All protocols

Use psychosocial intervention as the first-line treatment for children with acute or chronic PTSD rather than stimulant medication.

Identify the sensory cues that trigger symptoms; knowing cues helps people understand symptoms are not coming out of nowhere and can improve recovery.

Build a customized toolbox of stress-regulation tools; the individual decides what cues to watch for and which tools help. Examples mentioned include positive thoughts, deep breathing, mindfulness, muscle relaxation, music, sports, teammates, coaches, friends, and sleepovers.

Presented as a personalized coping tool developed by a child to use when feeling bad; included as an example of identifying an individual tool that helps.

Examine a stress response by mapping four corners: thoughts, emotions, physical feelings, and actions. Start with whichever corner is most accessible for the person; changing one corner can shift the others and produce a new response.

Rate stress from 0 or 1 to 10 before intervening. If stress is very high, around 8–10 out of 10, use a toolbox tool first rather than the square exercise; wait until stress drops to around 5–3 before engaging cognitively.

Build dedicated space and time for mindfulness or decompression, especially in overstimulating environments like social media; this should be personalized.

Create explicit family boundaries for social media use. One example given was putting all phones in a basket at dinner and leaving them there during the meal.

Train classroom teachers to deliver yoga and mindfulness rather than relying only on outside instructors, because teachers know classroom management.

Even if not sleeping, lie quietly with eyes closed and stay in bed a bit longer; in the cited Stanford athlete study, resting or sleeping more improved performance. Avoid being on the phone during this time.

If you are sneezing, coughing, or still experiencing cold symptoms, avoid work, the gym, and contact with others as much as possible because you are still contagious.

Log sleep quality, workout intensity, travel, interactions, and other life events daily in a calendar, then when you get sick look back at the days before symptom onset and recovery to identify patterns that may have contributed.

When actively trying to avoid getting a cold or flu, think twice before hugging someone or kissing them on the cheek.

After shaking someone's hand, sanitize your hands to reduce the chance of transferring viruses to your face.

Do not remain in a calorie deficit for many days, especially during winter, because dieting and under-eating can compromise innate immune function.

Short bouts of stress can enhance immune function provided they do not impair sleep; cortisol is beneficial when elevated early in the day rather than late in the day or evening.

Capsule form can be used to support the gut microbiome.

Upon waking, before brushing teeth, take a sip of clean water, swish it around in your mouth, and swallow it to potentially support the oral and gut microbiome.

If you feel unusual whole-body heaviness, fatigue, or a throat tickle, go home and rest rather than pushing activity; get into bed early, and even if you cannot fall asleep, remain as still and relaxed as possible.

Long-duration endurance efforts like marathon training can severely compromise innate immune function and increase vulnerability to colds and flus.

After warming up, keep most workouts to about 50 to 60 minutes, be very careful about exceeding 75 minutes in a single bout, avoid stacking two hard workouts in one day if you are prone to getting sick, and take one full rest day from exercise each week.

If you trained fasted and especially if the session exceeded 60 to 75 minutes, ingest complex carbohydrates and perhaps fruit within about 45 minutes to 1 hour after exercise.

Use sauna regularly to help keep colds and flus at bay: examples given include 3 rounds of 15 minutes with 2-minute cool-off periods between rounds, or a single 20- to 30-minute session. During breaks, you can take a cool or cool-ish shower or simply stand outside the sauna. Avoid sauna when already feeling really run down, heavy in the body, or starting to get sniffles.

He does not recommend it strongly; evidence suggests little to no benefit. If used anyway, reserve it for when feeling run down or for the highest-risk winter month, not continuously and not for more than 4 weeks.

Included as a simple supportive option one might use when dealing with a cold or flu.

He includes having a good meal among the simple supportive measures one might use when sick.

Mentioned as a simple supportive option people may choose to use when dealing with a cold or flu.

Avoid long fasting windows such as holding the fast until noon or doing very low-calorie restriction days; described as detrimental for active women unless there is PCOS or another metabolic issue.

Women should not train in a fasted state because it increases cortisol and sympathetic drive and reduces ability to hit needed intensities; especially avoid fasted high-intensity or resistance training in perimenopause and beyond.

Have a small amount of food after waking to bring blood sugar up and signal to the hypothalamus that nutrition is available, especially for women. If training within about 30 minutes of waking and appetite is low, this can be a liquid option such as a double espresso prepared with sweetened almond milk for carbohydrate plus a scoop of protein powder.