The immune system of your body, a complex system made of bone marrow, blood, skin, and tissues, work together to protect your body from harmful pathogens.
Right from protecting your body from viruses and bacteria to limiting damage from non-infectious agents like cancer or sunburn, the immune system works round the clock to keep you safe from deadly diseases. So, it becomes essential to help keep up this crucial system’s strength.
Fortunately, you don’t need to do much to keep your body’s immune system in top condition. Just a couple of lifestyle changes and adopting a few healthy alternatives can do the trick for you.
What are these ways to give the much-needed boost to your immune system? Let’s find out!
1. Eat the right kind of food
The first thing you need to do to boost your immune system is to watch what you eat. It has become a sort of food trend to give up on carbs and fats altogether, whereas those are also essential for your good health.
The key lies in selecting the right kind of fats and carbs. The fat found in salmon and olive oil helps the body’s immune responses towards pathogens by bringing down the inflammation. Similarly, good carbs such as whole grains, whole wheat flour, and veggies contain high fiber content. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, this soluble fiber effectively gets rid of the toxins from the body, which makes the immunity system better.
Fermented foods, such as yogurt, kimchi, and kefir, are rich in probiotic bacteria. Add them to your daily diet for your gut health.
2. Watch your sugar intake
It has been proven in several studies that refined carbs and added sugars contribute to obesity and overweight. Being obese is damaging to your body’s immune responses.
Eliminating sugar from your daily diet as much as possible can help you in multiple ways, such as:
- Decreasing inflammation
- Aiding weight loss
- Reducing the risk of heart diseases
- Mitigating the danger of type 2 diabetes
The factors mentioned above can weaken the body’s immune system. Thus, if you want your daily diet to aid your immune system, giving up on sugar is one of the first things to do.
But when it comes to sugar, how much is too much? Since the required daily calorie intake for an adult is around 2,000 calories, two tablespoons of sugar, in various forms, should be the limit.
3. Using Herbs in boosting immune response
A few studies have shown that herbs like neem, moringa, tulsi, and ginger might also have a significant role in boosting your immune responses. While neem has antifungal and antibacterial properties, tulsi has antioxidants and many phytochemicals to combat germs. Moringa is rich in Vitamin C, whereas ginger has antioxidant gingerol to boost immunity.
Another herb that is very effective in this respect is cannabis, as it can enhance white blood cells count. White blood cells, originating in your bone marrow, mainly function as your immunity cells.
Besides, it might also help to decrease inflammation by boosting immune responses of the body. Thus, the ones turning to weed, be it Indica, Sativa, or Hybrid Weed, might be helping the immune system of their body and its quick responses.
However, it’s best to consult an expert before you start taking any herbal remedy, and you must not substitute them for any prescribed medication.
4. Engage in some form of daily exercise
The fact that you need to exercise daily does not mean that you need to join the gym or take fifty laps at the swimming pool every day.
Intense exercise for a long time might turn out to be detrimental to your immune system. The key to a healthy body lies in moderation, even in exercising. Physical activities remove the cold or flu-causing bacteria from the airways and also lungs. This reduces the chance of falling prey to different ailments.
White blood cells and antibodies help in determining any illness faster. When you exercise daily, they modify these cells, helping you identify and prevent any disease. Daily workout also lessens the stress hormones that are responsible for many diseases.
Find something that interests you so that you don’t give up exercising midway. It can be brisk walking for half an hour or a bit of jogging in the morning. The important thing is to stick to your daily exercise routine to boost your immune system.
5. Get enough hours of sleep
Sleep is your body’s way of rejuvenating itself, and it’s closely linked to your immune responses. Even after eating right and exercising daily, if you don’t get enough shut-eye at the end of the day, all your efforts will be in vain.
Let’s give you a simple example of how sleep and your immune responses are tied together. Did you notice that you tend to sleep more when you’re sick? Well, this is your body’s way to let your immune system fight the illness better.
Sleep requirements vary from one person to another, based on age and health conditions. As a general rule of thumb, a healthy adult needs seven to nine hours of sleep at night, while children need fourteen hours at least.
The Bottom Line
As you can see, dietary and lifestyle changes are the surest ways to strengthen the immune system. The ways mentioned above can help give your body the stamina to fight off diseases and remain active and fit. Keep in mind that the impact of all these changes can only be seen when you keep following them consciously in your life.
Reference:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28507007/
https://jcannabisresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42238-019-0007-8
Reblogged this on Blogger Bar & Social Influencer.
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