How to Boost your Immunity – naturally / Strengthen your Immune System

There are many factors affecting the immune system that we can’t do anything about—ageing weakens our immune function, for example, and we have individual genetic differences that affect how we deal with disease. Malnutrition or physical immobility also impair our immunity.

How to improve immunity / Tips to boost immunity

The certain lifestyle changes can improve the body’s ability to fight illness and infection. Our immune function is incredibly complex.

The human immune system include antibodies, organs, proteins and enzymes. There are also lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell, which include natural killer cells and memory cells.  Others are instruments for figuring out how to defend against bugs we encounter for the first time, called adaptive immunity.

Immunity works best when we support our general health. Here are eight practical approaches that that are proven to show some results.

1. Watch what you eat

Inflammation, a chemical cascade that’s a critical part of our immune response, also has a dark side. When it’s helping, inflammation traps viruses and bacteria by triggering fluid and swelling. It also aids in healing tissues by calling for a cleanup crew of specialized white blood cells called phagocytes. But inflammation is also triggered by glucose and fats, and if it’s constant, it can wreak havoc on your body—causing health problems such as diabetes, liver disease and cardiovascular disease.

Refined carbs, like white flour, and sugar-sweetened drinks, such as colas, have long been linked to higher levels of inflammation in the body, even if the mechanisms aren’t fully understood. A cookie or a piece of candy or cake once in a while isn’t going to impact the immune system, but if highly processed foods have a bigger place on your plate than whole foods like fruits and vegetables, then honestly, you won’t feel good.

 

2. Take your shots

When it comes to powering up the immune system, vaccines are the most important breakthrough in history. Even before COVID-19, vaccinations against diseases like flu and measles were saving four to five million lives a year, according to the World Health Organization. Vaccines don’t fix all problems, but they’re profoundly effective. A vaccine provides a training session for our adaptive immunity, showing it how to fight an invader it’s never seen before. Traditionally, a weakened or killed virus component that can’t make us sick is injected—but some modern vaccines instead contain instructions for our own bodies to make harmless proteins that look similar to the virus. After the vaccine, you’ll have antibodies already made, so when you see the bug, you’re pre-armed and ready. Researchers are developing drugs to try to boost innate immunity, as well. A natural infection may produce a similar effect as a vaccine, but it’s not as safe.

 

3. Get moving

People without much mobility, or those who never exercise, have less resistance to bugs. Regular moderate physical activity, on the other hand, optimizes immune function. And it doesn’t take much. Those with inactive lifestyles has a higher risk of hospitalization, while people who exercised, even a bit, are more likely to get better on their own.

Walking and running stimulate the production of B and T lymphocytes in the bones. Avoid going to extremes, though; some research shows that prolonged, marathon-style physical exertion may disrupt our normal immune function. Aim for 10 to 30 minutes of exercise every day to get the immune benefits. If you have a chronic condition that makes this amount challenging, just do as much as you comfortably or safely can.

 

4. Breathe fresh air

Time spent outdoors gives you a break from indoor air, where infectious bugs may circulate, but it also has benefits for your immune function. A bout of sunlight during the day improves your sleep rhythm at night and allows your body to produce essential vitamin D. And it may do even more than that: in 2016, researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center demonstrated that the sun’s rays increased the activity of T cells.

The very act of going outdoors invariably leads to getting some exercise, and it’s even been shown that exposure to natural environments reduces stress and anxiety.

 

5. Drink more water, and less alcohol

Alcohol negatively affects the immune system in a variety of ways. Excessive drinkers, for example, can have a higher risk of pneumonia and other lung illnesses. They also take longer to recover from injuries and infections.  Alcohol can often take the place of the water that helps our bodies drain waste and deliver nutrients; our immune system relies on both processes.

Carbonated water is as good as regular water for hydration—even the flavoured ones, if they contain natural flavours with no added sugar.

 

6. Harness your mind power

When a burst of fear or anxiety does what it’s designed to do, our bodies are flooded with hormones that help us fight or flee—by raising our heart rate and blood pressure to circulate oxygen, for instance. This is called the sympathetic response. Afterwards, our parasympathetic response kicks in, slowing our heart rate and relaxing our bodies.

But chronic stress—from financial worries, from a loved one’s health scare—means those hormones keep building and circulating, which is unhealthy. Chronic stress can sap our defences and destroy immune cells.

Any break from constant stress will help. Fill your life with opportunities to get away from anxiety, by pushing yourself into positive places. Sing, dance or laugh. Make Tuesday night a comedy night. Do karaoke with your family.

Another strategy is to take time out to feel gratitude for whatever you appreciate in your life: a cuddly cat, a good-news medical-test result, the view from your window. “It’s a way of countering the negative things that jump into your mind with something more positive.”

You can also train yourself to induce physical relaxation in your body. Try deep breathing or, better yet, do an online search for guided relaxation and learn how to clench and release muscle groups.

7. Nurture your relationships

Positive social connections have been linked to reduced chronic stress, lower inflammation and a stronger resistance to disease, while loneliness and isolation have the opposite association.

But it can be extra tough, during a pandemic, to strengthen our friendships and cultivate supportive networks. Get creative: if you’re not a fan of video chats but have safety concerns about indoor visiting, plan outdoor gatherings with your pals or have get-togethers that are snack-free so the masks can stay on. Positive interactions trigger the release of endorphins, which calm down the sympathetic nervous response; social connections also stimulate our natural killer cells.

If people are putting things in your face that make you feel anxious, ‘unfriend’ them and get them off your news feed.

8. Hit the hay

A consistently good sleep of seven to eight hours each night lowers our risk of infection and chronic inflammation. On top of that, it even improves our response to vaccines.

Just like exercise, sleep affects immunity in ways that are many and varied. Unfortunately, people tend to have more trouble sleeping after about age 55 because their body clocks don’t work as well, and they may need to try harder to make improvements.

Part of sleeping right is having a set schedule, at least five days a week. If your sleep pattern is erratic, simply wake up at the same time every day—and you’ll eventually want to go to sleep at a reasonable time.

Take steps to improve your sleep hygiene (ensuring your bedroom is dark, cool and quiet, for example) or investigate your options for help, such as cognitive behavioral therapy. This approach addresses the sources of your insomnia and can be highly effective after just four to eight sessions.

 

6 Signs You Need More Than a Boost

Sometimes a weak immune response is a red flag for more serious medical conditions or other problems. If you experience any of the following, speak with your GP:

• You fall ill too often
• You have recurring digestive issues, like a sore stomach or diarrhoea.
• You get unusual illnesses that your friends and family members don’t catch.
• Scrapes and cuts take a long time to heal.
• You seem to catch new bugs before you’ve recovered from the previous ones.
• Your allergy symptoms wear you down more than usual.