace filter, that's a common thing that people kind of forget, but you should be changing it twice a year. And that is what catches a lot of that stuff that's being recirculated.

It's not a foolproof thing, but just a simple housekeeping thing. Yeah, I know it's when we turn our furnace on, we always have that one day of like, something burning in here? Exactly. Exactly. You need to get that changed out. I think that's so important what you said to about the mucous membranes. Like we don't think about like those being the first, you know, that's the first line of

defense, you know, that keeping that that nose nice and moist. as long as you don't really want to think of it like that or even, you know, just that how much the dryness and the environment can affect that and doing these little changes can make a... Yeah, like even as like a saline rinse, like you can get one of these like seawater sprays at any pharmacy and using that as a bit of a preventative. A lot of times we have this idea about health that it's reactionary and I understand that's human psychology. We kind of just want to go about our business and not worry about it. But, you know, there are things like if you go outside and you know you're going to be at the beach

all day. People think about sun hygiene. Oh, you know what? You have to think about mucous membrane hygiene too, where it's like, okay, so if I'm drying being constantly dried out, I'm not moving the phlegm and I'm not moving some of the, some of the mucus that's formed and that's allowing that those viruses to stick in that area. So just doing kind of like a nasal rinse during these times. I know, I have five kids, as you know that. And they're bringing stuff back from school and daycare all the time. never been as sick when my kids have been in daycare and preschool. And, you know, I consider myself a fairly good immunity. I've always had good immunity in the past. And then, you know,

my kids go into daycare and I get sinus issues for the first time of my life. So I now need to be more preventative. And I think that's a really, I think a takeaway point that I want to share with everyone is we have to think about our immune system as a bit of a garden. We have to take care of it and it's much easier to take care of it in small little things as soon as something starts before like you know if you're trying to treat a cold when it's full blown and it's in your sinuses i'll be honest with you the natural stuff doesn't not nearly work nearly as well uh you know you're basically just riding it out at that point but you can intervene as soon as you notice that there's a bit of a throat tickle i'm gargling with salt or i'm using like a herbal uh or a mouthwash

rinse. I'm irrigating my nose. I'm taking extra probiotics, vitamin C, vitamin D. These kind of like foundational things. I think there's something to them, but they work really well early on and they don't work so great once things are really taken hold. I just, I love this point that you just make about taking this preventative approach and not being reactive. I think, you know, I'll use myself as an example, you know, like, oh, cold and flu season's coming. It's going to hit me, you know, but then I don't do anything about it. You know, you know it's coming. So like you said, all these small little things that you can do to take a preventative approach, you know,

can be such a game changer instead of just, you know, reacting in the moment and then trying to stop it in its tracks once it's already taken. It's full fold. So that's why I love having this conversation. Like, what can we do with our environment? I know you touched on supplements and, you know, a few that are, that can work. But before that, I want to talk about food because, so we were just in St. Lucia. not to make anyone jealous.

Yeah, I was going to say, well. I got lots of my vitamin D. But not only that, we were taking this, each morning we would get up and we would go to the wellness bar and we would do these immune shots, they called them. And it was like ginger and turmeric and lemon. And it was just this really potent shot

that we would take in the morning. And, you know, I came, we came home from that trip and I thought, why do I not continue this year? Yeah, maybe not at a convenience. But, you know, just do these things like ginger turmeric, these immune shots, or these foods that are supposed to be good for immune system, do they make a difference? You know, would you say that this is like one of the easiest things that, or one of the

smallest things that you could do? Or is it one of the biggest things that you can do is to start with the food? Well, you know what? I would say what you just mentioned here, that is a really great kind of health practice of using highly concentrated nutrition. But I'll be honest over my last like 20 years of being in natural medicine. and then and seeing patients. These are things that people kind of stick to for a couple of weeks and then it just

frizzles out. And the reality is for the reason you just highlighted, why have you, someone that knows health, didn't continue it when you came back? It comes down to the work that it takes work to prepare and do that regularly. If you could do that, wonderful. And maybe there's a middle ground there somewhere where maybe you're not juicing, celery and cucumbers and truble. and turmeric and lemon juice and all this stuff.

