18 Ways To Strengthen Your Immune System
Image Source- Healing the Body
Our immune system is one of the most important elements of our mental and physical health. By changing certain lifestyle habits and dietary choices, it is possible to significantly protect this essential system. Take a closer look at some of the specific ways that you can improve and strengthen your immune system.
- Friendly Bacteria
Prebiotic and probiotic bacteria is ‘good’ for our digestive system, boosts the immune system’s efficiency and helps to protect the body from different illnesses contracted through food.
- Mineral Intake
Managing a healthy balance of minerals in your body is important, particularly having too much of certain vitamins. Speaking to a dietitian can help to properly manage your mineral intake to optimize your immune system.
Protein is what antibodies are made of, so making sure that you have sufficient levels of protein in your body is an essential part of your immune system functioning.
- Stress Levels
If you suffer from chronic stress and your hormonal response is constantly in high gear, it can be very detrimental to your immune system health. People that suffer from chronic anxiety tend to be ill far more often, because their immune response simply can’t be as strong as a result of hormonal overload.
- Regular Walks
Maintaining a somewhat active lifestyle, with inclusion of walks gets antibodies and white blood cells moving around the body more often, which means that they can begin fighting diseases or pathogens sooner.
The pleasure receptors of reminiscing, the cognitive stimulation of socialization, and a handful of other factors all positively impact the immune system response.
- Vegetable Oil
Research has shown that having a better balance of HDL cholesterol (good) as found in olive oil and canola oil and LDL cholesterol (bad) can significantly reduce inflammation and protect your immune system health in a number of ways.
Certain essential oils, such as Sage when inhaled, act as expectorants. This helps the body to clear out any mucus in your respiratory tract, which is where a large amount of bacteria can get stuck and develop into an illness.
The fiber in vegetables, as well as the protein present in many vegetables makes them mandatory for the immune system. Cruciferous vegetables, which include kale, broccoli, spinach, and cabbage are packed with beneficial nutrients, and are particularly good for detoxifying the liver and keeping the body clean of toxins so the immune system is not overloaded.
Sex is a very good activity in terms of stress release and positive hormonal release, which in turn boosts the immune system.
While regular exercise is a good choice for stimulating the immune system, excessive exercise can actually lower your white blood cell count.
- Oregano Oil
Oregano oil is not a well known essential oil, but it can be a powerful tool for improving the strength of your immune system. It cleans out your digestive tract, eliminating harmful bacteria that may be growing there out of reach of the rest of your immune system.
To ensure that your immune system is in top form, it is important to get recommended immunizations, some of which can be acquired as an adult to increase your protection.
Excessive alcohol consumption results in a lowered functional ability of dendritic cells in the immune system, which are essential for seeking out dangerous microbes in the body.
Antioxidants are very important in protecting the body from the effects of free radicals, which are natural toxins that are the result of cellular metabolism, which may manifest into dangerous diseases.
- Vitamin D
Sunlight is actually a key source of vitamin D, which is important for immune system function. Vitamin D is found in very few foods, thus bask in some extra sunshine or even taking vitamin D supplements is a good way to increase immune health.
Ginger can stimulate the lymphatic system, which helps to clean toxins from your body. Also, it is known to warm the body and help to clear your sinuses, which also helps to eliminate toxins from accumulating there.
Our body heals up and recovers through natural immune system function while we sleep. Lack of sleep can break down the immune system and increase your chances of contracting viruses and other diseases.