I'm concerned for my family's health, please help

[concernedchild]

I'm in my early 20's. I live with my parents who are older (60's and 70's). We are constantly poorly due to my younger family members (not siblings) constantly bringing bugs into the house.

We've been sick for four weeks now. We're constantly unwell. We're all overweight and need to change but I have no clue where to start. It all seems so overwhelming. Everything seems to be something that makes you unwell. Please, where do I start??? How do I make sure we're all healthy?

Posting in here as it's more active and I think I'll get some advice

Firstly see a doctor to rule out any underlying health problems, especially for older members of the household.

Are you all practicising good hygiene? Washing hands, washing surfaces, making sure the visiting children wash their hands and use tissues?

Keep the house clean and well ventilated (open windows every day for at least an hour).

Look at your diets. Make sure you eat plenty of fruit and vegetables and home cooked food. Good nutrition will help boost your immune system.

Lastly exercise and get outside. Even a brisk walk once a day is a good start.

Good advice from pp. Hope things improve with these steps.

All over 40s are entitled to a 5 yearly health check with the practice nurse.

Are you all taking multivitamins? You should at least be having vitamin D.

I think being unwell is quite typical this time of year. We've all had some sort of respiratory thing and there have been two rounds of a stomach bug since the start of the year. My 11 year old has had a cough since December. We are by all accounts healthy and well and not really overweight.

If you want to feel a bit better: (1) vitamin C and zinc every day until any respiratory illnesses have cleared, (2) eat more fruit and veg in every meal, (3) fresh air and movement - if you aren't already, get out of the house every day and have a walk around the block or around a park or wherever, start slowly and do whatever feels comfortable if you aren't already active. You don't have to run 5 miles, just fresh air and moving for 20-30 minutes if you can.

I have a docs appointment this evening.

Trying to improve our diets but I don’t know where to begin

What is your diet like at the moment?

I take vitamins, I take vitamin D but I don’t know if it makes much of a difference

I'd say okay, I'm trying to cut down on ultra processed foods, I try to get my 5 a day but I struggle and sometimes binge eat

Lifestyle is daunting to change, especially if you're the only one driving it.
If you can all decide to change together it is easier.

Immune systems aren't just magically robust, you wouldn't expect a shrub planted in rubbish rocky ground to thrive, for and bear fruit and or bodies are just as dependent on quality nutrients being available.

Vitamin C which is vital for an immune response can't be stored in the body (unlike done other nutrients which can), so if you don't have it daily in your diet you will be short and more prone to illness.

1. Eat a range of foods with a strong leaning to fruit and veg and minimal stuff made in a factory and bought in a packet (putting it simply).

1. Use your body to move and do things.

Unless you have an underlying condition, those two things are the biggest difference you can make to your own health. Then your younger family members can bring home bugs but you're much less likely to be affected by them.

I have two young children in school, am rarely sick but diet and exercise are decent. I would say this is mostly true for most with a healthy lifestyle.

It is likely if you want to take steroids that you'll need to make changes a bit at a time. One meal a day, one action at a time.... Once it's habit, do the next one... Then when you look back in 6 months time those little changes will have added up to one big change.

Good luck.

I would suggest keeping a food diary for a week. Write down everything you eat. You have to write everything. Then calorie count it, count your portions of fruit and veg. When you have it in black and white you are more likely to spot problems.

I calorie count already, I track my fruit & veg and protein

Often if you have a bad habit or is really hard to break it. One way you can 'trick' yourself is to allow the urge to, say, binge eat to strike... Then tell yourself, ok maybe I'll do that, but I'll just go a walk first. In the time you would spend raiding the cupboards get out of the house, notice how your body feels after the walk and all yourself, do you still want to binge? Don't tell yourself no, tell yourself, later... do something positive while you 'wait', sometimes that way the urge can fade and you can start to loosen the grip/reliance on that desire. It gets easier each time.

There are a hundred different contradictory "diets" or "lifestyle plans" out there, so you can't really rely on what people may advise here. Some will say it's all about calories, and creating a calorie deficit. Others will say you have to cut out ultra high processed foods. Or focus on lean protein, carbs are the enemy. Others will advocate Slimming World and eating particular yoghurts and not cutting up fruit or it becomes a syn food or whatever those rules are.

Generally: reducing highly processed foods, eating lots of vegetables and 'whole' foods, is a good starting point. It means you naturally reduce calories since it's harder to eat loads of calories of vegetable soup or salads compared with chocolate and fizzy drinks. Drinking a decent amount of water can help you feel more full and reduce how much you eat.

Think about whether your eating habits are linked to your emotions - do you snack because you're bored, turn to chocolate when you're sad. Can you address those habits and change to sticking music on and having a quick dance around the house instead, or change a glass of wine on a Friday night to another sort of treat like having a bath. While also acknowledging that if that one glass of wine scratches an itch, why not keep it. You don't have to suck all joy from your lives.

Take up whatever exercise you can stick at and enjoy.

Remember that there are no magic supplements that fix all your problems, or the people selling it would be billionaires and everyone would take it.

List some of the meals you all eat and enjoy.
It's easier if people make some suggestions to make small changes to your usual routine and preferences.

Some suggestions -
Cut down on snacking and sugar
Go for daily walks
Fill your free time with things you find relaxing and enjoying

The meals I make most often are things like cottage pie, stew, soup, lasagne.

Most tend to have 3-4 portions of fruit and veg according to my calorie counter and average 300-600 calories per serving

@concernedchild That sounds quite healthy already.

Vitamin D especially this time of year definitely will be helping. Don’t stop it.
Food — go back to basics and make it simple. For your main meal start with protein which can be meat, fish, eggs or legumes https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/healthiest-beans-legumes
Add in fresh or frozen veg ( frozen is as good as fresh though texture not always appealing) and a small helping of carb — rice or potato. This part should be the smallest part of the meal. Then fruit or yoghurt to follow if you need it.
Breakfast can be porridge, eggs or a smoothie ( more veg than fruit to keep sugar down) Sugar free cereal is probably ok. https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/nutrition/breakfast-cereals-ranked-best-to-worst
Any snacks should be nuts or fruit though I know these can be expensive.

And all the hand hygiene as pp said, especially with kids. Make sure you disinfect things like phones, screens which are easy to forget.

My main meals tend to be. I just fall down around snacks. Especially crisps and chocolate. I try not to keep them in my food shop but we have them round the house because if the kids.

Have you checked your house out for any black mould? We were feeling very similar and then discovered our shower was leaking into a wall creating a lot of hidden mould. Mould spores in the air then lead to ‘mould sickness’ which was a lot like recurring bacterial infections, for us.

My room has a mould problem. My parents think it's just ventilation, I can't afford any specialists etc., to come and take a look and they'd never consent to that

Are you exercising/walking? That has a huge impact on health. In terms of diet, how many calories are you eating and how many should you be eating? If you are tracking, you clearly have some idea of food and health so what specifically do you want to change?

Trying to but when I'm constantly run down and poorly it makes it so much harder.

I want to lose weight and be healthy. But when I get like this it becomes so difficult

Ok so you need to give an idea of how many cals you are having a day, your weight and height etc if you need help with that. If it’s general health you want to talk about, then you need to look overall at what you are eating and the vitamin and nutrition there and perhaps people can give you ideas.
Are you exercising? Moving around generally or very sedentary?
You aren’t giving much info to help with.

If you have mould in your bedroom you need to clean it off.

Distilled white vinegar is great for that, it kills the spores.

Every time I clean it off it comes back, I don’t know what to do