That takes a lot of time, I'll be honest. My parents, I grew up with juicing. And it was like the full court kind of like press. Everyone was like working, peeling, all that. Anyways, that's a lot of work. And it's like you spend $100 on produce to get, you know. Exactly. And you've got a juice.

And at the end of the day, you're like, you know, with the cost of food and good quality or organic stuff, I think that you can look at things like, okay, you know what, I can take ginger, and you can go to Costco, get a whole thing of organic ginger, take a, you know, a thumbs size piece, peel it, zest it into your water in the, into tea in the evening or into hot water, and then put your magnesium column right on top of that and just and just make that part of routine. So you have now a bit of the anti-inflammatory effect of ginger. You've just turbocharged your magnesium, which you're probably doing anyways. and I know how much the living members love that. And so that's one way that I think is sustainable to continue, where it doesn't take a huge amount of extra cost and effort.

But, you know, let's just speak to the other part of your question, which is, is it worth doing that, even if you had the effort and bandwidth too? You know, I think that there's evidence showing that when you eat a diet that's more alkaline in nature, meaning that you have foods that are going to contribute these molecules that help balance the pH of your urine. I'm not talking about blood here because that's where the controversy comes in. That's probably a whole other podcast we could do about alkaline and acid balance. That sounds like way out of my scope.

Yeah, exactly. But there's health benefits to using these fruits and vegetables as juices. But I think that from an immune perspective, Odette, I don't think it's that helpful. I think you could probably get similar effects to just doing some electrolytes in morning eating your fruits and vegetables doing a pinch of baking soda in the evening or your magnesium calm with the ginger and probably have similar effects when it comes to immunity so i mean i think that's probably the takeaway point good question though and what about what about something like um um sugar like let's get into sugar like the sugar is that an immune suppressant we've heard

like you know whether you see it on instagram or online or whatever or in your own research. Sugar suppresses the immune system for four hours or, you know, your body's not working that well and your gut's not working that well when you have all of this sugar. Is there some truth to that? There is. Yeah. For sure there is. It was confirmed, I think, on a big kind of mass media scale that, you know, even during COVID around 2020, there were clinics in the U.S. that were putting people on an extremely low sugar diet and helping them deal with COVID. And that was the first kind of time that there was kind of like larger awareness around that, obviously very severe viral infection, but I think the same could apply, you know, here. So I mean, another, what are the

things that a person should do immediately as soon as they start getting symptoms of feeling that they're coming down with some viral infection, you know, a cold, maybe a flu. There's a couple things. First thing you want to do is you want to right away try to get a really good sleep. So you want to, if your body's telling you, go to sleep and it's 8 o'clock or 9 o'clock, go ahead and do that. Usually you're going to be pretty tired. First thing you could probably do is take a little bit of extra vitamin D, a little bit of extra vitamin C. Those two things are foundational tools for the immune system. Make sure that you hydrate a little bit because, again, that's going to moisten your mucus membranes.

And then if you have access to it, and this is maybe a little bit of an end. added bonus. If you have access to some sort of sort of heat, so like taking a warm bath or a hot tub or even the best would be a sauna. So if you live in a Congo, for example, go to your sauna, fired up. That heat increases the function of your immune system. And that might seem a little counterintuitive because people are like, Dr. Paul, don't you get like a fever? That's a good thing. Your body's trying to fight off that viral infection. So if you feel like you're coming down, you kind of all, instead of stopping it, because the first thing that people do is that they're like, I'm going to pump this neocitrin or I'm going to take this Advil or Tylenol, and they suppress that fever.

