5 amazing tips to improve your immunity

There are more to boost your immune health than the immune-boosting foods. Have a look to see what they are.

By: Bhavyajyoti Chilukoti | Edited by: Bhavyajyoti Chilukoti | | Updated: September 25, 2014 4:28 pm

The old adage ‘health is wealth’ perfectly fits the bill for the present day population that signifies stressed life and sedentary lifestyle. But, one thing that must be kept in mind is that your lifestyle is what decides your health and it is in your own hands how well you carve your life. One simple and easy to execute measure is to boost your immune system for powerful defense action against diseases caused by microbes. Also Read - Black raisins: Just a handful every day will keep the doctor away this winter

Apart from focusing on packing good stuff into your life you should also replace bad habits with good ones to make your immune system healthy. Here is a list of effective tips that might help you out in improving your defense action and shielding against clinical attack. Also Read - Can eating applesauce protect against chronic disease?

Five tips to boost your immune health Also Read - Have a pinch of hing or asafetida daily to keep many diseases away

Dietary approach Diet plays an important role in protecting your body from the attack of diseases by pumping nutrients and supplying stuff that makes our body to function smoothly. Try these immune-boosting foods to strengthen your defense:

Vitamin C-rich foods like citrus fruit and broccoli possess anti-oxidant property that helps the immune cells to respond to infections in quicker manner and multiply the defense action.
Vitamin E-rich foods like nuts and whole grains are necessary to make your immune system run smoothly and increase the ability of immune cells to fight infection.
Vitamin A-rich foods like carrots and yams are responsible for maintaining mucus membrane that acts as the body’s first line of defense.
Vitamin B-rich foods (Vit.B2 and Vit.B6) like mushrooms, peas, leafy veggies and milk products provide resistance against bacterial infections along with helping in the production and maturation of T and B cells.
Zinc-rich foods like beans, turkey, crab, oysters, and beef are essential in small quantities for proper functioning of T cells and other immune cells.
Selenium-rich foods like chicken, whole grains, tuna, eggs, sunflower seeds, and brown rice increase cellular immune response by enhancing the production of interferons, cytokines and T cell proliferation.
Ginger and Garlic – They not only keep the body warm and help in flushing the toxins from lungs and sinuses but also cleanse the lymphatic system.

Here are few more Natural remedies to boost your immune system

Sleep well Our body produces reparative and growth-promoting hormones during sleep. Sleep deprivation is reported to cause higher levels of stress hormone, thus depressing the immune function and increasing the release of inflammatory chemicals. Sleeping less than 7 hours is found to double your chances of getting infection as the body production of natural killer cells is affected.

Tip: Although researchers are not clear about how many hours one should sleep, but 7 9 hours of sleep is found to be the key for better health.

Exercise regularly Being physically active and moderate exercising contributes to better blood circulation, allowing the immune cells and other necessary substances to move freely through the body and efficiently conduct their function. Also, exercise helps in release of feel-good chemicals that help in proper sleep and stimulates lymphatic system to increase blood level of leucocytes.

Tip: Just 30 minutes of moderate regular exercise or walking, playing with your kids or moving your body helps your immune system in fighting infections.

Reduce stress Stress whether physcological, physical or social is found to affect negatively on the immune system. Long-term stress causes the release of stress hormones that act on thymus and inhibits production of lymphocytes namely cytokines and interleukins along with decreasing immune cells’ activities.

Tip: Since stress suppresses the immune system involved in activities that aim to suppress stress such as meditation, yoga, etc or keep your mind calm for around 15 minutes a day. Also, make friends and socialize yourself to keep stress at bay.

Keep smiling and laughing The best thing about smiling and letting your heart to laugh out is that it helps in minimizing the levels of stress hormones in the body and thereby increases the production of immune cells to fight against infection.

References:

How to boost your immune system, Harvard health publications

Thomas T. Yoshikawa, et al. Nutritional Strategies to Boost Immunity and Prevent Infection in Elderly Individuals

6 Immune System Busters & Boosters. WebMD

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Published : June 11, 2014 3:30 pm | Updated:September 25, 2014 4:28 pm

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