Office Hours:The Supplements, Foods, and Habits I Use to Stop a Cold Before It Starts

Mark Hyman, MD

Dr. Mark Hyman is leading a health revolution—one focused on using food as medicine to support longevity, energy, mental clarity, happiness, and so much more. Mark Hyman, MD is a practicing family physician and an internationally recognized leader, speaker, educator, and advocate in the field of Functional Medicine. He is the founder and director of The UltraWellness Center, Founder and Senior Advisor for the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, a sixteen-time New York Times best-selling author, and Board President for Clinical Affairs for The Institute for Functional Medicine. He is the founder and chairman of the Food Fix Campaign, dedicated to transforming our food and agriculture system through policy.

He is a co-founder and the Chief Medical Officer of Function Health. He is the host of one of the leading health podcasts, The Dr. Hyman Show with 150+ million downloads. Dr. Hyman is a regular medical contributor to several television shows and networks, including CBS This Morning, Today, Good Morning America, The View, Fox, and CNN.

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Full Transcript

Automatically generated. Please forgive any typos or errors in the following transcript. It was generated by a third party and has not been subsequently reviewed by our team.

Emma (Producer)
So if I wanna get through this year's cold and flu season and I don't wanna feel sick every other day, where do you think I should start?

Dr. Mark Hyman
I can tell you that knowing what I know and what I'm gonna do, I almost never get sick.

Emma (Producer)
How does that happen? What's going

Dr. Mark Hyman
If you're eating a bad diet, you're not exercising, if you don't sleep well, if you're stressed, if your nutrient levels aren't optimized, if your gut isn't healthy, you're going to be more likely to get sick. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the office hours. I'm here again with Emma, one of the producers of the Doctor. Show.

And today, we're talking about something that comes up every single year as we head into cold and flu season. Emma, what are we getting into today?

Emma (Producer)
So every fall, I feel like I'm being bombarded with ways for me to boost my immune system. I've been told to take vitamin c, to take zinc, take this shot, buy this supplement. And it really made me think, can I actually boost my immune system?

Dr. Mark Hyman
Actually, boost may not be the right word, but you definitely influence your immune system by everything that's happening. So if you're eating a crappy diet, your immune system doesn't work as well, if you're eating sugar your immune system doesn't work as well, if you're nutrient depleted your immune system for sure doesn't work as well, if you're low in zinc or vitamin D or omega-three fats or selenium or many many other nutrients that we need, your immune system may not work as well. If your gut microbiome is unhealthy, it's going to affect your overall health and can drive more inflammation. If you are not getting enough sleep, that affects your immune system. If you're not exercising, that affects your immune system.

If you're stressed, that certainly is affecting and suppressing your immune system. So absolutely your immune system can be optimized by modulating things that we know affect your immune function. So there's no doubt about that. The science on this is really clear.

Speaker 3
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Emma (Producer)
So if I wanna get through this year's cold and flu season and I don't wanna feel sick every other day, where do you think I should start? So if I'm trying to build a resilient immune system, what does that actually mean for me?

Dr. Mark Hyman
For immune system and the rest of your health, the the foundations are the same. So it's it's eating whole foods. It's not eating ultra processed food. It's optimizing your nutrient status, checking your nutrient levels. And this is what we do through Functional Health.

So you can check your vitamin D, can check your omega-3s, you can check your zinc, you can check your iron level, you can check a whole bunch of things that affect your overall immune function. Optimize your sleep because if you're not sleeping, your immune system's gonna be affected. Optimize your stress, learning how to regulate your stress response. So meditation, yoga, breath work, whatever like massage, whatever you can figure out how to do to really reset your nervous system is really important every day. All these things play a role.

So start with those foundations of diet, exercise, sleep, stress management and optimizing nutrient levels. Those are just foundational. Other things will affect you like alcohol, probably not a good idea. Circadian rhythm to disrupt it is a problem. A lot of people have not regular sleeping and waking times.

I think people who are having a lot of gut issues affects their immune system so fixing your gut can be very helpful. Sometimes people have underlying immune issues, like they have immune deficiency issues and those can be identified and searched for and actually optimized. And then there's ways to really be taking things that can really help like optimizing your nutrients. Like I said, vitamin D is probably the most important one and most people are deficient or insufficient. The representation of the lab is 30, it should probably be more like 45 to 60 or 70.

And that probably, if I'd say one single most important intervention, that would be it. I mean there was a great study in COVID where they looked at people who were low in vitamin D, they had a seventy five percent higher risk of ending up in the hospital or dying. That's big, okay? And those who had a vitamin D level over 50, this was the biggest really study, there were zero deaths, zero. Wow.