The fever is your body's signal to your immune system to fire up. It's actually turning on your immune cells. So I'm not talking about if you're at 41 and you're increasing that. No, I'm talking about like at the first sign, you're trying to help your body get over the hump, rather than continue to knock it down and not allow the resolution of that. I talk about this when it comes to inflammation, Odette. I talk about this when it comes to immunity. You want your body to create a good, strong, healthy response and fight it off and then

not have long-term symptoms. That's the best thing that you can hope for. Trying to take something to mask those symptoms, many times prolongs your interaction and the duration of that virus. I've never I've honestly never heard that about the heat adding heat I think that's so interesting you would think that that's counterproductive just like you said but it makes so much sense I mean you if you want to dive into the evidence around sauna if anybody has chat GPT just put in sauna and the immune system or sauna and health benefits and you're going to start seeing tons and tons of peer reviewed trials it's one of the few things that decreases all causes of death That's in the scientific literature called all cause mortality. I mean, that's wild.

There's very few things that do that. Cardiovascular disease is very beneficial for, and that's one of the biggest killers. But from an immune perspective, it does a lot of things that are very helpful. So that's the immediate thing. That's like within the first like, you know, six to 12 hours, you're trying to do that right away. And then hopefully your body just kind of fights it off and you're kind of back at it the next day or two. And if you need to take a little bit of a break, the next day, if it's possible, that would be a not a bad idea. And hopefully you resolve it quickly. Yeah. We have a comment here

from our member Kim. She said, anytime I have a low grade fever, my natural path has encouraged me to ride it out because my body is fighting something naturally. So I think this is the key here low grade fever? Like, we don't want to give everybody the impression that like if your fever is super high, you need to ride it out. Is there like a middle ground there that we need to be aware of or careful of? We just want to make sure that, you know, everyone's. Of course. Yeah, I mean, I think the message here is that there is, there are extremes that we have to be careful of always, and especially when you're dealing with kids in pediatric situations. So when you're getting up into the fevers of 41, 42, if you're wanting using, if you're using

Fahrenheit, sorry, Celsius, or like over like, you know, 101, 101, 102, those are things that, that are now starting getting to a level of fever that potentially can cause seizures. Now, that's potential. If in the past you've been somebody that have had a seizure with fever, then you should be more aware and more careful. And obviously, talk to your naturopathic doctor, talk to your family doctor about that. But, you know, what I'm saying is not something that your family doctor may even know about. I think this is, you know, we're having a deeper conversation here.

That's a little bit outside the box. definitely evidence-based, but something that most people maybe have been, like you, Odette, hearing for the first time. So we're talking about kind of like lower-grade fevers. Like it's like 38, 39, 40 maybe. And then as long as you're not starting to get a little bit wonky, then, you know, then you should be okay. But, yeah, we have to be safe.

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It's persistence, not perfection, that builds your financial future. RBC is here to help. We had another comment. Our member said she uses cold sock therapy for a fever. Yeah. Something else that I've prescribed before that. So yes. So cold sock therapy is interesting.

Just so everybody knows, it's literally how it sounds. And as yucky as it sounds, it literally does not. not feel good. But it's ultimately putting a pair of socks, cotton socks that are soaked in ice water and you ring them out and you put them on your feet. And then you put a pair of heavier woolen socks over top and then you go to bed. And so it feels cold and not so good. And then you wake up and your feet are like warm and toasty. But actually what it's good for is people that are very congested up top. And this is like I'm talking an old school naturopathic remedy that's been used for decades, if not maybe over 100 years.

And it's not for everybody, and there's no science behind it in the sense that there's no research behind it, but it's just something that has been passed down through the naturopathic ethos. And some people find it very helpful. Yeah. I mean, yeah, so there's no scientific research behind it, but generations and generations and generations have been using it. I mean, If you want to look at that, it's research and evidence, there you go. I do. I mean, the scientist in me is obviously a little skeptical, but, you know, it's one of those things.

