It’s that time of year again, when viral infections are abundant, and there’s even a rise in the British winter flu. With less sun exposure and more time spent indoors, there’s a higher likelihood that your immunity will be lower than in other months, making you more susceptible to colds and viruses. However, you can reduce this risk not just for winter but year-round by staying on top of your immunity.
And it’s not complicated. There are a lot of natural ways and healthy habits you can start implementing today to keep your immune health on track- learn about them here.
What is immune health?
One of the most important systems that needs to be protected and optimised a lot is your immune system. It’s a complex system that works rigorously to protect your body from germs and harmful substances that can make you sick. It consists of a range of cells, organs and proteins that all work together to keep you healthy and up and running.
Your immune system contains many parts, such as:
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White blood cells
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Antibodies
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Spleen
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Bone marrow
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Thymus
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Lymphatic system
The main responsibilities of your immune system are to fight pathogens (disease-causing germs) such as bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi and then eliminate them from the body. Next is identifying and helping neutralise harmful substances from the environment and disease-inducing viruses like cancer cells.
How can immunity be affected?
Your immune system can either become stronger or weaker by a range of factors that can contribute to allergies, autoimmune diseases and further health conditions. Knowing the key triggers that can affect your immune system can help you stay on top of them. Here are a few ways your immunity can be affected:
Lack of rest
One of the major factors that contributes to a decline in your immune health is a lack of rest. When you sleep, your body naturally repairs and regenerates. If you’re not getting 7-9 hours of adequate sleep a night, you could be compromising your immune system. If you fail to get that consistently, there’s a major risk of getting the flu or the common cold at least.
Lack of exercise
If you don’t undergo sufficient exercise (at least 150 minutes a week), your body is more likely to experience chronic inflammation, and your immune system becomes weaker. Little exercise slows down your immune cell circulation, increases fat and limits your body's ability to fight off infections, making you more at risk of certain illnesses and slowing down your time to recover.
Alcohol
Excessively consuming alcohol (binge drinking) can decrease the amount and function of white blood cells. It can stop communication between immune cells and overall infection-fighting proteins in the body, making you have a weakened defence, slowing down recovery and putting you at risk of contracting bad bacteria, viruses and infections.
Smoking
Smoking can cause significant damage to your immune system by altering inflammation and disrupting communication between cells. As a result, it can increase your body's susceptibility to infections like flu, pneumonia and more autoimmune conditions.
Processed food
Bad diets full of highly processed foods such as cookies, chips, refined grains, chocolates and more can compromise your immunity. Especially if you don't eat enough nutritious single food ingredients such as vegetables, fruits and fibre-rich grains. Not getting sufficient nutrients can seriously decrease your chances of recovery.
Stress
Chronic stress is known to disrupt the immune system, significantly increasing cortisol and stopping infection-fighting cells, altering the balance of your immune system and increasing your risk of infections, slowing healing and inflammation, making chronic conditions even worse.
5 Natural ways to support immunity
One of the best aspects of your immune system is that you can look after it with simple lifestyle changes and healthy habits. Here are 5 ways to support your immunity:
Eat whole foods
The first factor you should look into when optimising your immune system is your diet. Whenever possible, try to eat whole foods that have a range of vitamins in them, like C, D, E and A and nutrients like iron and zinc. All of these help support the production of antibodies, encourage white blood cell growth and help with pathogen defence. Natural foods also help repair tissues, encourage immune cell activity and lower chronic inflammation.
Take small breaks
Taking small breaks every 5-15 minutes from work can help you manage stress and reduce cortisol levels, preventing your immune function from being suppressed. If you’re having a busy day, taking 15 minutes just to even go on a brisk walk or stretch can help boost natural killer cells, encourage circulation, energy and allow your body to work more efficiently.
Get sufficient sleep
Whenever possible, try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. Aim to get a good 7-9 hours of sleep in, and when you can’t take a nap during the day. The more sleep you have, the more efficient your body will become at producing immune cells that fight viruses and bacteria, and also lowers cortisol.
Exercise
Getting sufficient exercise at least 150 minutes a week, however, if possible, more can help transport immune cells throughout your body more efficiently. This means your immune system can become quicker to detect and respond to infections.
Limit smoking and alcohol
One of the first barriers your body has to viruses and bacteria is your lungs. Smoking can weaken your first line of physical defence, and stopping smoking can help your lungs be stronger. Also, fewer toxins from cigarette smoke can increase the efficiency of white blood cells. Again, limiting or stopping alcohol can stop your white blood cells from becoming weaker and help you maintain a strong gut lining.
Supplements that support immunity
While there are a range of factors you can start implementing to help your immune system, if you need further support, you might want to consider taking supplements. At Herb-ology, we have a few supplements that may help your immunity, such as:
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Monolaurin 600mg: A natural substance found in lauric acid, in coconut oil and palm oil. It helps reduce the chances of infection and can aid the efficiency of the immune system.
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Lactobacillus Rhamnosus 10 Billion CFU: A probiotic bacterium supported by a ton of research that helps support immunity and digestive health.
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Oregano Extract 1500mg: A natural plant with powerful antioxidant and antiviral properties.
Conclusion
Overall, your immune health is really important to having a good quality of life. If you don’t have good immunity, you could make yourself more at risk of infections and illnesses, and become sick easily. To have a healthy immune system, make sure you get enough sleep, exercise regularly, take small breaks, eat a diet rich in whole foods, and, when possible, do not drink alcohol or smoke.
If you get a good balance of these, there’s a high chance you can stay on top of your immunity and maintain your body's ability to fight infections. But in order to have good immune health, your cardiovascular system is something you should also be mindful of.
