How to boost your immune system easy with 7 Tips to prevent sickness!

Boosting your immune system to fight of any symptoms and sickness is very much desired nowadays. I am here to tell you how you can achieve this, even though you are in quarantine or self-isolation.

Being often sick (or ill) is not nice. Preventing is much better than to cure any disease. So how can we prevent such things? By boosting your immune system

What is the immune system?

I have been reading and trying to the best way to explain it to you, my reader, visitor or just passerby.

According to Healthline:

Your immune system is your body’s version of the military: sworn to defend against all who threaten it, both foreign and domestic. It has some really interesting soldiers that help make this possible.

Your immune system protects against disease, infection, and helps you recover after an injury.

Healthline

According to Wikipedia

The immune system is a host defense system comprising many biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease. To function properly, an immune system must detect a wide variety of agents, known as pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, and distinguish them from the organism’s own healthy tissue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immune_system

The immune system is an important defense system to protect your body from diseases caused by viruses parasitic worms, infections etc.

How to boost immune system

Making sure your bodily defense system is working optimal there are some things you can do to keep it optimal or improve your immune system. So a lot of things are in your own power to change things regarding this. Before going to the list, there is a thing called overdoing it. There’s a thing called the sweet spot and overdoing it, will backfire on you and actually makes the immune system weaker.

Excercise (at home during pandemic)

With some exercise, your cardiovascular system improves the blood flow throughout the body. This allows for better blood circulation and white blood cells (the soldiers fighting) can be more present in your body. See it as a patrol to look for viruses.

This study about people who exercise 5 days a week, had half the risk of getting the flu. Those who still get the flu showed less severe symptoms compared to people who do not exercise.

Exercising sweet spot is difficult and different for everyone. But let’s say 5 days between 3-60 minutes should already be enough from what I could gather from the study.

And yes you can exercise from home. This video can help as they don’t use any gym equipment to get their cardiovascular system pumping.

Food

A big influence on our daily life and how we feel is decided by what we eat. Eating balanced and healthy will help a lot in your daily activities. It gives the energy you need for the day but also for recovering and recuperating.

Let’s check what helps the immune system a lot when it comes to food. maybe this helps you to include

Vitamin C

Seeking to boost your immune system, then Vitamin C is the foremost popular and important one.

Vitamin B6

From what I can make up from PubMed is that Vitamine B6 plays an important role in your immune system as it improves the biochemical reaction.

Vitamin D

The effect of having Vitamin D is that your white blood cells respond and fight off viruses and foreign pathogens. This study from PubMed shows how Vitamin D plays a role in getting less risk in respiratory infection.

Vitamin D is what we get from exposing ourselves to the sun, fatty fish and egg yolk. No worries I am going to summarise the food later to get all the important vitamins and minerals.

Vitamin E

An antioxidant that helps fight off inflammation.

Zinc

A mineral required to build up your immune system and internal communication of the cells.

Ok, so what food should I eat to improve my Immune system?

Eating varied is important, don’t just stick to 1 kind of food because that’s the only one you like. But here a list to include in your diet.

• Fruits, citric fruits especially, but in general a great variety of fruits
• Fish and shellfish ( tuna, mackerel, oysters, shrimp, sardines, anchovies, the list goes on)
• Mushrooms
• Eggs
• Milk
• Fortified Cereals + dairy products
• Peanuts and sunflower seeds
• All kinds of vegetables (Broccoli and Bell Peppers being on top of the list)
• Leafy greens are great!
• Garlic, Onion, Turmeric
• Poultry

An example of an immune booster is this homemade chicken soup. In 4 easy steps you can make your own healthy meal.

Food to avoid (if you eat this frequently)

Processed meats as they cause an inflammatory response might affect an immune system. Also avoid high sugar foods, deep-fried or high temperature prepared food, often the vitamins and essentials are already gone due to high temperatures.

Can’t I just take a supplement pill to replace all the food you recommend

You can, but the best way to get vitamins and minerals is from the food. How much our body absorbs from a supplement pill filled with vitamins and minerals is unknown. It could be nothing, to something or maybe everything. But having fresh food is always a better choice and option.

I actually take both, fresh food and a supplement vitamin pill so I can easily reach my daily needs for a strong and healthy immune system.

Sleep

Having enough sleep is important and often forgotten. But now, there is no need to stay out late with the current pandemic. So sleep early and enough (about 7 to 9 hours, differs per person).

Sleep causes you to have enough rest and your body has enough time to recoup during the sleep. Rest is important, do not forget.

Relax and stop stressing

Stress? Now it’s time to think more about your own health honestly. Your health is more important, can you repeat it. “My health is important”! there we go. Stressing causes the body to respond weaker and differently to diseases. So take a step back and relax.

Smoking? Stop it!

This is hard for smokers, but smoking is in no way healthy. There are no healthy cigarettes. Try to quit, or do less. You are exposing your body to a substance that you actually do not need. Most likely addicted to it, but try to stop it. It will help.

There we have it! Good sleep, exercise, and food, a good habit will make your immune system much stronger than it is. It might be a challenge, but taking this into daily life can change it for the better!

So any tips for the fellow readers?

Regarding Corona Virus

Following any of these immune-boosting tips, does not guarantee your safety or immunity from the virus. Keep washing your hands, improve hygiene and practise social distancing (or just stay at home)

TaleTravels

Hi I am Dwi. I am a blogger, travel agent and a mom of a lovely daughter and wife to a supportive husband. I customize and plan tours in Bali and islands nearby for a living and have been doing this for more than 14 years. Get in touch via contact [at] taletravels.com