
Your body is prone to catching infections, as it’s an inevitable
process. During your first encounter with infections, you often catch
influenza, cold and strep throat. These infections lead to coughing, sniffling, vomiting, aching, scratching, sweating and shivering. But once your body’s immune system gets to know the microbes it encountered first, it develops antibodies to protect you from further microbial or viral attack.
But after years of fighting with various viruses and bacteria, your
immune system is likely to weaken over the years. Therefore, you must provide proper nourishment to your body so that it can further strengthen your immune system.
If you deprive your body of all necessary nutrition and are often
stressed, your immune system will deplete slowly. However, there are certain simple yet effective strategies to strengthen your immune system.
Have a look at the following four simple ways to make your immunity
stronger while keeping you protected from unwanted diseases and infections.
1. Improve your lifestyle
In this fast-paced world, we all are always under constant pressure to
always be ahead of others around us. Due to constant stress, our body starts producing too much stress hormone called cortisol. Gradually, the increased levels of cortisol can reduce your body’s ability to combat infections and this further contributes to poor sleep and elevated blood pressure.
So, to prevent your immune system from such condition, you need to make the following lifestyle improvements:
Get adequate sleep: It’s easier said than done. But getting proper seven to eight hours of sleep every night will keep your body functioning well while keeping your immune system in good condition to fight infections. So, it’s important to prioritize sleep. If you have trouble sleeping, you may opt for cognitive behavioural therapy to get rid of insomnia.
Meditation: Even five minutes of meditation per day will help you focus on your breathing, which is beneficial in reducing your blood pressure and heart rate while lowering anxiety levels. Moreover, it is very calming. Therefore, it does help you sleep better.
Exercise: Regular workouts help in increasing your resilience while helping your system fight off infections. The human body works better when we are physically active each day. Therefore, it’s recommended to spend at least 15 to 30 minutes exercising each day, following a combination of strength and cardio training.
2. Focus on diet
Diet is important in strengthening your immune system. So, you must have immunity-boosting foods, such as whole unprocessed foods, for improving your overall health.
Some natural immunity boosting foods are:
Garlic: Garlic contains allicin compound, which is well-known for boosting the immune system. One clove of garlic daily is beneficial for your overall health.
Vitamin C-rich foods: You should have Vitamin C-rich foods to boost your immunity. This is because this vitamin helps the body heal faster while decreasing the severity, as well as the duration of respiratory infections. It is best to consume vitamin C through natural sources like oranges, lemon, cantaloupe, kiwi or broccoli.
Prebiotics: This gut bacterium protects your system against infections. Therefore, you need to keep those bacteria healthy with prebiotics containing fibre, specifically inulin fibre. You can get prebiotics from yoghurt, green bananas, Jerusalem artichokes, etc.
Antioxidants: It is essential to have more foods with antioxidant properties. Many colourful vegetables and fruits like carrots, berries, spinach, etc. have antioxidants to protect our system against the oxidative elements while improving the condition of your immune system. Another good source of antioxidants is green tea. So, you may intake at least two cups of green tea every day to boost antioxidants in your body.
3. Hydrate your body
Water is essential for keeping your body well-hydrated and supporting the immune system. Lymph, a fluid present in the circulatory system, carries vital infection-fighting immune cells within your body. And, this fluid is largely made of water. When dehydrated, this fluid slows down lymph movement and further leads to weaken immunity.
Usually, water is lost from body due to sweating and exercising. Even drinking alcohol and tea in excess can reduce water in your body. Therefore, to support your immune system, you need to drink lots of water and stay hydrated.
4. Make essential oils and natural supplements part of your life
Include following essential oils in your diet protect your body from harmful microbes, bacteria, and viruses:
* Essential oils: Since some essential oils like tea tree and eucalyptus oils have various antiviral properties to protect you against infections, you may inhale them through an oil diffuser or make hand sanitizer containing tea tree oil combined with isopropyl alcohol and Aloe Vera gel. Even lavender oil is also known for its calming effect that improves sleep that further builds up a strong immune system.
* Supplements: You may include the supplement Protinex Original in your diet to improve protein content and other nutritional levels in your body. It includes hydrolysed protein and has 8 Immuno Nutrients for bridging the nutrition gap in your everyday diet. Since this hydrolysed protein is easier to digest, adults can easily make it part of their diet.