How to Improve your Immune System this Year
A healthy immune system can defeat a bacterium, virus, or another microorganism that can cause disease.
For this reason, you want to have a healthy immune system.
Losing weight is not the only goal of changing your lifestyle, it is merely weight loss.
Our primary goal is health and fitness, especially after fifty when our bodies natural resources have the additional strain of age.
Learning how to improve your immune system is beneficial to everyone no matter what your age is.
What can you do?
In general, improving your lifestyle habits is your best bet to improving your immune system.
Let's define those healthy lifestyle habits:
How to Improve Your Immune System – Habit 1
Stop smoking if you do and do not start smoking if you don't.
Your immune system will always function best when not under attack from foreign substances such as tobacco smoke
How to Improve Your Immune System – Habit 2
The first rule to improve your immune system is to do no harm in the first place.
In order to do no harm, you want to remove whatever irritants that you can from your diet.
Eat a diet high in vegetables and fruits.
We regularly hear about people on a low-carb or low-fat diet.
It is time to think more about what we can eat than what we cannot.
It is time to think of being on a high vegetable diet as opposed to low carb.
It is time to think about increasing the nutrient content of what we eat every day and decreasing the irritant content.
Vegetables are loaded with nutrients that we are just beginning to understand.
What we do know is that simple vegetables like Brussel sprouts have amazing nutritional power and is where you should place your focus.
Stop thinking about processed food and start thinking of real food.
Instead of a muffin or bagel in the morning, have a boiled egg and some raw vegetables and fruit.
The muffin and the bagel are manufactured food and some of the chemicals which go into creating this manufactured food might not be recognizable for your body.
You can be confident that when you eat real food that is hormone and pesticide free, your body will thank you for it.
How to Improve Your Immune System – Habit 3
Move your body every day.
Sitting and watching tv is not exercise.
Sitting at your desk, at the kitchen table and at dinner is not exercise.
Sitting and driving or sitting and commuting is also not exercise.
At the minimum, get outside or on a treadmill for a walk of at least 30 minutes a day and an hour is even better.
Listen to an audio book or class to feel that not only did you take care of your body, but you also learned something as well.
How to Improve Your Immune System – Habit 4
Maintain a healthy weight for your age.
Do you know what your ideal weight is?
If not, check out the following chart:
THE IDEAL WEIGHT CHART FOR MEN
THE IDEAL WEIGHT CHART FOR WOMEN
* Definition of medium-frame: Your middle finger and thumb just touch when you hold your wrist. You are large-framed if your fingers do not touch. You are small-framed if your fingers overlap.((healthdiscovery.net))((https://blog.personalcapital.com/investing/what-is-a-healthy-body-weight-for-males-and-females/))
How to Improve Your Immune System – Habit 5
Maintain a normal blood pressure.
Your blood pressure rises with each heartbeat and falls when your heart relaxes between beats. While BP can change from minute to minute with changes in posture, exercise, stress or sleep, it should normally be less than 120/80 mm Hg (less than 120 systolic AND less than 80 diastolic) for an adult age 20 or over.((https://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HighBloodPressure/AboutHighBloodPressure/Understanding-Blood-Pressure-Readings_UCM_301764_Article.jsp#.VpQF9pMrLBI))
How to Improve Your Immune System – Habit 6
Drink alcohol in moderation.
If you choose to drink alcohol, do so only in moderation. For healthy adults, that means up to one drink a day for women of all ages and men older than age 65, and up to two drinks a day for men age 65 and younger. Examples of one drink include: Beer: 12 fluid ounces (355 milliliters)((https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/alcohol/art-20044551)).
How to Improve Your Immune System – Habit 7
Get good restful sleep.
How much sleep do you really need?
Some people say they can function on four to six hours of sleep each night, but research shows that adults who get fewer than seven hours of sleep — whether for just one night or over the course of days, weeks, or months — have more difficulty concentrating and more mood problems than people who sleep seven to nine hours.((https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/features/adult-sleep-needs-and-habits))
How to Improve Your Immune System – Habit 8
Avoid infection by washing your hands frequently and keeping your fingers out of your mouth. Note to nailbiters that it is time to stop, if not for aesthetic reasons, certainly for your health.
Note to nailbiters that it is time to stop, if not for aesthetic reasons, certainly for your health.
Wash your hands. Regular hand-washing is one of the most important things you can do to reduce your risk of infection. Wash your hands thoroughly and often, especially when you are around a lot of people (for example, in a hospital or doctor's office, or at school or work).((https://www.everydayhealth.com/copd/avoiding-infections.aspx))
How to Improve Your Immune System – Summary
These habits can be the foundation for boosting your immune system:
1. Stop smoking.
2. Eat a high vegetable diet. Think real food and stop consuming irritants like processed foods.
3. Exercise every day, at least, take a walk, for 30 minutes to an hour.
4. Maintain an ideal weight for your height and frame.
5. Get your blood pressure to normal, at least, 120/80 or better.
6. Drink only one to two alcoholic drinks a day, if any.
7. Get a great night sleep.
8. Avoid infection, wash your hands and stop putting them in your mouth.
If these tips for how to improve your immune system are helpful, please share this post with your friends and family.
If you have any additional immune boosting ideas, please leave them in the comments.
Hashi Mashi!
Rich is a Certified Personal Trainer-AAPT and 