How do top sports people avoid illness? I'm thinking particularly of those who compete in winter months like footballers and cx racers, and especially those with young children.
Simple really, although most people don't do it as "real life" always takes up too much time: Sleep lots, eat well.
Echinacea can help too (used by several friends)
Rob
avoiding children probably helps a lot ime
+1 for avoiding children
Riding bikes is a pretty effective way of avoiding children IMHO 😉
Rob
Avoid people with colds / flu, especially after training and especially if training has been hard (some immunosupression occurs after training).
Wash your hands a lot / use alcogel if there's anyone with a cold at home and/or if you're out in public places, including work.
Research says echinacea is no better than placebo (but placebos do help a bit). There's some evidence for high dose vitamin C in elite athletes.
Avoid people !
I travel to London once or twice a month - train, tube, office - and most bugs I pick up are a result of this. Nothing like being pressed against someone on the tube who's coughing and spluttering and just knowing you're going to get whatever they've got. Maybe I should make like a Japanese and start wearing a face mask ?
As jb79 says, frequent hand washing can do a lot to mitigate this. I carry antiseptic hand wipes when travelling.
I very rarely get I'll and I'm sure it's down to my mother being a teacher.
She brought home all the bugs under the sun, I'm guessing my immune system had a head start over other people.
Second the plenty of sleep, and not to overtrain ...
I also recommend Echinacea (placebo or not) as well as Sambucol if theres a lot of colds / flu going around.
Short term use only though.
I'm not sure how footballers manage but everyone else just mans up I guess.
Was it Hinault or Lemond who had to do a sloppy poo in one of his domestique's hats while they were riding along? It's very common for long distance cyclists to have severe runs and yet they just get on with it.
I'm sure plenty of other professional sports people do their best to ignore the illness and do their jobs and most of thenm will have excellent doctors who can give them something to get them through the important bit.
I'd say good food and don't overtrain.
don simon, cold and flu free since 1990.