By the time the sore throat turns up, your body has usually been sending you signals for days. Some of those warning shots you'll recognise straight away — the flat energy, the reluctance to leave the house, the fuzzy feeling in your head. Others are subtle enough to sail past you completely, because they tend to show up in subtler ways.
For years, the idea that you can sense illness coming was written off as hindsight — you only remember the odd Tuesday because you woke up ill on Thursday. Then hundreds of thousands of people started wearing rings and watches logging heart rate, temperature, and sleep every night, and researchers went looking into the data. And it showed them something very interesting. We were on to something after all.
Now, with flu season just around the corner, it's important to be able to notice those signals before you actually get sick. Here are five signs something might be brewing, starting with the ones you can catch yourself, plus some of our favourite products to support your body while it fights against flu and cold.
What to do with an odd few days
If you're experiencing two or three of these symptoms together along with the sense that something's just off, it's worth acting on: be gentler with your movement instead of pushing through, get to bed early while it's still your choice, eat properly, drink more than feels necessary. Then close the app. The aim is a lighter week, not a diagnosis.
Things you can do to protect yourself
These signals don't call for a dramatic response. They simply tell you that your body might need a bit of support while it's fighting off whatever seems to have entered your system. These following products from BioCare, a UK brand with more than 35 years of formulation behind it, can help support your systems in the interim.
Immune defence, for the first-sign days
Biogena's Immune Boost Formula is the one to reach for when two or three of the signals above start appearing. Potent Immune Support with Mushroom Extracts, Vitamins & Zinc all contribute to the normal function of the immune system, and vitamin C and zinc also contribute to the protection of cells from oxidative stress. What makes this formula uniquely powerful is that it also includes 100mg of nucleotides, 100mg of elderberry extract, 100mg of L-lysine, 100mg each of maitake and shiitake mushroom extract, and 50mg of beta 1,3 and 1,6 glucans. All of this makes it a denser blend than the standard vitamin C-and-zinc capsule. Take one capsule twice daily with food, when your immune system is starting to struggle.