Growing up, my mother would force-feed me 10-15 vitamins a day…every day. In addition, we ate fairly healthy food (though more meat than I do nowadays), vinegar juice with every meal (a diluted solution of apple cider vinegar in water), and I didn’t have soda until well into my teens.
This is not a complaint, just a factual re-telling.
In that time, I really didn’t get sick all that much. Maybe a half a dozen times, really, and only for maybe 3 days or so. It is possible that I am remembering through rose-colored glasses, but what I am sure of is that I didn’t really get sick very much.
I then went to college. Of course I barely took my vitamins, drank a ton of soda, stayed up really late, etc. I still ate pretty well, though, and have never really developed a taste for sweets or junk food (except chips and salsa…I do love the chips and salsa).
I also got sick a lot.
In truth, I probably didn’t get sick a lot as compared to the rest of the population, I just got sick more often than I was used to. Coincidence? Probably not. Just because of the vitamins? Probably also not, in truth.
I still get sick more than I’m used to. I’m on to my second cold this year, and I’d really rather not have one at all. I do take my vitamins more than I used to, and if anything I eat healthier than I ever have (except for the McDonald’s breakfasts from time to time)…but my stress level is higher, my sleep is less…and I’m old(er). The sleep part is, in my estimation, the main contributor to this problem. More so even than the vitamins, they being supplements and me eating fairly well as I mentioned. I go pretty hard all day and into the night, get very little sleep, and then do it all again. By the time the weekends roll around, I’m exhausted. Where other people go out, I crash. I go out nearly every day during the week, but almost never Sat/Sun…which I like, actually.
Lifestyle notwithstanding, though, I need to get more sleep. And less sick.