When you find yourself getting sick, it’s your immune system that’s under siege. Your immune system is supposed to fight off viruses and germs, keeping you as healthy as possible – but sometimes, it simply can’t prevent you from getting sick. Whether the common cold is traveling through your community or there’s a bug making its way through your workplace, the best defense to keep yourself from falling ill is a healthy, strong immune system. If you’re wondering how you can help your immune system fight off potential colds, flus, and other common illnesses, search online to find ways to improve immune health.
Keeping your immune system strong and in good shape is key to avoiding illnesses. If you’re hoping to avoid the common cold, the annual flu, or any other kind of sickness, it’s important to ensure your immune system is healthy as well. You can search online for more ways to give your immune system a healthy boost.
Follow these tips to keep your immune system in its best fighting shape.
Stick to a Healthy Diet
First and foremost, it’s important to follow a healthy, nutritious diet. What you fuel your body with is at the center of your overall health. And the foods you choose can directly impact your immune system’s health too.
According to Harvard University, an overall healthy lifestyle and good health guidelines is the best way to keep your immune system strong. You need your entire body to be healthy in order for your immune system to fight off potential illnesses.
That means you should fuel your body with good-for-you foods and habits. Eat a diet that’s high in fruits and vegetables, which deliver critical nutrients and important vitamins. This will help you maintain a healthy weight, another factor that affects your immune system.
If you have any micronutrient deficiencies, or a lack of certain vitamins and minerals in your diet, your immune system can be affected. To avoid deficiencies or ensure you’re getting the right amount of nutrients, you’ll want to eat foods that offer zinc, selenium, iron, and folic acid. A well-rounded diet that covers all of your nutritional bases is the best bet to keep your immune system strong.
Take Vitamins
To supplement your diet, it’s a good idea to take vitamins daily. While you can easily get vitamins from the foods you eat, many people do experience deficiencies. If that’s the case, you can add vitamins into your diet via supplements.
Vitamins play an important role in your immune system, keeping you healthy all around and offering an influx of nutritional benefits. Certain vitamins can help your immune system stay strong, while other vitamins may be able to help lessen the severity of any sicknesses you do experience.
The following are the vitamins that you want to make sure you’re getting a full daily dose of if you’re looking to build a stronger immune system.
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 is a vitamin that supports biochemical reactions within the immune system. It’s a vitamin that may play a role in keeping you from developing a number of health conditions, including inflammation, clogged arteries that can lead to heart disease, and anemia. While more research is needed into vitamin B6, it’s important to make sure you’re getting the right balance of this vitamin each day.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is one of the most important vitamins out there when it comes to your immune system. It’s actually able to keep you healthy – a lack of vitamin C makes you more prone to getting sick. That means getting the proper dose of vitamin C can help your immune system fend off potential illnesses more easily. And because the body doesn’t produce or store vitamin C, it’s extra important to make sure you’re getting enough each day.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is often thought of in relation to bone health and calcium. However, it also plays an important role in immune health. Getting your daily amount of vitamin D can help protect you from getting sick, and it can also help you combat a cold or illness if you’re already sick. Vitamin D deficiency makes you more likely to catch colds, flus, and more, so make sure you’re both getting enough of this vitamin and absorbing it into the body.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E is actually an antioxidant. You’ve likely seen it in skincare products – but it’s just as important to ingest as it is to use on your skin. Vitamin E is able to help your immune system fight off infection, meaning it’s a good choice both before you ever catch an illness and while you’re trying to recover.
Get Regular Exercise
Lastly, it’s important to achieve better overall health by getting regular exercise. Exercise is one of the tenets of good health, and it’s the best way to combat a ton of different ailments and illnesses. Even moving for just a few minutes each day or fitting in more active minutes each week can offer big health benefits.
Exercise can actually boost your immune system. When you work out, your body’s antibodies and white blood cells are able to circulate faster, which in turn makes them better able to detect intruders faster. Exercise also lowers your stress levels, which in turn makes you less susceptible to getting sick.
If you do get sick, exercising regularly can continue to pay off. Your body and immune system will actually be better equipped to fight – according to recent research, those who exercise five days a week or more cut their risk of coming down with a cold compared to those who don’t exercise. When those who exercise regularly do get sick, they also tend to experience less severe symptoms.
To build a healthy habit and keep your immune system strong, aim to get 30 to 60 minutes of exercise throughout the week. You can always start small and build your routine, but even 30 minutes each day of moderate exercise is a great healthy choice.