Every office has one: the coworker who somehow makes it through cold and flu season unscathed. Immunologists say luck plays a smaller role than most people assume — durable immune health tends to come from a short list of unglamorous habits, repeated consistently.
Sleep tops the list. Researchers at Larkspur Wellness Clinic have found that adults who sleep fewer than six hours a night are markedly more likely to develop a cold after exposure to a virus than those who sleep seven or more. The effect held even when researchers controlled for stress and diet.
Hydration, regular moderate exercise, and — somewhat counterintuitively — a wider social circle also correlate with fewer sick days. Loneliness has been linked in multiple studies to elevated inflammation markers, while frequent low-stakes social contact appears mildly protective.
None of it is exotic. “The people who avoid getting sick aren’t doing anything unusual,” one clinic immunologist said. “They’re just doing the ordinary things consistently, instead of occasionally.”