Not one. So that got my attention. And so I think it's important to just build those foundational things. And then you know, if you tend to be someone who gets sick, there's a lot of great herbal formulas out there that I use. There's adaptogenic mushrooms.

You might want to make sure you're getting adequate zinc and vitamin C on a regular basis. You make sure you're optimizing your vitamin D as I said and then you basically have these foundational things. Sometimes there are other things you can take there. There are gut supportive things that are really helpful that are like colostrum based products that I use. One's called Transfer Factor Multi immune, which I use.

There's also herbal formulas like Chinese mushrooms that I'll use for people to sort of support their health during the winter season with Chinese mushrooms and Electric C and Zinc and Selenium. So there's formula that I use and often when people are starting to feel sick, I'll recommend they do a couple of really key things which sound kind of unusual but they really seem to work which is fifty thousand of vitamin A and fifty thousand of vitamin D for three to five days right at the onset of your symptoms. If you feel any kind of like, I think I might be getting sick, start right then because you wait too long it won't work And I usually combine that with the adaptogenic mushrooms and some of these other nutrients. So those are really simple things you can do. Also you know, making sure you're smart about you know, not being...

You know, trying to be around people who are sick or, you know, washing your hands and just basic hygiene.

Emma (Producer)
I wanna take a step back as well too. We're talking about cold and flu season. I'm talking about my immune system and how I can really create and boost my healthy immune system. What is an immune system? Can you take me back and just kind of explain the foundations of what that does for me?

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah. Well, your immune system is basically a surveillance system. It's like radar, and it's detecting what's going on in the world. And it's sensing through both what we call the adaptive immune system, which is like antibody related, which is a more evolved immune system, and the innate immune system, or what we call cell mediated immune system which is basically more of an ancient immune system. It's sensing what's happening in your microbiome, it's sensing what's happening with viruses and bacteria, with cancer cells, it's constantly on the lookout for trouble.

And then when they see trouble, it turns on, it activates. So for example, your innate immune system is activated by saunas, it's a great thing you can do, I like to take saunas and that helps your innate old intra immune system to work better. And to be more resilient, if you look at how your body's producing reactions, it's often through antibodies against various viruses or bacteria or proteins or even foods. And so the immune system is essentially comprised of these two basically systems and within that there's a lot of different variations of how it works but basically is a surveillance system that's designed to see danger and then do something about it and then activate these cells, T cells and B cells which are actually producing various kinds of things that will either kill the bacteria viruses like hydrogen peroxide or even ozone that cells, your cells produce or it'll create an antibody that will basically go and attack it and target it and then you'll be, it'll be eaten up like a Pac Man, like macrophage will eat up and get rid of it. So that's if it's working well.

If it's not working well it becomes overwhelmed and you can't handle the load, you'll get sick. But I can tell you that knowing what I know and knowing I do, I almost never get sick. Like I'll literally feel something and I'll have my little stash with me that I travel with and if I start to feel something, I'll immediately take it. And I I happened recently. I was traveling a lot.

I got back from Europe, and I was on planes, and I was around a lot of people, and I started feeling a little off. And I was like, immediately started my stack, and I never I never ended up getting sick. So I think, you know, the body has an amazing capacity to to adapt if you provide the right support for it.

Emma (Producer)
Okay. I wanna lean into that more. So I feel like we all know someone in our life where if they're around anyone that's sick, they are prone to get sick, and I recognize there could be a a variety of reasons for that. But there's also the individual in our lives such as you that never gets sick. How does that happen?

What's going on?

Dr. Mark Hyman
It's all those things, Emma. It's it's... You know, if you're eating a bad diet, you're not exercising, if you don't sleep well, if you're stressed, if your nutrient levels aren't optimized, your gut isn't healthy, you're going to be more likely to get sick. If you take care of all those things, your body's more resilient. So the whole purpose of functional medicine and the work that I do is not to create a restrictive life.

It's actually the opposite. It's to make you more resilient and less fragile. And when we look at health, health is about resilience. How much can you handle and still go? And people who are fragile tend to have systems that aren't optimized.

Functional medicine is really as simple as taking out the bad stuff, putting in the good stuff and the body will kind of get to a new level of health that allows it to respond in a more appropriate way to whatever's happening in life. And that's not that hard, it's just people don't understand the operating manual. This is really where I've kind of wrote this new book that's coming out next March, which is really about how does your body work? What's the map of the body? How does it work?

How do you interact with it? How do you identify what's going on? How do you optimize the different systems in your body? It's not that hard. You know, sometimes it's but like if you're loaded with toxins, that'll affect your immune system.

