How to Increase Immunity and Improve Immune System to Fight Against Infections
While the world is fighting with a life-threatening virus, we have come to realize the importance of a strong immune system. Whether you are a healthcare professional, fighting this virus on the frontline, a government employee who cannot work remotely during this crucial time, or someone who has been working from home, your loved ones need you to be healthy.
We are all well aware by now that Coronavirus is a greater risk for people with a weak immune system, it is also important to understand that it’s our immune system that is responsible for protecting us against disease-causing germs and viruses. Therefore, it is important to improve immunity to ward off all the life-threatening diseases and to understand what to do to increase immunity.
People often ask the question “how to improve immune system in a few days or weeks?”
Well, you should know that there is no “magic pill” to increase body immunity. While there are many dietary and lifestyle changes that may strengthen your body’s natural defences, there is no shortcut to increasing your immunity.
How to increase immunity naturally?
The first lifeline to building a strong immunity is to choose a healthy lifestyle. Making a few changes here and there every day can do wonders to help your body fight against the disease-causing germs and viruses.
Here’s how to improve your immune system:
1. Follow a healthy diet:
The key to following a healthy lifestyle is choosing a healthy diet, not for a few days, a few weeks but daily, for the rest of your life. Deficiencies of zinc, selenium, iron, copper, folic acid, and vitamins A, B6, C, and E may weaken your immunity. Adding probiotics, fermented foods, and sprouted vegetables are known to keep your gut healthy and is the best way to improve immunity.
To protects yourself from harmful pathogens, it is important to add foods that are rich in nutrients and antioxidants. Whole plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and legumes can help fight against cell damage. A balanced diet must include food rich in protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, all of which can help your body develop a healthy immune system.
To help your body fight against infections it is important to know what to eat to increase immunity.
Which food increase immunity?
While it is important to add all vitamins, minerals, and nutrients in your diet, certain foods are known to have a positive effect in making your immune system work better. So which food increase immunity power naturally?
- Garlic – A compound known as Allicin is known to boost the immune system. Garlic is rich in Allicin and can, therefore, be used as a superfood to build your immunity. It is recommended to eat one-half of a raw garlic clove every day, if you can’t eat raw garlic because of its taste, try roasting it.
- Turmeric – The most favorite ingredient of every Indian mother and grandmother, Turmeric has several medicinal uses. This bright orange-yellow spice is famous for its anti-inflammatory properties which are useful in preventing infections, slowing Alzheimer’s, and alleviating arthritis pain.
- Prebiotics – Gut bacteria are essential to protect against infections. These bacteria can be kept healthy with prebiotics that contains fiber, especially inulin fiber. Add more asparagus, beets, and bananas to your diet to improve immune system.
- Vitamin-C – One of the best way to boost immunity naturally is by eating foods that are rich in Vitamin C. Fruits and vegetables such as oranges, broccoli, kiwi, cantaloupe, etc. are a rich source of Vitamin C and therefore important to be added in your diet.
- Antioxidants– Fruits and vegetables such as berries, carrots and spinach are a rich source of antioxidants that protect the body against oxidative stress and can thereby improve immune system.
2. Get enough sleep:
7-8 hours of sleep is a must for your body to function properly. A strong immune system is dependent on sufficient rest. Sleep deprivation can weaken the immune system, increasing the risk of getting sick.
Cytokinesis is a type of protein released in your immune system when you are asleep, this protein is responsible for fighting infections and inflammations. The production of this protein needs proper sleep and can thereby help strengthen the immune system. Getting adequate sleep is the best way to improve immunity.
3. Exercise is a must:
It is a no-brainer that exercise has a positive impact on your body’s defense system and is one of the best ways to increase immunity. Be it taking a walk or going for a jog early in the morning or practicing yoga in the evening, following a regular exercise routine can be the best possible thing for your body.
Exercise improves the flow of blood through the cardiovascular system and helps to flush out the harmful germs and toxins from the body. Regular exercise can decrease the chances of developing health issues and getting flu, cold, or any other illness.
4. Minimize Stress:
This year has undoubtedly been hard on all of us. While it is important to stay updated with the latest news, it is important to catch a breath once in a while. Social media, news channels, WhatsApp forwards can often be too exhausting for the mind. There seems a constant need for checking the news updates and latest happenings.
Take a break, limit your daily news consumption, and focus on relaxing your mind. Having positive outlooks and minimizing negative thoughts is one of the best ways to improve immune system.
Stress can interfere with your body’s response to fight against harmful bacteria and viruses. It can lead to sleep problems, cardiovascular problems, high blood pressure, depression, and even stroke and heart attack. It is important to control your stress levels in order to increase your immune system. Talk to your family members or your friends, if you feel uncomfortable in doing so, talk to a professional about your feelings and thoughts.
5. Don’t smoke:
People often take refuge in bad habits in order to cope with stress. We know that times are tough, but all difficult days come to an end.
Strokes, COPD, lung cancer, heart diseases are just a few life-threatening repercussions of smoking. Tobacco damages almost every system of your body, making it difficult and sometimes almost impossible to fight illness and diseases. In order to improve immunity, it is important to ensure that you get rid of unhealthy habits.
6. Meditate:
We cannot stress this enough, to lead a healthy lifestyle the most important step is to clear your mind from all the worries. Take some time in a day to sit back and relax, take some deep breaths, and meditate.
This will help.
Meditation can lower your heart rate and blood pressure, reduce anxiety, and can also help you sleep better.
How does age affect the immune system?
Our immune health weakens as we age. Why?
Old people tend to get sick more often and take more time to heal as our body cells tend to get weaker and the production of new cells becomes much slower as we age.
What is the best way to increase immunity amongst seniors?
The same thing that we have mentioned above.
Aging is a natural process and you often lose a few things to gain that experience and wisdom. Although certain lifestyle modifications help you prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart conditions, joint problems, or even cancer. Underlying medical conditions can make you more susceptible to infections and viruses. Therefore, it is all the more important to take care of your diet, get plenty of rest, exercise, meditate, and replace the bad habits with good ones to increase immunity.
