As the coronavirus continues to spread, we are hearing about how to reduce exposure and take care of ourselves if we get sick. These are important tips, but we're not hearing much about how we can boost our immunity so that if we do get exposed to the virus our body can effectively fight back.
Our immune systems are designed to fight off sicknesses and viruses. But unfortunately, the immune system can get worn down by many things typical of a modern life like stress, toxins, lack of exercise and unhealthy eating. This prevents our bodies from effectively fighting off sickness.
it's more important than ever to support the immune system. We can do this by making a few key modifications. The following are suggestions to help boost your immunity against the coronavirus:
1. Reduce stress
When we're stressed out our body produces stress hormones (cortisol) which tax the immune system. To reduce stress, it's key to ensure you have work/life balance, take breaks when you need them, and to employ some calming or relaxing stress-reduction techniques. And if you're already feeling really stressed out taking adrenal support supplements can be helpful.
Stress occurs when life events surpass your ability to cope. In short spurts, cortisol can boost your immunity by limiting inflammation. However, over time having too much cortisol in your blood opens the door for more inflammation.
In addition, stress decreases the body’s lymphocytes — the white blood cells that help fight off infection. The lower your lymphocyte level, the more at risk you are for viruses.
2. Sleep whenever you're tired
By not sleeping enough, we increase stress and hurt our immunity. If we're drinking caffeinated drinks all the time we may not even realize just how tired we really are. Because sleeping is important to rebuilding a struggling immune system, we need to let ourselves sleep as much as we need.
3. Take immunity-boosting vitamins
To support your immune system, you can eat immunity supporting foods like citrus fruits, garlic, broccoli, and spinach. If your immune system is already weak, it can also be helpful to supplement with key vitamins and minerals that may have become depleted like Vitamin C, Vitamin B, Vitamin D, and Zinc. Most effective way to get high doses of Vitamin C, Vitamin B and Zinc is intravenously (IV).
4. Reduce Inflammation
Sugar, processed meat, vegetable oils, and alcohol tend to be inflammatory foods so they busy the immune system, leaving other problems in your body unaddressed. That's why it can be really helpful to remove these inflammatory foods if we want a healthy immune system.
5. Exercise, but not too much
Exercise can be one of the best things to do to boost immunity. But we have to be careful because too much exercise is stressful on the body and can be tough on our immune system. If you're tired, then rest.
6. Avoid toxins
Toxins can be devastating for the immune system. For example, mycotoxins from mold are notorious for destroying immunity. Many other toxins have a detriimental impact on immunity as well. So try to minimize exposure to chlorinated drinking water, pesticides, aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals, air pollution, and food additives. Liver detoxification is essential to reduce toxins that burden on our body.
By taking these actions, we can help prevent ourselves and our loved ones from suffering significantly from the coronavirus.
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