I'm like, what's the downside? Right. Not doing harm. A couple minutes. Okay. Try it. And then when you start seeing it working with people, especially when people are on medications, and they're not feeling good, they really have nothing to lose kids, like doing that

with kids sometimes is great because, again, you don't want to be pumping them through full medications might be something that you that that's useful so yeah just a little tidbit from the naturopathic past nice i love it i love it so okay so we talked about environment we talked about foods and support i think the takeaway with the foods is like you know eat your fruits and vegetables eat those whole foods as much as you can if you have if you have access to those you know to adding some fresh ginger that could be one thing that helps um you know i don't if there's anything else you want to add before we move on i think the biggest thing is just cut out a refined sugars especially when you're trying to get over like when you're in that like when you're past

that first like 24 hour phase like don't do I know people always say like I just eat toast and whatever you know like that you want to kind of like fight that a little bit so maybe like you have an egg instead of toast you don't want to eat excessively either your appetite's already suppressed for a reason your body's trying to focus on fighting off this infection rather than dealing with a huge meal that you're eating from a digestive perspective So absolutely kind of follow your body's inclinations there. But the big thing is to avoid a lot of refined, processed, highly processed foods. Yeah, I get that.

I get the wanting to eat toast and crackers. And for me, it used to be like those coconut crisp cookies that just made me feel better. When you know better, you do better, right? So. Yeah, there's a nostalgic feeling about some of that stuff. Right, right. And then, okay, so let's get into supplements because I think this is such, a big topic you know what can I take before what can I take during what actually makes a

difference um you know I think traditionally you've heard like vitamin C is a is a take your vitamin C so you don't get sick you know what role does vitamin C actually play I know vitamin D is a big one um and then we have a member question you're able to get into but what do you what do you have to say about about number one prevention what do you think is important for prevention and is it important to i'm going to give you all the questions what's important for prevention and then and is this like something you do want to do year round prevention or something you want to ramp up as this as this season comes into play yeah that's an easy one right away I would say that you know during the summer you're not getting sick very often right like yeah people don't

get colds in the summer now I mean this past summer we had a bit of a COVID strain spike and it has been getting weaker year and over year so that is the one thing that sometimes bucks those trends so I had a whole bunch of patients that got sick in August but in general general, we're talking about kind of the typical influenza, corona, like rhinovirus type of infections, you want to ramp things up in the fall. So as soon as that kind of like, you're not outside anymore, usually it's at the beginning of October. Thanksgiving is a great kind of like boundary.

And then right away you're ramping up things that are going to have a preventative nature. So I already mentioned vitamin C. The immune system uses vitamin C, especially when it's being put to work. So it's a fuel for white blood cells. And so that's something that you can take regularly. It's better to take vitamin C throughout the day rather than a whole bunch at one time. Some people have noted that a liquid or liposomal vitamin C, which is like a vitamin C that's combined with a fat that helps it get into your cells a little bit better, that sometimes helps. You don't have to take as much of it.

Vitamin D definitely mentioned testing, getting your levels tested. Most of the time, if you're getting some sun exposure during the summer months, then that's not so much, not as important, and then restarting in October, a fat soluble, a liquid fat soluble version, whether it's in a soft gel or an actual drop, is a good option. And then I think another one that's worth mentioning would be zinc. I know zinc really became super popular around COVID. You can overdo zinc, but in generally, people are not getting a ton of it through their diets. And zinc has, when you're zinc deficient, you're not making your, you're,

white blood cells as well. I actually, one of the things that a lot of people don't think about for immunity is probiotics. I actually like that better because your gut, Odette, is the key place, the key battleground for your immune system and the external environment. And so a lot of people don't know this, but like 70% of your immune systems in and around your gut. And so your immune system kind of is as healthy as your gut.

