A strong immune system is your body’s defense against sickness or infections caused by harmful bacteria, viruses, and other disease-causing organisms. Therefore, it’s imperative that this complex disease-fighting system should be in excellent working order for it to be able to ward off any illnesses.
There are several steps that you can practice to strengthen your body’s immune system naturally:
Maintain a Well-Balanced Diet
If you eat the right kind of foods, they will help you get enough micronutrients needed by your body to have strong immunity against all kinds of diseases. A healthy nutritious diet should include protein, fats, and carbohydrates. It can include foods such as fruits and vegetables, lean protein, fatty fish, whole eggs, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.
Use healthy oils such as coconut or olive oil. They are rich in antioxidants, vitamins, and fiber and prevent free radicals that cause inflammation from building up in your body. They also help create a healthy balance of bacteria in your gut microbiome, which helps aid in digestion.
Boost Your Gut Health
Nourish your digestive system with probiotics found in fermented foods such as kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, and yogurt. These probiotic foods contain good bacteria that help fight the bad bacteria or harmful organisms in your digestive tract to strengthen your immunity against diseases.
Lose Excess Weight
Excess weight is not good for you in many ways. One is that it can compromise your immune system, so it is important to lose weight to help balance your immune system.
By losing excess weight you can reduce your body’s inflammatory cells that interfere with your body’s immune response. If you achieve your ideal weight, your body can defend itself better against bacteria, viruses, and other harmful substances.
Exercise Your Body
Having a regular exercise routine for at least 30 minutes a day has many health benefits. They include reducing inflammation and improving the circulation of immune cells in your body that enhance your body’s ability to fight diseases.
It acts as additional support to a healthy diet so you improve all areas of your health. Examples of ideal exercises include walking, jogging, light hiking, running, steady bicycling, and swimming.
Make Sure You Stay Hydrated
Complications caused by dehydration can make your body more susceptible to illness. By drinking enough healthy fluids throughout the day, your circulatory system can carry the infection-fighting immune cells around your body properly.
To make sure you stay hydrated sip on water regularly. Also eat foods that contain water, such as grapes, oranges, pears, watermelon, celery, and cucumber.
If Possible Remove Alcohol and Cigarettes from Your Life
Excessive alcohol intake will affect your health negatively. Instead of your immune system functioning optimally, it will be preoccupied with trying to detoxify itself. As a consequence, your body’s infection-fighting abilities can weaken and you will be prone to serious illnesses, such as cancer or liver disease. Limiting your consumption is recommended, however, it is much better if you avoid it totally.
As for cigarettes, they are not good for your health, period! That means whether it be your own smoking habit, or breathing in other people’s smoke. Cigarette smoke has so many toxic chemicals that can adversely affect your immunity. This toxic product hinders the growth and functioning of your immune cells so you will more easily get infected by bacteria and viruses.
Continuous smoking also causes lung infections and increases the risk of autoimmune diseases. If you smoke, beat the habit as soon as possible with nicotine replacement solutions and behavioral therapy.
Control Your Stress – Don’t Let Stress Control You
When you are always stressed, your body is affected because it causes persistently high levels of your stress hormones, which suppress the immune system response. This is when you are more at risk of infections and illness. So to keep your immune system healthy find ways to destress!
Get As Much Quality Sleep As You Can
When you rest, your natural immunity in fighting diseases is restored and strengthened because your body cells repair and regenerate during sleep. A lack of sleep will make you more prone to sickness because your cortisol levels will increase. This results in a weakened immune system that makes it difficult to ward off diseases or recuperate from sickness.
So in summary, if you want a healthy immune system, your priority should be a healthy lifestyle and balanced diet!