So sometimes getting rid of the toxins is harder. If you have a lot of gut issues, that's a little harder. But usually working with a provider, you can you can get that last 20% sorted. But the 80% is really the things we're talking about that most people have access to.

Emma (Producer)
What about my metabolic health? What does it have to do with whether I can fight off a respiratory infection, for example?

Dr. Mark Hyman
Well, I mean, we know that, you know, sugar is is definitely an immune suppressant. And with knowledge sugar, one, it affects their immune cell function. Two, it affects their level of inflammation, it affects their vulnerability to infections, and the insulin resistance creates this sort of vicious cycle. So I think if you're eating dessert it's not going to kill you once in a while, but if your overall metabolic system is not healthy you're going to be in trouble. So I for example, I had ice cream last night, I maybe have it once a month or every couple months, I love ice cream but I'll I won't indulge too much, but I was like, okay, gonna have a nice dinner, I had protein, I had fat, I had fiber, I'm gonna have a little ice cream.

If I ate a pint of ice cream every night, my immune system wouldn't work properly. So it's really about the metabolic resilience and I exercise and I eat well and I try to sleep well. I basically have 10% body fat, my insulin level is under five, I have no glucose issues even at 66 which affects most people my age. And it's just because I know what to do. And I've been doing this for thirty years.

You know, ride my bike for an hour, go workout for forty five minutes, I'll do yoga. So I'm constantly doing things to help restore my system. It's really about understanding that if you eat a lot of sugar and processed food, it definitely is affecting your immune system, it's definitely causing insulin resistance, the insulin resistance suppresses your immune system, and you end up in this vicious cycle.

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Dr. Mark Hyman
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Emma (Producer)
So say I am... The season's changing. Right? We're getting colder. Everyone around me is starting to get the sniffles, and I really wanna set myself up for success.

I'm going to the grocery store, and I'm putting all these healthy nourishing foods into my cart. What are you telling me to put in my cart? If you were to design Mark's ideal cold and flu seasonal plate, what would that look like?

Dr. Mark Hyman
I often say when I go to the grocery stores, I go to my pharmacy. That's f a r m a c y. And I and I think literally as I go through the grocery store, and I can do this because this is what I've studied, is I literally look at all the food, I'm like, what does this do to my body? What does that do to my body? How's this affecting my immune system?

How's this affecting my microbiome? What am I... So I literally can kind of go through, go okay, I'm gonna get some ginger because that's anti inflammatory. Don't know garlic is also an antimicrobial, antiviral, I'm eating a lot of garlic. Or I'm gonna have daikon radish which helps you know detoxification.

I'm gonna eat more artichokes which is a prebiotic fiber to help my microbiome. Or I'm gonna buy some sauerkraut because that's also going to be great as a fermented food for my microbiome or have some miso soup. But you know what typically I'll do, I'll make chicken soup with a whole chicken, but I'll put in a lot of ginger, a lot of garlic. I might even put astragalus in there, which is a kind of a Japanese herb, and you can buy these in the Chinese herbal store. They look like tongue depressors and they're big yellow things, and astragalus we know has a huge, huge effect on the immune system and improving immune response.

I'll put in also like a lot of good root vegetables, a lot of minerals. So I'll put in like sweet potatoes, and I'll put in carrots, and I'll put in celery, and it just, it really helps to kind of create this this incredibly nourishing, delicious soup. And and I think, you know, the Chinese have thought about this for years. They thought, what are the ingredients that you need to eat in order to be healthy? So I I kind of go through the grocery store and I think about, you know, what what do I need to do with phytochemicals?

I want to eat a lot of phytochemicals from colorful plant foods. I want to have a lot of fiber. So I make sure they're fiber rich vegetables. I make sure I have fermented foods, prebiotic foods. I have a large diversity of foods to feed my microbiome.

That I have foods that I know regulate health immunity, whether it's astragalus or that's more of an herb, or ginger or garlic, I'll do that. Curcumin is great also, can make curries, another immune support and anti inflammatory. There's a lot of things that I know that you can do, and I think it's it's not hard to make an immune shopping list.

Emma (Producer)
This soup sounds amazing, so I'm gonna have to get you to make it for me one day. So we know when you're feeling sick, you're gonna be working in the kitchen. That's what you're gonna be cooking. Those are the foods you're gonna be purchasing. What about supplements?

I'm always told, you know, vitamin c. I need vitamin d. I need zinc. What specific supplements are you taking when you're starting to feel kind of these niggles, the sniffles, etcetera?