So one of the things that I'm working on with patients all the time, if you're constantly I have mucus and phlegm, that's your mucus membrane. And that's coming probably somewhere from your gut. So if you're like clearing your nose in the morning all the time and you have a cold and flu and then it doesn't want to go away for months, you have that mucus. That's usually something food related, something gut related. So working on your digestive system and probiotics absolutely have lots of research to show that it helps improve immunity.

and also decrease the time that you have an infection. I love that. I love that you said probiotics because I've heard that, you know, I come from a wellness background as well. I've heard that 70% of your immune system is in your gut. You don't think that you think your immune system is in your nose. It's in your lungs. It's from your gut. Yeah, right?

It's here. But, yeah, taking care of your gut, not only for healthy digestion, but to help that immune system stay revved up and optimal. I love that you made that point. I still haven't told you my couple favorite ones though. No, you haven't. No, I'm not either. I want to just make a point about zinc too.

So I also love zinc this time of year. Just as a side note, you can please take zinc with food. If this is something that you're just going to buy off the shelf, speak to somebody in the health food store, your health care practitioner, because I did not do that the first time that I took zinc many years ago for myself or for my daughter who was just this little peanut then and we both didn't feel so hot with uh in our that's right yeah nausea so this is something they're looking at your members are looking into just make sure you're taking a food and talk to somebody before you buy it i still get caught once in a while where you know like

i'm taking an immune formula right now that has zinc and a probiotic in it and also a couple herbs that are in the adaptogen family of herbs that help our body deal with a change of seasons help your immune system to be more resilient. And I was like, why am I like nauseous? This is just a couple weeks ago. I'm like, oh, my gosh. And then I'm like, oh, yeah, those two things I took have zinc in them. So it can absolutely still happen.

Some people are a little more tolerant of it. But I guess you and I, Odette, we're sensitive. I know. We are. So you can get that. But yeah, that's actually a good segue into, you know, that final group, I would say, maybe my secret weapon when it comes to the immune system is the bodies, own abilities, own resilience is increased by a class of herbs called adaptogens.

And I would even put mushrooms, medicinal mushrooms in this category. And so that things like Shataki, Turkey, Tail, Chega, these herbs, these mushrooms have been studied primarily to help improve immune function. And so this is a good time of year to help make your immune system a little bit more responsive, a little bit more resilient. So this group, this family of herbs can be really helpful. And, you know, we talk about it with Gina in the regular weight loss program. So if this rings a bell for some people, it's absolutely part of the secondary supplements.

And that's kind of a general adrenal formulation. There are some herbs that are in that same class, we'll say, but have more of an immune function. I mentioned mushrooms. There's another herb called astragalus. One of my faves, I take that. Yeah, one of my faves. One of the best herbs that's been used for hundreds of years, thousands of years, and originally from the Chinese pharmacopoeia with traditional Chinese medicine.

And modern research is absolutely confirming what those practitioners knew for thousands of years. So really great formulation or really great herb to employ. So I think we have kind of like the basics, the foundation, vitamin D. vitamin C, zinc, probiotics. I would say those three or four are really top. And then if you kind of want to take it to the next level from a preventative perspective, you're looking at some of these immune stimulating herbs like mushrooms. Yeah, I love it.

I haven't taken the mushrooms. But yeah, the Stragalus is one that I started on a liquid and it's very nasty. So I have moved to a capsule. It makes a big difference with being able to take it. It's potent. Yeah. Sometimes you have to taste stuff, just like the bitters, right? You know, there's some benefits.

of actually getting those receptors involved right at the beginning of your digester tract and then making your way down. But I don't know if you know this, Odette, but maybe you experience this yourself. Like with bitters, by people like, oh, that's so nasty, Dr. Paul. And then, you know, within a couple weeks, they're like, yeah, it's not that bad anymore. You know, you kind of just like work through that initial kind of taste. So, anyway, it does get better. Maybe I'll try again.

Maybe I won't be so sensitive and try again. We just had a question from members. So she wants to know, do you recommend our job? you suggest increasing probiotics in the winter? Is this something that's personal? They have to know themselves, or what do you think? Yeah, I would say probiotics are one of the most confusing classes of supplements because there literally is so many options.

