The Times of India (Mumbai edition)6 Jan 2019

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Supercharge your defences as the nights draw in and the mercury drops. Use this hour-by-hour guide to ward off the winter nasties. That frantic work deadline could be exactly what the doctor ordered. “Short bursts of stress actually strengthen the immune system,” explains Professor Jim Horne, director of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University. “When we start to become stressed we release the hormones cortisol and adrenaline. This warns the body of the possible imminent threat of infection. The immune system responds by increasing the production of immune cells. The key is doing something stressful that you know will end soon.” Long-term stress, however, has the opposite effect. It’s harder to hit a moving target and that goes for a cold too. University of Massachusetts researchers found that the most physically active people had 25 per cent fewer upper respiratory infections over the course of a year than couch potatoes. Researchers believe exercise may strengthen immune function, in part, by increasing the body’s production of white blood cells. January is the big month for buying gym memberships. The excesses of the holiday season leave many of us looking to make improvements in our lives — a search that often leads straight to the elliptical machine. But what about your job and career? How have those been working out?

Many people spend most of their waking hours at work or thinking about work. In the dim chill of a but within minutes the virus will spread to the rest of the paper and even other items in the handbag.”

So, wipe and throw, and if you insist on oldschool cotton hankies, wash them at a minimum of 60oC and iron them on a high heat to kill off any nasties. According to researchers at the Loughborough University’s Sleep Research Centre, if the amount of sleep you’re logging decreases by 40 per cent or more (for instance, you sleep four hours instead of the usual seven), the effectiveness of your immune system will decline by 50 per cent. And for the immune system to operate at full strength, you’ll need to sleep a straight eight, the amount shown to produce the highest levels of ‘natural killer cells’, which attack viruses.