7 Tips for A Healthy Immune System

7 ways to Boost Your Immune System:

1. Stop Smoking: Continuing to puff away suppresses antibodies created by your body to fight invaders, leaving you at higher risk of ailments such as respiratory infections and even the common flu, noted the source.

2. Motivation to Move: Exercise can make you feel better naturally by increasing endorphins, while also helping you shed excess fat. However, a side benefit of regular exercise is that exercise helps flush bacteria from your system

3. Never too Much Fruits and Veggies: Thanks to vitamin-rich content, certain fruits and veggies can help protect you against common colds and other annoying ailments. Best Health magazine suggests four fruits in particular to help kick your immune system into high gear. Those fruits include kiwi, blueberries, papaya, and strawberries – and luckily, they’re all delicious. The best immune-boosting vegetables to consider include “cruciferous vegetables”, which include cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, and other leafy greens.

Less Alcohol: Not only is alcohol a prime way to pack on pounds (and being overweight is taxing on your immunity), binge drinking may suppress your body’s natural defenses, according to WebMD. If you have the beginnings of a sickness, the alcohol can actually make it worse. What is binge drinking? It’s defined as five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women in a 2-hour time frame.

5.Sufficient Sleep is Required: Not only will lack of sleep make you irritable, less effective at daily tasks and possibly into a coffee addict, it can make your immune system tired too, according to the Mayo Clinic. Proteins released during sleep called cytokines help promote rest, but also are important in fighting infections and reacting to stress, according to the source. The clinic also notes that not getting enough quality sleep can make you more susceptible to viruses such as a cold. When they say you should rest when you’re sick, listen to them; the clinic also states that lack of sleep can slow down recovery.

6.Intake Probiotics: Harvard Medical School explains that while hundreds of types of bacteria live in your gut that aid digestion, there are newer findings that show these helpful gut bacteria have a link to immunity. There is evidence that certain gut flora can help develop T cells, a type of white blood cell that is integral to how your system responds to bacterial and viral threats. While it’s not fully understood how this interaction between the gut and immunity works, consuming probiotics – as in, good bacteria – can have a positive impact.

7. Rest and Relaxation (R&R): If you’re under a lot of stress at work or home, then it might be time to lessen the load and book a trip to the beach. Stress has all kinds of negative effects on you, and your immune system isn’t… well, immune to it either.