And when you look at it, no one's exactly the same. They all have like a slightly different combination of strains. So what I would say is that when we're thinking about probiotics, I really emphasize, you know, to look at the strains that are specific to what you want. So for example, yesterday with my patients, I prescribed a probiotic that was specific for urinary tract health. And so this person was getting frequent urinary tract infection. So there's specific combinations that do that. But in this case, I would suggest that people actually look and maybe ask their health food store or do a little bit of research, you know, which one specifically

for immunity? Ideally, ask your naturopathic doctor. There is probiotics specific for your immune system. There's probiotics specific for when you have more constipation or more loose tools. There's more probiotics that are better when you have food sensitivities. There's probiotics better when you have candida or when you're traveling and you want to prevent. I mean, I'm just listing things rapid fire, but there's so much specificity. And so in general, probiotics have an immune benefit, O'Dette. But I think you can get even more specific. If you're looking to level up, have that one extra conversation, do that one extra piece of research and find one that has immune benefits for you. Yeah, I think that's a great, that's a great

takeaway. It's not necessarily how, I mean, maybe it is, you know, how potent your probiotic is or it doesn't matter how many you're taking. You want to take the right one, right? The one that's more specific. Exactly. Yeah, I think that's a really good kind of thought and good, good takeaway. And it just, all it requires is one extra little piece of research rather than being like, oh, I'm taking a probiotic, but what's that probiotic that you're taking, actually doing. A lot of them just are for like general gut health. Okay, that's good. But this time of year, I want to actually prevent the onset of your kind of an upper respiratory tract infection. Well, I'm one specific for that. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great point. I love that.

And, you know, like you said, it's one little piece of research and we always say, go talk to somebody. I mean, there are so many professionals out there, even, you know, that are employed at these health food stores that have a wealth of knowledge that can help explain these different strings. You don't necessarily need to go it on your own and do your own research. But if you do your research first, take what you've learned into the store, ask the questions, and then you're able to pick them. It's all about, you know, advocating and empowering yourself, I think, just to make that, make that, you know, really specific to our members. That's a great, that's a great suggestion. You know, it's a bit of a dollar sword as a clinician because sometimes people go to

the health store, health store clerks. And then they're like, their like, they're like local naturopathic doctor slash helper's store clerk yeah but you know I would always say there is some people that will give you some good advice but if you come in with a little bit of like I am looking for this then they're going to help guide you to where that might be and then you might say okay so like what are people using for immune system because people come in and talk to them and they'll share different things but you know it's not foolproof because they you know they're not your health care provider okay one last question then we're going to move on because we are running at a time so quickly. We had a member, Sue. She wanted to know that she had struggled with colds and

flus last winter, some of which may have been through her grandson. I would say most of which, probably, who started take care. So she's taking supplements for omega's, her D's or complex. Looking for tips to support immune. I think we've done a great job doing that today. But she's bought elderberry syrup. Wonder if that helps and if it's, if it should be taken for prevention. What do you, what do you have to say about elder berries? I think elder berries are just, chock full of these really good antioxidants that have an ability to help kind of shorten up a cold or a flu if you have it. So I actually personally take it at the first sign of it is a great way to make like, you know, a little bit of a tea. It's also really, really great for kids and

people that don't want to take capsules. I think it's very safe in that sense. So I think that's good. It's actually been studied quite a bit. Around COVID, there was a lot of kind of thought around elderberry and research being put into it. But I'm not taking it preventatively, to be honest. I think that you're better, you know, Sue's better off looking into that medicinal mushroom or it's straggless or kind of those adaptogen herbs. So, yeah, that would be a good kind of direction to go. Yeah.