Dr. Mark Hyman
I mean, first of all, make sure your nutrient levels are optimized all the time so you won't get sick. Second is, the most important is vitamin D. And I think you make sure you not just take vitamin D, but that you measure your vitamin D level because some people need a thousand units to get their levels up, some people need ten thousand units. So you can't know unless you test before and And vitamin D is probably the single most important immune modulating nutrient that you can take and probably sixty to eighty percent are insufficient or deficient in vitamin D. So it's an easy hack and it's cheap, it's pennies a day.

You mentioned zinc, very important, vitamin C very important. There is some data on zinc lozenges which is helping in early cold. Vitamin C, know, I think it doesn't, the data is kind of mixed on this, but it definitely is important for a healthy immune function. And I think making sure that those nutrients are optimized is really key. Then there's obviously selenium, there's also the B vitamins that are very important and methylation which has a lot of effects on the immune function and health.

So there's a lot of different pathways, but I think those vitamin D, zinc and vitamin C are probably the most important.

Emma (Producer)
And that's what's in your little travel pack that you mentioned before.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah, my travel pack is vitamin D and I put fifty, I put, basically I have five little packets of supplements. And they're like my emergency pack. And I put in fifty thousand of A, fifty thousand of D. I put in something called Host Defense. I put in an herbal formula that has a lot of different adaptogenic mushrooms and I also put in some echinacea.

I have that and if... I might even throw in vitamin C in there as well. And if I have those traveling with me and I start to feel something and I take it, I never I never get sick.

Emma (Producer)
I want to also talk about sleep because that's also something that is always mentioned when we are feeling kind of low and flat. So if I gave you a choice between the perfect supplement stack, like you just mentioned, and consistently getting enough sleep, what one would you pick?

Dr. Mark Hyman
Well, it depends. If you're if you're very deficient in vitamin D, I'd probably say vitamin D.

Emma (Producer)
Okay.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Like, if you if you measure your vitamin D level and it was under 30, I'd be like, Yeah, that's probably the most important thing you can do. Because that's low, you can sleep all you want and it's not going to

Emma (Producer)
help. Right.

Dr. Mark Hyman
With that said, I think sleep has a huge effect on immune function and lack of sleep causes suppressed immunity. It creates more inflammation in the body. It disregulates hormones. It affects your appetite and sugar cravings. Affects your ability to handle stress.

And so it has many, many ways that it disregulates your immune function. That's kind of how how I think we need to think about sleep. It's really important if it is also free. But but but the vitamin D is also almost free, so it's pennies.

Emma (Producer)
True. Okay. There's also been a theme in my life where I'll push through a really stressful experience or maybe, like, chapter of my life. And I get to the end. I can finally stop and chill out.

And funny enough, I get sick. Why is this happening? Is it a real thing? Am I just thinking that, or is this a real cycle that you've seen?

Dr. Mark Hyman
I mean, it's a common thing. I don't know if there's a randomized controlled trial on it, but I I definitely have heard this phenomenon. I think it's real. And I think, you know, you're... You you sometimes maybe will just kind of push through something and feel quite activated.

But then when you stop, your your body just has a chance to kind of collapse. And I think, you know, you probably, you know, just have a weakened immune system at that point. And then when something shows up, you're more likely to get it.

Emma (Producer)
So, like, more vulnerable and susceptible, I guess, at those times. Yeah. What about exercise? We know exercise is so great for our overall health to support our immunity. But when we're not feeling well, can too much exercise actually work against you?

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah. A little bit of exercise is actually good when you're when you're sick. If you if you look at how it affects immune function, if you overexercise in general, that'll cause more inflammation and more stress to the system. So like doing ultramarathons or doing, just crazy amounts of exercise, it's not more is better when it comes to exercise. It's it's just that sweet spot where you're activating your system, but you're not overdoing it.

And if you do that, you will actually have an improved immunity, not a lower immunity. But if you overdo it, you're gonna have a suppressed immune function.

Emma (Producer)
So say specifically, I'm I'm starting to feel like I'm getting a cold. Is there a specific type of exercise I should be doing or not doing in that time?

Dr. Mark Hyman
Take a walk. You know, if you... If you're already biking or exercising or running, you can do that, but probably less, just a little bit less. But a little bit will help. And I I I typically exercise when I'm sick.

Even, you know, even though your brain's like, I don't want to do anything, I try to do a little bit because I know it helps.

Emma (Producer)
What about weight training?

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah. I don't I don't know if there's a lot of data on weight training and the immune function, but I'm sure it helps. And I think that, you know, if you wanna strength train and you're feeling a little under the weather, it's okay. If you're really sick, obviously, you wanna take it easy. Like, if you have the flu or if you're, like, really, really sick.

But if you're a little sick, you could kinda get away with it.

