Are starting to enjoy warmer weather and getting excited for summer? Warm weather is not a time to ignore your immune system. The last thing you want is to be stuck inside again getting over “something” in the warm months ahead. Here are simple things you can do to minimize the risk of that happening.
4 Ways You Can Boost Your Immune System Before Summer:
Find ways to de-stress
It’s hard in this day and age, but finding ways to lower your stress levels is incredibly important for your physical health. Clinical immunologist Leonard Calabrese, DO, from the Cleveland Clinic offers insights on how stress impacts your immunity and what you can do to minimize the effect. “Eliminating or modifying these factors in one’s life is vital to protect and augment the immune response,” he says. “It’s necessary to buffer the inevitability of the aging process.”
If you want to keep your immune system strong, you need to find healthy ways to lower your stress levels daily. Meditation and exercise are both great options, but small changes in your diet can also help.
Eating sulforaphane (a nutrient broccoli sprouts are uniquely rich in) and getting more fiber have both been proven to help people manage stress levels.
Get more sleep
When you’re asleep your body releases proteins that help your immune system fight infections — they’re called cytokines. The less you sleep, the fewer cytokines you make and the more vulnerable you become to catching a cold or other virus when you’re exposed.
On top of that, not getting enough sleep can lower the number of antibodies your cells make. Try going to bed early, stick to a sleep schedule, and install a blue light filter on your phone or wear blue light blocking glasses to avoid suppressing melatonin, which is critical to fall and stay asleep.
Eat more mushrooms
Mushrooms deliver a powerful dose of beta-glucans and other nutrients that can turbo-charge your immune system. Beta-glucans are a special type of fiber that can strengthen your immune system response.
- They increase your antibody production…
- Activate your immune system cells…
- And promote the removal of bacteria and unhealthy cells.
They’re scientifically proven to optimize your immunity. Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) is one of the most popular edible mushrooms with significant health benefits. It has been used for hundreds of years to relieve symptoms of the common cold and has both antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. Check out the six most popular mushrooms for immune support you should eat.
Do a detox
The toxins and pollutants that you are exposed to on a daily basis suppress your immune system and cause oxidative stress that can make you sick. You can’t avoid toxins anymore with the way the world is, that’s why detoxing is so important. Detox is such a game changer! It’s a non-aggressive way to help your liver deal with toxins naturally.
Add foods to tour diet that improve liver function, which can help your body better deal with unnatural chemicals, pollutants, and heavy metals. These foods also help your liver produce more bile, which can improve digestion so that nothing has time to suppress the parts of your immune system that are housed in your gut.
If you want to keep your immune system strong throughout the sunny season ahead, take steps now!
