Many over the counter products, vitamins and supplements claim to help improve your health, but the best strategies for boosting your immune system involve a number of simple lifestyle strategies anyone can follow through with. Some of the best success strategies to boost and support your immune system are:
- Eating a healthy diet
- Losing weight if you are carrying extra pounds
- Exercising regularly
- Getting more quality sleep
- Decreasing stress levels
- Making time for yourself
- Socializing with friends and family
- Quitting smoking
- Avoiding or minimizing antibiotic use
- Cutting down on your alcohol consumption
Let’s look at each of these success strategies in turn.
We are what we eat, digest and absorb, so a healthy diet goes a long way in preserving our health. Eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables offers a range of nutrients, phytochemicals and antioxidants, powerful disease-fighting molecules found in certain foods such a berries, legumes and apples. Eating a rainbow every day will help you achieve a balanced diet, and the fiber and water in these foods will also help you feel full and satisfied for longer, which in turn can help with weight loss.
If you are carrying extra weight, turn to clean natural foods to help slim down. Don’t rely on supplements or packaged diet foods, but rather, fresh organic fruits and vegetables, healthy, properly-raised animal protein, wild fish and smaller portions.
Regular exercise can not only help you achieve your weight loss goals, but boost your immunity too. Exercise improves digestion, brain function and helps eliminate toxins from the body through sweating. It also stimulates circulation, including not only the blood but the lymphatic system, which helps the body fight and prevent illness.
Getting more sleep can help boost the immune system, especially high-quality, deep, restorative sleep. If you’re feeling stressed, it can be difficult to fall asleep and/or stay asleep. Stress reduction strategies such as meditation can help lower your stress levels and improve your quality of sleep.
You can also decrease your stress by making more time for yourself to do some of the things you enjoy. This can include hobbies, time at the gym getting more exercise, or going for long walks. It should also include nurturing the relationships that are important to you by spending quality time with friends and family. Loneliness and feelings of isolation can make you feel run down but surrounding yourself with positive people can help boost your immune system.
By now we all know about the negative effects of smoking on the body, especially the immune system. It scorches away the cilia, the little hairs that line the nostrils and nasal passages, for example, making it far easier for germs to get into your body. It also decreases circulation in the microscopic blood vessles leading to slowed healing.
Many people turn to a range of pills in an attempt to boost their health, and when used correctly, they may be beneficial. The flipside is that excessive use can cause harm. In particular, antibiotics can damage your immune system as they kill off both helpful and harmful bacteria. They do not help against viruses such as colds and flu, so do not ask for a prescription from your doctor in the hope you will get better faster.
If you do have to take an antibiotic, take it EXACTLY as prescribed. Once you have finished the full course of treatment, consider probiotics to help get your system back in balance.
Finally, if you consume a lot of alcohol, especially in an attempt to reduce stress, try cutting down. Alcohol has many negative effects on the body, including suppressing the immune system and increasing inflammation.
Adopt these simple, practical success strategies to boost your immune system and see what a difference they can make to your health.
