Falling ill after the month of September is common. Temperature is at an all-time low and stress levels are at an all-time high for students.

But did you know the latter plays a big hand in causing sickness?

Wendi Roscoe, program coordinator of Massage Therapy and professor of Biological Sciences at Fanshawe, explained how stress and sickness go hand in hand.

“When we have a lot of stress, we produce cortisol,” said Roscoe. “[It's] a hormone [that] is meant to function in short-term stress periods to help us increase our blood sugar and to give us energy so that we can fight the stress.”

Roscoe explained that cortisol, while good for shorter stress periods, can inhibit the immune system, which can become problematic for long-term stress.

“Students who spend a lot of time being overwhelmed, the stress accumulates and you have excessive cortisol and you have longer periods of time inhibiting your immune response,” she said. “So then you're going to catch anything that's going around because your immune system can't fight it off.”

Lack of sleep can greatly affect the immune system as well, said Roscoe, who attributed lack of sleep as one of the main causers of sickness.

To combat sickness, Roscoe recommended everyone to do three (simple) things — eat, sleep and exercise.

“You have to have all of your vitamins and minerals so that your cells can function,” said Roscoe, namely zinc, magnesium, calcium and iron.

She also said that vitamin B is important in producing energy, which an infected body desperately needs to “fight things off.”

“If a student is staying up late eating frozen pizza and Pop-Tarts, they're not going to get the minerals they need. And if they're overwhelmed, they're going to have stress,” said Roscoe. “You can get rid of stress and the whole cortisol effect by not procrastinating but [also] by exercising.”

“When you exercise, it sort of gets rid of that mental stress,” she said.

To improve on overall health, regularly intake vitamin D, better known as sunlight, and vitamin C, which you can find in fresh fruit.

“[A lack of vitamin D] is partly why we get more sick in the winter because we're not getting sunlight,” said Roscoe. “We [need to] have enough vitamin D or the immune system is not going to function.”

In the winter months, Roscoe stressed that having one piece of fresh fruit a day goes a long way.

Roscoe also divulged in other affects stress has on the body.

“It will decrease our growth hormone, which we need to maintain muscle mass [and] maintain bone mass. We need growth hormones so we can get rid of the dead cells and make new cells ... it's our anti-aging hormone,” she said. “Stress will produce the [hungry hormone] ... [It] can decrease our thyroid hormones and [they] maintain our metabolism.”

To kick sickness to the curb this year, now you know there are a few things you can do.

So start studying earlier, grab a piece of fruit and go outside to soak some rays. Otherwise, this could be a bumpy cold season. Ahchoo!