December 1, 2025
By:
Brock Reichert
Chief Clinical Officer
I want you to picture this all-too-common scenario: you’re getting ready for an important event. Maybe it’s a big work presentation, a trip you’ve been planning for months, or meeting your partner’s parents for the first time. You need to be at your best.
Then, you walk into the office and your colleague is coughing up a lung and sneezing all over the coffee machine. Your first thought is the same one millions of people have every year: “Oh sh!t, I can’t get sick.”
Some people call their doctor and beg for a Z-pack to “nip it in the bud” (wrong move). Others just treat symptoms with NyQuil or Emergen-C (better, but not enough). A small minority have already done the base work so they can walk into flu season relatively stress-free. That can be you.
Your immune system is a reflection of ALL your current stress: training load, poor sleep, family arguments, late nights working, not enough nutrients, alcohol. Your body doesn’t fully distinguish between “life stress” and “virus stress;” it just knows resources are being used.
Because your immune system is shaped by so many inputs, I like to keep things simple with a 3-part framework:
Manage your total stress load
Give your immune system the right building blocks
Lock in daily habits that support your defenses
Okay, let’s move on to each step:
Manage your total stress load
Psychosocial Stress holds an increased infection risk. A landmark body of research by Cohen and colleagues demonstrated that individuals experiencing chronic stress (e.g. caregiving stress, chronic work stress) are far more likely to develop colds when experimentally exposed to common cold viruses. A meta-analysis of prospective studies confirms that psychological stress is associated with increased susceptibility to upper respiratory infections. These findings underscore that managing stress isn’t just about mental well-being, it is directly tied to immune resilience.
I want to use a “resource” analogy to help explain this. This is where the body shifts priority of its raw materials in order to build the necessary cells for survival. It’s resource intensive for your bone marrow to pump out immune cells and proteins day after day. This is exactly why people who are trying to lose weight and are in a caloric deficit get sick more than those who are not. They simply don’t have the materials to produce a robust immune system. So, while it’s glamorous to try to lose weight in the new year, a heavy calorie deficit does not bode well for fighting off illness. Instead get plenty of protein and micronutrients.
You don’t need exotic powders before you nail these fundamentals.
Hydration
Adequate water intake is often overlooked but is essential. Mucosal surfaces (respiratory and gastrointestinal) are the first contact with pathogens and must stay moist to trap and clear microbes effectively. Dehydration can impair the mucociliary clearance in airways and reduce immune cell trafficking. Ensure you drink plenty of fluids throughout the day, especially during illness or intense exercise when fluid loss can be high.
Basic hygiene (unsexy but major rocks to move):
So to overview, here’s my fail-proof personal immune protocol:
This isn’t an exhaustive list. The immune system is insanely complex, and we didn’t even touch things like colostrum, elderberry, IV therapy, or peptides, etc.
But if you:
…you’ll be ahead of 90% of people this cold and flu season.
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