Healthy Ways to Strengthen Your Body’s Natural Defenses Against Illnesses
Your immune system is your body’s natural defense against diseases and illnesses, and for the most part, it does a great job of shielding your body from those harmful microorganisms. But the reality behind immune systems is that they get weak at times and fail against certain illnesses. Sometimes the tiniest germ can wreak havoc on your immune system, and do substantial damage to those with weakened immune systems.
Because your immune system is the body’s natural defense against disease, is it possible to strengthen it? Absolutely.
But there’s no “one-stop-shop” to boosting your immune health. As the name says, “immune system,” you have to look at it as a system, and in order to give your immune system strength, it’s going to have to come from multiple resources and healthy choices. In your efforts to give your immune system the upper hand, consider implementing these immune-boosting habits.
Healthy Ways to Strengthen Your Immune System
Make Slight Lifestyle Changes
Your lifestyle is your lifestyle and changing it all at once can cause reverse effects in your efforts to boost your immune health… Making small changes is key.
A good starting point in boosting your immune system is to start with minor changes to your lifestyle. This may include reducing your alcohol intake and quitting smoking. It’s not going to be easy by any means and is truly a “mind over matter” instance but to have a stronger immune system, it’s going to require some changes you probably don’t want to make.
Get Plenty of Sleep
Did you know that sleep and immune health are directly linked? In fact, lack of sleep makes you more susceptible to sickness. According to livescience.com, only 65% of Americans get the recommended seven hours or more of necessary sleep the body needs, while a whopping 35% get less than seven hours.
So why is that lots of adults aren’t getting the proper amount of sleep they need? For some, their busy schedules of work-life and family life don’t allow them to get to bed until later than they prefer. For others, they’ve simply picked up some bad sleeping habits that prevent them from falling asleep when they would like to.
Exercising before bedtime, drinking caffeine too late in the day, and trying to sleep with the TV on are all bad habits that most people have in their approach to falling asleep. If you can eliminate these factors, you have a better chance of receiving quality sleep and significantly boosting your immune health.
Keep Yourself Hydrated
Keeping yourself hydrated isn’t necessarily one of the top solutions to immune health, per se, but it does fight in the prevention of your susceptibility to getting sick. Dehydration can cause terrible headaches and negatively impact your mood and functioning of your kidneys, heart, and digestion.
Ideally, you want to drink water but if you do drink tea and juice, be sure to watch your consumption due to its sugar content.
Consider Supplements
In your immune-boosting efforts, it’s always a great idea to turn to supplements if you’re not receiving the nutrients you need through the foods you eat. Some of the best immune-boosting supplements include:
- Vitamin C
- Zinc
- Elderberry
- Echinacea
- NMN (Nicotinamide Mononucleotide)
Most of these particular supplements can be purchased OTC but one of the most effective natural ways to boost your immune system is to boost your NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) levels. This is going to aid in regulating inflammation and cell survival during the immune response.
Your body naturally produces NAD+ from precursors but if you’re wanting to increase your NAD+ levels, NMN supplements is a great way, as well as, reducing your calorie intake.
Managing Your Stress Levels
Managing stress is something people tend to do with cigarettes, alcohol, and other unhealthy habits. And although these habits may numb or take away the pain associated with stress, it’s not managing it.
Every time you’re stressed out, you can’t relieve your stress with a stiff drink… What if you’re at work or driving? Then what would you do?
The key to managing your stress in a healthy way is to find healthy ways to do so. Things like meditation, listening to calming music, exercising, and journaling are all mindful practices to implement, and it’s a key source of immune health.
