While it may sound like a no-brainer, boosting your immune system is actually much harder to accomplish than you might think — and for good reason.
Your immune system is incredibly complex. It has to be strong enough and sophisticated enough to fight off a variety of illnesses and infections, but not so strong that it overreacts unnecessarily — causing allergies and other autoimmune disorders to develop. To operate in such a delicate balance, your immune system is tightly controlled by a variety of inputs.
Here’s 5 easy ways to boost your immune system~ Let’s start now!
Maintain a healthy diet
As with most things in your body, a healthy diet is key to a strong immune system. This means making sure you eat plenty of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, lean protein and healthy fats.
In addition to providing your immune system the energy it needs, a healthy diet can help ensure you’re getting sufficient amounts of the micronutrients that play a role in maintaining your immune system, including:
- Vitamin B6, found in chicken, salmon, tuna, bananas, green vegetables and potatoes (with the skin)
- Vitamin C, found in citrus fruit, including oranges and strawberries, as well as tomatoes, broccoli and spinach
- Vitamin E, found in almonds, sunflower and safflower oil, sunflower seeds, peanut butter and spinach
Exercise regularly
Physical activity isn’t just for building muscles and helping yourself de-stress — it’s also an important part of being healthy and supporting a healthy immune system.
One way exercise may improve immune function is by boosting your overall circulation, making it easier for immune cells and other infection-fighting molecules to travel more easily throughout your body.
Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate
Water plays many important roles in your body, including supporting your immune system. A fluid in your circulatory system called lymph, which carries important infection-fighting immune cells around your body, is largely made up of water. Being dehydrated slows down the movement of lymph, sometimes leading to an impaired immune system.
Get plenty of sleep
Sleep certainly doesn’t feel like an active process, but there are plenty of important activities happening in your body when you’re not awake — even if you don’t realize it. For instance, important infection-fighting molecules are created while you sleep. people who don’t get enough quality sleep are more prone to getting sick after exposure to viruses, such as those that cause the common cold. To give your immune system the best chance to fight off infection and illness, it’s important to know how much sleep you should be getting every night, as well as the steps to take if your sleep is suffering.
Minimize stress
Whether it comes on quick or builds over time, it’s important to understand how stress affects your health — including the impact it has on your immune system. During a period of stress, particularly chronic stress that’s frequent and long-lasting, your body responds by initiating a stress response. This stress response, in turn, suppresses your immune system — increasing your chance of infection or illness.
Stress is different for everyone, and how we relieve it is, too. Given the effect it can have on your health, it’s important to know how to identify stress. And, whether it’s deep breathing, mediation, prayer or exercise, you should also get familiar with the activities that help you reduce stress.
If you’re looking for ways to help boost your immune system, consider keeping up with the lifestyle habits above, with supplement intake as a support! It helps to speed up your process to achieve your result which is to strengthen the immune system.