Immunity represents the body’s ability to identify, fight, and eliminate foreign pathogens and infectious agents. Viruses and bacteria pose a constant threat to your health, but thanks to the immune system, the body is able to take care of many of these foreign invaders without you even noticing.
When embarking on a health and wellness journey, many people focus on physical fitness while leaving immunity in the dust. The reality is: just like your body responds well to supporting your muscles through a tailored strength training program, the immune system can also benefit from specific support.
Below is a closer look at some ways you can naturally bolster your immune system and give yourself the best chance of fighting back against foreign invaders and disease-causing pathogens.
Eat the Right Foods
The food you eat plays a key role in your health and wellness, and this also applies to your immune health.
Generally, a well-balanced and whole food diet is good for your overall health, but there are specific nutrients that contribute to a healthy immune system. These include iron, selenium, vitamin D, zinc, vitamin E, and vitamin C.
Incorporating these nutrients and ensuring you get an appropriate daily intake can help to support your immune system at a molecular level by ensuring it has all the tools it needs to work at its very best.
A diet filled with vegetables like spinach and broccoli can help to increase your daily intake of immune-supporting nutrients. Making sure to eat plenty of citrus fruits like oranges and grapefruit, as well as whole grains like brown rice, are also great ways to support your immune system. Healthy fats like those found in almonds, sunflower seeds, peanut butter, and other nuts are also key, and beans, legumes, tuna, and chicken can supply you with plenty of lean protein.
Another aspect of immunity and diet is the gut-immune system relationship. In recent years, the scientific community has come to realize the importance of having a healthy microbiome full of good bacteria within the body. The microbiome consists of all of the bacteria that inhabit the body in a mutualistic manner. Within the gut, there are countless bacteria that aid in crucial functions including digestion and even supporting the immune system in a number of ways.
Prebiotics To Support Gut Health
Consuming probiotics from fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, and kefir is a great way to boost the levels of good bacteria in your gut, though you’ll need to eat a lot of these regularly to make an impact (compared to the ease of popping a supplement everyday).
Another approach is through Rex MD’s Immune Support supplement, which contains beta-glucan to not only support immunity but also support optimal gut health. This two-fold support makes beta-glucan a fantastic way to help bolster and support your immune system.
Get Enough Exercise
Exercise is one of the most important habits when it comes to getting your body the support it needs. Exercise is good for your body at a deep level because it places an appropriate amount of strain on your body — many of our internal processes run on a use it or lose it basis, which essentially means that a lack of use can lead to diminished function.
This phenomenon is quite apparent with the muscular system, where bedridden individuals slowly experience a decline in muscle mass known as atrophy, which can reduce their ability to be as mobile and strong as they once were.
Exercise essentially acts as a means of preventing deterioration by putting your body to work. With regular exercise, the body responds by building stronger bones, building muscle mass, and even improving circulation, which is an important aspect of immunity.
Make Time for Sleep
Sleep is sometimes an overlooked aspect of our lives in the modern world. We forego quality sleep due to long working hours or simply getting carried away scrolling through social media or Netflix while lying in bed.
Sleep is as important, if not more important, than diet and exercise. Sleep plays a critical role in both mental and physical wellbeing. A lack of sleep has a number of detrimental side effects, such as a decline in cognitive abilities, a decrease in energy level, and eventually, suppression of the immune system.
On average, people should aim for eight hours of quality, uninterrupted sleep. Taking an active role in promoting good sleep hygiene can significantly improve sleep quality and ensure your body is supported — consistently not getting enough sleep has been shown to weaken your immunity.
With the connection between sleep and proper immune function, getting a full night’s rest is important to boosting your immune system.
Manage Stress
Everyone deals with stress, and stress management is the way you deal with day-to-day pressures.
Poor stress management can lead to a buildup of stress hormones like cortisol, which can lead to a number of detrimental effects on your health and wellness.
Side effects of chronic stress can include erectile dysfunction, difficulty sleeping, premature ejaculation, and even a decline in immune function.
Stress has its place as a mechanism designed to help facilitate the fight or flight response, but mismanaged and chronic stress puts your body in a constant state of alertness that tires your body out and takes away from its ability to defend itself.
Constructive stress management techniques can include meditation, exercise, and making changes that effectively relieve stress, such as taking more days off from work or getting help with the household chores. When effectively managed, stress has a much lower impact on your overall health and can allow you to live life a little more worry-free.
Prevention
While the immune system is robust, it can use a little helping hand from active prevention. Ways you can prevent illness include practicing good hand hygiene, ensuring you avoid contact with sick individuals, and regularly disinfecting high-touch areas.
In addition to these prevention methods, vaccines can be a great preventative means of acquiring immunity against infection from severe illness. There are a number of different kinds of vaccines but they all work by stimulating an immune response and "teaching" the immune system what to look out for in the future. If the virus does try and infect the body, the immune system is prepared to identify and fight back, leading to less severe symptoms and a generally quicker recovery.
The Takeaway
In summary, the immune system is immensely capable, but it needs the right support to function properly.
Eating a healthy diet, taking probiotics or immune boosting supplements, getting routine exercise, quality sleep, managing stress effectively, and doing what you can to prevent illness can give your immune system the best shot at successfully protecting your body from outside invaders and illness.
SOURCES
Nutrition and Immunity | The Nutrition Source | Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health
