Whenever you catch any disease or virus, you have an army fighting against it inside your body. That army is made by your immune system. Immunity plays a crucial part in killing unwanted bacteria or viruses present in your body. Though, strong immunity can also prevent such elements from entering your body. It might sound tough to build a strong immune system, but some small changes in your daily life can help you in making your immune system strong, naturally. Diet also plays a part in determining that how strong your immune system is.
Amid novel coronavirus pandemic, citizens have been very concerned about their immunity. It is not compulsory that a strong immune system assures that the person won’t get covid. Though, it can make it easy for the patient to fight covid without much hustle. So here are some pointers on small lifestyles changes that you can adapt in order to boost your immunity.
Sleep for some extra time.
Who thought that sleeping could ever help you in boosting your immunity. Several research shows that sleeping for some extra hours results in increasing your metabolism rate.
Lack of sleep or poor sleep can result in making your body weak and prone to sickness. In a study of 164 participants, people who slept fewer than 6 hours were more likely to catch a cold than people who slept enough.
Getting a good amount of sleep can help your immune system to be strong naturally. Sleeping also helps a person to cope up with mental stress. During sickness, doctors advice you to take rest and sleep as much as you can because sleeping helps in recharging your immune system and fight against the sickness. On average, an adult should get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep in order to lead a healthy lifestyle. This will help you in boosting your immune system. Using mobile phones or other electronic distractions at night may push your towards less and uncomfortable sleep.
So, in order to maintain your sleep cycle, try to avoid electronic gadgets before bedtime, try to sleep at a fix time and exercise a bit.
Have healthy fats.
Some Healthy fats can actually help you in boosting your immunity. Like healthy fats found in olives and salmon can help to boost your immunity for fighting against pathogens by decreasing inflammation. Food items rich in healthy fats provides energy and essential fatty acids to our body. Foods rich in essential fatty acids such as Omega-3 DHA & EPA help to promote eye, brain and heart health.
Getting Plant-based fats and avoiding processed food ensures that you are getting healthy kinds of fats. Avocados, fish, seeds, nuts, olive oil, eggs, beans are some examples of food containing healthy fats that you can include in your diet.
Also Read: 5 best possible ways for weight loss without dieting.
Restrict added sugar.
Studies show that added sugar and refined carbohydrates result in overweight and obesity. Added sugar contains a high amount of calories which ultimately results in weight gain. On the other hand, refined carbohydrates are stripped of almost all fiber, vitamins, and minerals. That’s why they can be considered as “empty” calories. Refined carbohydrates have a higher glycemic index, which results in crashes in blood sugar. This leads to an increase in hunger and weight gain.
Obesity increases the chances of you being sick. A study which was conducted on around 1000 people, states that people with obesity were more likely to catch flu than people without obesity. Restricting your sugar intake can result in reducing inflammation and weight loss. Hence, losing weight can help you in preventing yourself from chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
All these diseases can have a chronic impact on your immune system. Thus, cutting off added sugar from your diet is very important to boost your immunity.
Do exercise
A lot of us might not get proper time to work out. But it’s not correct to bind your schedule so tight that you don’t have time for basic exercise. Moderate exercise, keeps your body in action which helps in generating energy. But its very important to know how much exercise your body needs or handles. Intense exercise can suppress your immune system.
Hence, moderate exercise is said to be the best way out in order to give some boost to your immunity. Studies state that even a single session of moderate exercise can bring effectiveness in the impact of any vaccine in your body and may help in boosting up your immunity. Also, moderate sessions of exercise can help in reducing inflammation in the body and helps the immunity cells to regenerate regularly. Some examples of moderate exercise are walking, steady bicycling, jogging, swimming, and light hiking.
For an average, a person should keep a target of 150 minutes of moderate exercise in a week.
Hydration is must.
Hydration might not protect you from germs or viruses but dehydration is not good for your overall health. Dehydration can hamper your physical activites and may give you severe headaches.
Not only this but dehydration may also affect your focus, mood, digestion, and heart and kidney function. These reasons can make you more likely to get sick quite often. By consuming enough fluids in your daily diet, you can prevent dehydration.
Water has its own set of benefits for your body. It is also called a natural appetite buster. It makes you feel full and as result, you automatically eat less. Water increases the rate at which calories burn in our body. We know water helps to remove waste from our bodies too. A study shows that 30-59 percent of US adults increased water intake in order to lose weight.
Also Read: How small changes help in weight loss?
Don’t stress yourself.
This point is very relevant if we relate it to current lockdown situations. People locked in their homes with so much negativity and crisis around clearly indicates the status of our mental health right now. Anxiety can play a major role in degrading your immune system.
Relief in stress and anxiety can be a key reason in boosting up your immunity. Long term stress increases inflammation in the body that results in imbalance of immunity cell functioning. Hence, a long history of physiological stress be a major reason of suppressed immune system.
Activities that can help you stay calm like meditation and exercising can be a good way out to relief your mind. Though, this also depends on your hobbies. Studies shows that people who do what they love are less likely to have excessive stress. So whenever you feel stressed out, just take out some time for whatever you like to do like dancing, singing, painting or listening to music. This may help in relieving your anxiety and stress.
Eat whole plant food.
Whole plant foods like fruits and vegetables are a great source of antioxidants and essential nutrients. Food rich in antioxidants helps the immune system to fight harmful pathogens.
These antioxidants helps in decreasing inflammation and makes a covering around the cell. These coverings can help in protecting our cells from free radicals. Free radicals causes inflammation in the body once they exist in high amount in our body. Chronic inflammation in body results in many health issues including heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and certain cancers.
Also, fiber in plant based food gives energy to your body. Vegetables and fruits are a rich source of Vitamin C that can prevent you from catching cold. Thus, consumption of fruits and vegetables can help you in boosting immunity.
These small changes can really help you out in boosting your immunity. Immunity helps our body to fight harmful bacteria and viruses and also prevents such compounds to enter our body. Eat healthy, exercise, stay dehydrated and cheat on some stress to boost up your immunity. Because, stronger the immunity, stronger we are!
