When it comes to staying healthy, there are few things more important than your immune system. It's the first line of defense against a whole host of illnesses, viruses, and diseases. To stay healthy, you need to support your immune system in any way you can.
Unfortunately, our modern lifestyles are often directly harmful to our immune systems. This can open us up to infections and illness, which can be expensive and time-consuming, but also deadly.
Luckily, there are steps you can take to build and maintain a strong immune system. In this article, we'll go over 7 different ways you can build a healthy immune system that will help keep you illness-free.
1. Get at Least 7 Hours of Sleep a Night
With very busy schedules and commitments like family, children, and work, it can be hard to get enough time to sleep. However, getting enough sleep every night is critical to building a strong immune system.
While you sleep, your body produces cytokines, which target inflammation and infections. They are crucial to fighting illness and getting better faster. If you don't get enough sleep, your body will not produce enough cytokines, and you may fall ill easier.
2. Reduce Your Stress
Life is stressful at times, but that stress could be having a negative impact on your immune system. When you're stressed you produce a hormone called corticosteroid, which produces the physical symptoms of stress.
Corticosteroid reduces the effectiveness of the immune system by reducing white blood cell production, which reduces your ability to fight illness.
3. Avoid Processed Sugar
Although everyone enjoys a sweet treat every now and then, processed sugar actually causes inflammation. Inflammation can cause your immune system to work overtime to fix the problems, which can weaken it and cause you to get sick.
4. Get More Exercise
Exercising can make you more physically fit, and it turns out it can make your immune system more fit as well. Exercise generally causes an increase in heart rate and breathing, which can help to flush bacteria out of the lungs. This helps you avoid getting sick.
It also causes your body temperature to go up, which may kill or prevent bacteria from growing. Try to get 30 minutes of exercise a day to stay healthy.
5. Take Immunity-Boosting Supplements
While there are many supplements that claim to make you healthy, there are also a few that are great for your immune system. For example, Acai berry supplements are full of vitamins and antioxidants, which can help fight and repair damage to your system.
6. Don't Smoke
Although many of the health dangers of smoking are well known, most people don't realize this bad habit can also make you more prone to being sick. Smoking causes inflammation, which increases your risk of illness. It also makes you more susceptible to diseases like pneumonia and bronchitis.
7. Drink In Moderation
Many people enjoy a drink or two at the end of a hard day, but it's important to limit the amount of alcohol you drink if you want to stay healthy. Recent studies show that high levels of alcohol intake can weaken your ability to fight infections and increase inflammation, which can lead to illness.
Keep a Strong Immune System
Now that you know more about how to build a strong immune system, you can start your journey to better health and fewer sick days. Make sure you do further research to figure out how to change your habits and stay on the right track.
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