So she's bought it now, Sue, you can take it, you know, every, you know, take it until it's done and then maybe you can. Or keep it, have it on hand. If you do kind of get under the weather, start taking it right away that. It's not going to hurt you one way or the other because it's extremely safe. It's just basically a food extract. So it's not like it's some really potentially toxic thing. So yeah, you're good either way.

Okay. So we are running at a time. We've already actually 10 minutes over, but that's okay. That's what we do around here. Just talking about what you, what to do when you do get sick. I mean, you know, it's going to, it's for many of us, it's inevitable. We're going to get taken down. And I know you talked a bit before about, you know,

don't force the food if you're if you're not feeling it you know stay hydrated um taking some of these herbs and um to help shorten the duration but really it's about prevention if there if there's one thing that you want to kind of finish with this or a final thought is if you do get sick you know this is maybe what you want to think about this is what you want to do what would that be yeah i think it's a good question just to summarize because i feel like i touched on this throughout the whole conversation and so just the tie it all together you know first thing is listen to your body, get some immediate rest. So hydrate, get some vitamin C into you.

If you have exposure to some sort of like heat, sauna, hot tub, bath, get into bed and try to get some extra sleep right away. That's what your body wants. Sleep, and we didn't even touch on this, so I'm glad we bring it up. Sleep is one of the most powerful ways to stimulate your immune system. If you really want to optimize immune function, I would say, really prevent those like late night, staying up late, watching that extra episode, you know, try to get to bed early. There's a, you know, I always tell my patients your immune system, if you look at how active it is,

it's most active in the early part of the evening, especially even before 12 and right after 12, where things like REM sleep, which is where you kind of process emotions and memories and things that you experience, that's more active later in the night. So earlier in the morning. So I think that getting to bed early is an absolutely. simple thing and is definitely what your body's asking you to do. And that would be the first thing that I would suggest to start off. Just do that. Those kind of three or four things. And then, you know, right after that, I would just kind of like avoid those really highly more

sugary things. Maybe look at doing a soup like chicken soup is a great option to have right away, maybe making some now and then having some frozen and ready to go. If you do get ill, If you don't have it right now and you're listening to this and you're under the weather, you can go and grab some at your local health food store, get some chicken soup. Specifically about chicken, interestingly enough, fun fact, I'll leave you with. There's something in chicken soup. Everyone knows, you know, it's like chicken soup for the soul. It's like comfort food par excellence since the beginning of time.

There is an amino acid called carnacine that's found primarily in chicken soup that has this beneficial effect on the immune system. So there's actually some science behind it, not to mention protein, electrolytes, hydration, easy to digest. It checks all the boxes. A little bit of collagen in that bone broth. Bone broth is fantastic for anything. So even if you did beef, brown broth or chicken. So I think those are some really practical things. Nothing that is rocket science. You've heard of all this before. But it's really just trying to implement and put it in place and then implementing some of the preventative strategies. Well, this was amazing.

I mean, I think this is exactly the conversation that we wanted to have. You know, our members here in maintenance, they're feeling good. They want to keep feeling good. They want to do all the things to make sure they're feeling good. They're not afraid to look at prevention versus reactions. I think this is exactly the conversation we need to have at this time. Dr. Paul, thank you so much for coming on. I know I've listened to you for, I don't even know how many years now, 10, 12.

Over five. I don't know, it seems longer, but really it was right around 2020 around COVID. Yeah, right. And, you know, we've heard you, but I never had the opportunity to talk to you. So I was really excited about this one. So our members can find you if they want to on Instagram at Dr. Paul Herckel, of course, on your website. They can find you at Paul Herclendee.com. I hope you'll come back maybe in the next session in the winter and we can get into some other juicy

topic, something totally different. Our members are ready for it, right? They are ready to take these talks to the next level. So thank you again. We adore you. I know the whole team does. We love having you here and hopefully we'll see you again soon. Thanks for having me. Thanks, everybody. Have a great day. Bye. of banking without the noise happens here. Brought to you by RBC. Lock in, but don't burn out. Take a moment to pause

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