Our Immune System is a complex network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to defend against germs.
Your immune system is the key to good health, so the more you can do to protect it, the better.
What can weaken our immune system?
It can be weaker during seasonal changes and periods of stress, like these days given the current situation COVID-19, can create tension throughout our organism, making our natural defenses vulnerable. If we add to this factor a carefree and unbalanced diet, in a context of sedentary life, our organism will resent it.
That’s why it is always very important and especially these days to take care of our immune system so that it functions optimally and protects us from seasonal diseases such as colds.
This set of unhealthy habits characterizes, more and more, the modern lifestyle that often leads us to a constant state of weakness and vulnerability. By putting our body under stress, we are therefore exposing it to countless threats to our physical and psychological health.
Ways to Boost Your Immune System
A few lifestyle changes and new habits can naturally keep your immune system strong and healthy:
Getting enough sleep and exercise are the most important ways to bolster your immune system.
Eat a balanced diet
Regardless if you are a vegetarian, vegan or meat eater, eat real food and cooking from scratch is the best way to know what you are putting in your body. Regular meals with snacks in between is essential to keep the blood sugar levels stable and avoid food cravings especially these days where we might tend to open the fridge more. Set up the time to eat, breakfast, lunch and dinner with snack breaks.
FOOD
- Essential protein levels and the crucial omega 3fats.
- Dark green veggies like spinach, broccoli, asparagus, rocket, kate
- Berries Antioxidants, fiber, vitamin C,
- Oats, a great staple which is high in fibre but low GI
- Lentils, pulses and legumes – all great stapoles with great nutrient profiles and low IG
- Nuts and seeds – Many contain essential minerals, 1 brazil nut gives you all your selenium seeds.
- Pumpkin seeds = magnesium and zinc
- Natural yogurt, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut – probiotic foods to boost gut health (80% of your immune system)
- Salmon/mackerel – Essential omega 3 fatty acids (or consider a supplement with adequate EPA/DHA) to reduce inflammation
Supplements Here some supplements that are known for their immune-boosting potential
Get enough sleep
Getting enough sleep isn’t only about total hours of sleep. It’s also important to get good quality sleep on a regular schedule and also the time you go to sleep – the earlier the better, so you feel rested when you wake up.
Exercise regularly
Since we relied on gyms to workout, we might feel a bit lost, that’s why I decided to set up Free Live Classes on my Instagram Account, where I am doing Bodyweight workouts on a daily basis at 6pm. The class will be on up to 24h so you can not only do it live but also at any time afterwards.
Wash your hands
Especially these days but this was always necessary to avoid taking infections, especially before and after eating, touching animals and using toilets.
Don’t smoke, take drugs or even abuse processed food, especially high in sugar
Depression or a bad mood or just this current situation can mentally and physically affect our emotions and crave sugar, smoke more or do anything that increases serotonin in our body, because we feel happier temporarily, so our brain craves this happy chemical again and again. This can also become an addiction if It is good to be aware of this and try to focus on avoiding this behaviour by changing routines, like reading a book or being updated on the news, doing video calls with your people or doing a live class indoor.
This might also become an addiction, in that case treatment is needed.
