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Home remedies can boost the immune system to help you stay well and heal faster. Learn how to do it yourself at home!
The immune system is your body’s first line of defense when fighting a common cold, the more severe flu, and other illnesses caused by cold weather.
Over the past two and a half years, COVID-19 preventive measures have greatly reduced your exposure to these illnesses. However, with the economy and border opened and people adjusting to the new normal, we can see the rise of these common diseases or seasonal influenza due to various factors.
To fight these diseases, your immune system needs to be boosted with healthy food, consistent exercise and keeping your stress level at a minimum if not low.
How do you provide sustenance to your immune system and balance its response to stay healthy and get your body to function optimally? Here are a few home remedies to help you boost your immune system and keep you energized:
1. Drink More Water
Water is by far the best thing you can consume to stay healthy. It literally has zero calories and helps the body stay fresh and replenished. Although each person varies, you should aim to drink at least 8 glasses of water daily. A tip if you find yourself struggling to drink enough water throughout the day, you can try to slice a piece of fruit like a lemon or apple, so the flavor helps you drink more.
2. Pick Up Healthy Eating Habits
One of the easiest ways to boost your immune system is to avoid food that could cause chronic inflammation to you. This could include avoiding sugar, refined carbohydrates, vegetable oil, sodium-laden food, and anything deep-fried or processed.
3. Supplement With Vitamin C
Vitamin C is essential in preventing you from catching a cold or flu. You can start incorporating foods like citrus fruits, peppers, blackcurrants, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and many others in your daily meal. If you still feel that you are still not consuming enough Vitamin C, you can consult your physician and get his/her advice on consuming ascorbic acid, which is the purest form of Vitamin C.
4. Incorporate Vitamin D and Zinc Daily
Vitamin D, also known as the “sunshine vitamin” offers your body great protection from catching a cold and flu. According to studies, little doses of sunlight help your bones, blood cells, and immune system stronger.
In terms of daily consumption, incorporating both Vitamin D and Zinc-dense food is important to heal wounds and optimize your sense of taste and smell besides fighting off invading bacteria and viruses.
5. Consume Teas and Green Juices
Tea especially chamomile and green tea are full of antioxidants that naturally boost the immune system, besides keeping your body warm during cold weather when you drink it hot. There are also recipes for immunity-boosting green juices that you can make when you’re sick. A quick search on Google will show you proper combinations that make your juice both effective and tasteful!
6. Boost Gut Health with Probiotics
Most do not know this but to maintain a strong immune system you need to have a healthy gut since your digestive system produces both good and bad bacteria from the food it digests. Eating gut-friendly probiotics like pickles, yogurt, tempeh, kefir, kimchi, kombucha, and many more. All of these can be made at home or easily found at the supermarket. Make sure you have always them in your fridge.
7. Eat More Vegetables and Fruits
You don’t have to turn vegan to have a strong immune system. But you do need to start eating more vegetables and fruits s as the vast nutrients found in plants help support a healthy immune system and energize the body. And guess what? The more colorful your vegetables and fruits are, the more vitamins and antioxidants you will get from eating them.
8. Incorporate Garlic into Your Cooking
The strong smell of garlic may chase vampires away, but did you know that the high sulfur content in garlic makes it beneficial to fight colds and flu? The research found that the sulfur in garlic helps your body to absorb zinc elements and promotes an anti-inflammatory environment in your system, hence promoting a strong immune system.
9. Exercise Regularly and Maintain a Healthy Weight
Regular exercise is key to maintaining good immune health, aside from improving your mood and reducing stress. By exercising for at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week, you could significantly reduce the risk of getting a chronic disease.
While exercising regularly makes your immune system stronger, maintaining a healthy weight level and low body fat percentage reduces the chances of having inflammation and increases metabolism.
10. Get Enough Sleep
“A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.” We couldn't agree more! But how much sleep do you need to boost your immune system and reenergize your body? For most adults, the optimal amount is between 7-8hours of sleep each night, while teenagers may need up to 9 hours of sleep.
Quality of sleep plays an important role to help strengthen your body’s immune health deep sleep is found to improve immune cells known as the T Cells that fight against intracellular pathogens like flu, herpes, HIV, and cancer cells.
11. Manage Your Stress
Unmanaged stress can cause various health issues including sleep deprivation. If you find that you have high-stress levels such as trouble breathing, panic attacks, blurred eyesight, and chest pain among others, besides getting professional medical attention, you can also focus on living and eating healthier and getting sufficient sleep to avoid suppressing your immune response.
12. Avoid Nicotine and Smoking
Nicotine contains the main immunosuppressive elements in cigarette smoke which impedes both innate and adaptive immune responses. According to research, cigarette smoking has been linked to the development of autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus, multiple sclerosis, and hyperthyroidism among others.
13. Consume Alcohol in Moderation
Although drinking alcohol is typically related to liver damage, your immune system could also be impacted when you drink alcohol excessively. Alcohol is found to limit your body’s ability to protect itself from diseases and infections sufficiently. Excess consumption of alcohol also contributes to systemic inflammation where your natural defenses against gut microbiota could be impacted.
14. Wash Your Hands Frequently!
After the emergence of the first COVID-19 back in late 2019, scientists couldn’t stress how important it is to wash our hands thoroughly with soap and water to remove germs and bacteria. By keeping clean hygiene, you are likely to prevent infections of diseases and illnesses. Washing hands is more of a preventative measure rather than a remedy to boost the immune system.
15. Limit Your Sugar Intake
Sugar has a known effect on the body’s immune system. Sugar affects your immune system by weakening your white blood cells, depriving the cells of fighting off viruses or infections when they should. The daily recommendation of sugar consumption is less than 36 grams or 9 teaspoons, including those used for cooking and making drinks. Just to give some context, even 75 grams of sugar can weaken the immune system temporarily.
At the end of the day, boosting your immunity and energy daily doesn’t have to be a chore. It is also good to know that you can rely on home remedies to do so consistently. This also involves you being committed to your health as you will need to adjust and make conscious lifestyle changes for your immunity to be at its optimum level.
Disclaimer:
No content on this site, regardless of date, should be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinicians.
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