Strengthen your Immunity – 6 vital ways to improve your immune system

  1. Exercise
  2. Fresh food & water
  3. Meditation
  4. Massage
  5. Sleep

As the Covid-19 situation intensifies, you might be wondering how to keep healthy and better your immune system.

The answer lies in following the latest guidelines on social distancing, hygiene, handwashing and stay at home directives. You can also find ways to strengthen your own immunity with exercise, good nutrition, regular intake of fresh water, meditation, massage and adequate sleep.

Exercise

Find time for a regular exercise routine, whether its daily walks, dancing with the kids, a HIIT session or regular runs/bike rides. Following a simple exercise routine will not only make you feel good, it will decrease your chances for developing heart disease and keep your bones healthy and strong.

Physical activity may also help flush bacteria from the lungs to reduce your chances for getting a cold or flu. The body heat produced through exercise may also assist in fighting infection and prevent the growth of bacteria. Exercise can slow down the body’s stress hormones which in turn can protect you from illness.

Look for daily activities you can do on your own or with family.

  • Daily walks
  • Bike rides with the Kids
  • Online Yoga or fitness apps
  • Jogging/skipping
  • Core/Strength exercises
  • HIIT Sessions

Or for fitness warriors – sweat out the stress with heart-pumping hit-outs!

Research shows that higher-intensity exercise offers increased mood-enhancing benefits. And there’s nothing quite like taking out your stress during a HIIT session, a boxing bag or stair climbs which provides an excellent way to pump up rate heart rate and get your fix for the day ahead!

Food and Water 

Feeding your body with immune boosting foods to help you prevent winter colds and flu. By increasing your vitamin C intake with the simple and easy to obtain fresh foods. This is a simple list to start your journey to good healthy eating.

Don’t wait until you have a cold, build up your immunity to keep that cold or flu away. Vitamin C is thought to increase the production of white blood cells. These are key to fighting infections.

Your body doesn’t produce or store vitamin C, so you need daily doses for continued health. Almost all citrus fruits are high in vitamin C. With the huge variety of fruits and vegetables that contain vitamin c, it is easy to add to any meal.

Food high in Vitamin C include all citrus fruits, orange, lemon, lime, mandarins, papaya, kiwifruit, grapefruit and strawberries. Red bell peppers, capsicum, broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, kale, sweet potato, tomatoes, and brussel sprouts.

Prepare foods raw or with light cooking to ensure they retain their nutrients and keep their immune properties intact. Why not add a little garlic and ginger to further boost taste and kick along your immunity!

Drinking adequate water each day (recommend 8 glasses per day). Water helps to carry oxygen to your cells, which helps all of your systems to function at their optimum. It also assists in removing toxins from the body, so drinking more water could help prevent toxins from building up and having a negative impact on your immune system.

Try adding lemon to your water in the morning, lemons are a great source of vitamin C and the health benefits are abundant; helps to prevent disease, fight colds and flus and protect cells, plus aid digestion and helps to body to detoxify.

Meditation 

If you haven’t tried meditation, now might be a good time to start. Meditation may help keep your immune system functioning at its prime. Slowing the breath and thought processes will help to increases activity in the prefrontal cortex, the right anterior insula, and right hippocampus—all the areas of the brain that act as our immune system’s command centre. So through meditation, we’re increasing the communication between our brain and immune system, making its functioning more effective.

With regular meditation and relaxation classes you will see the benefits of a more relaxed state of body and mind, more focused and better equipped to cope with stressful situations. You will notice deeper sense of self, peace and fulfilment with both work and life in general.

To begin meditating, simply bring your full attention to your breath. Sitting comfortably in an upright position with eyes closed or open. Take five full slow breaths and focus fully on the inhale and long exhales. Let your thoughts come in and flow out, notice these without judgement. Once settled feel the flow of your breath and centre yourself allowing your breath to flow easily and notice the calm and clarity beginning to take shape. Try 5 minutes per day and build up to 10-15 minutes per day.

This influences positivity and clarity, the way we think and feel impacts the chemical signals that our brain sends to our body and immune system. By training our ability to lower stress, regulate emotions and create calm we’re allowing our body to put its energy into the immune system to increase our defences.

Massage

Many health benefits of massage therapy are well known, including increasing range of motion, improving coordination, and reducing stress and anxiety. But many people don’t know that massage for wellness also serves as an important immune system booster. People who undergo treatment can experience measurable changes in their immune and endocrine response, making massage a great promoter of wellness and immune health.

As most of us are currently in isolation why not nurture those around you with a 15 – minute massage. This is a good practice to do and learn together, a 15 -minute neck and shoulder or back massage is a wonderful way to relieve some tension and soreness in the body. It will also assist to relieve stress and alleviate fatigue for both the receiver and participants. If you would like an online tutorial you can see our youtube video here.

Sleep

To keep your immune system strong and for you to function effectively and positively, it is recommended to aim for seven to eight hours of sleep each night. However, we know this is not always possible so look at small cat naps during the day to catch up 2 x 15 minute mini snoozes are have been shown to help decrease stress and offset the negative effects that sleep deprivation has on the immune system. Sleep plays a vital role in protecting your mental health, physical health and your quality of life. During the sleep phase your body is working to support healthy brain function and maintaining your physical health. Don’t skimp on sleep!

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