Emma (Producer)
I wanna go back to kind of your protocol and your approach. So we talked about diet. We talked about supplements. I wanna know specifically what doctor Mark Hyman is doing when he's waking up with a scratchy throat, you know, maybe a bit of a headache. In that first twenty four hour period, can you share with me your protocol?

What are you eating? My exercise, etcetera?

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah. First first thing I do is I take my little supplement stack. And this is not something I'm recommending to people, but I will have access to peptides that are high quality and I will use thymosin alpha-one and L-thirty seven which are immune in my antimicrobial peptides. I don't think this is ready for prime time. I'm not suggesting people do it.

I'm just sharing what I do because I'm willing to take a little bit more risk and I can tell you it really helps. I also make sure I prioritize sleep, I make sure I do saunas, I probably don't do cold plunges but I'll do a sauna or a steam. I'll try to get a massage, I'll try to just rest a little more. I obviously eat really healthy, I'll make my special chicken soup if I'm in a place where I could cook which is really amazing. I think the ginger and garlic really help and you know some of these herbs I put in there are really great.

And that really helps kind of me feel better. And there's also a trick that I use which is a little bit intense but I'll share it with you. It's not for everybody but I take garlic and I crush it with a garlic crusher and maybe a clover to it and put it in the bottom of like a like a maybe a 16 ounce like cup. And then I'll put in sliced ginger into boiling water and I'll boil it like a really boil ginger for quite a long time and get the ginger into the water and then I'll put honey lemon and I'll put red pepper flakes like hot pepper into the glass or the cup. So it's basically garlic is ginger water is red peppers honey lemon and then I let it sort of pour the boiling water on there, I let it steep for a couple of minutes and then I drink it.

It makes your breath taste horrible but it's really quite amazing, it'll help a lot with symptoms, It... It's quite it's quite a good little trick. It's... But it's intense to drink. It's like, it's hot, spicy.

Emma (Producer)
It's like I bet.

Dr. Mark Hyman
It's intense. But if I... I like it.

Emma (Producer)
You hope you have no in person meetings that day as

Dr. Mark Hyman
well. Exactly.

Emma (Producer)
Okay. What about vaccines? We can't talk about cold and flu season without vaccines. Where do they fit into the equation?

Dr. Mark Hyman
Well, mean, there's no cold vaccine. There's the flu vaccine. And the flu vaccine, you know, when I was in medical school and when I was in training, it was quite interesting. Was recommended only to people who were kids who had some kind of problem, whether it was asthma or lung disease or some developmental issue or people with diabetes or heart failure or some chronic disease or if you're 65. So it wasn't recommended for everybody.

Now they recommend it from six months to 106. It's quite incredible. I think it doesn't work that well. It works only about fifty percent of the time. It depends on the flu vaccine, the flu season, the virus.

So it it can help reduce the severity, and and it can be helpful. But if you do all these other things, I'm not good. I don't think I've ever got the flu. Like, don't ever remember having the flu. And I personally don't take the flu vaccine because I do all these other things to regulate my immune system.

And I think, you know, that's my personal choice. I do recommend the flu vaccine for some people who are more sick or have lung diseases or heart failure or diabetes or who just are more at risk if they get sick. But I don't think it's necessary for everybody. And I know this is going against the grain, but this is my personal opinion. And when you look at the literature, it's kind of iffy on the vaccines.

Also if you're getting a vaccine, a flu vaccine, to make sure you ask for a single dose vial because the multi dose vial, which means they just basically have a big bottle and they keep drawing out for multiple people, won't obviously sterilize it the best they can, it's not that it's a risk of infection, but they use mercury, form of ethyl mercury or thimerosal as a preservative. So you're getting mercury injected and if you're doing this every year, you're getting mercury every year. And there's been some signals around this, around particularly Alzheimer's like and some studies. So I don't... It's not proven yet, but there's...

It's just... I wouldn't I wouldn't take the mercury if you don't need it.

Emma (Producer)
To close out, I have two rapid fire questions for you. The first one is, should I starve a fever?

Dr. Mark Hyman
No. I don't think so. You wanna get hydrated. You want a chicken soup. You you need nutrient.

Like, I would eat stuff that's highly digestible, but I would say you you probably want to eat.

Emma (Producer)
The last question I have for you is what is the single most underrated thing people can do during cold and flu season?

Dr. Mark Hyman
Make sure you get enough sleep. Just make sure you get enough sleep and take your vitamin d.

Emma (Producer)
Amazing. Well, thank you, Mark. I feel like I'm a lot more equipped as I enter cold and flu season. I appreciate it.

Dr. Mark Hyman
My pleasure. If you love that last video, you're gonna love the next one. Check it out here.