How to Improve Your Immune System

How do you improve your immune system?   Well basically it comes down to two simple steps – nutrition and exercise.   There are other things that you can do to improve your immune system, but these two are the most important.

If you want to keep your immune system in fighting fit condition you need to look after it.   If it’s looked after properly it will be able to keep those pesky colds and viruses at bay.   The first step is to look at what we put in to our bodies.   Think of your body as a machine like a car for instance – would you run your car on soda?   I’m guessing you’re laughing and saying of course not and yet you expect your body to run on soda……

The easiest way to improve your immune system (and your general health) is to implement changes gradually so that you get in the habit of making good choices. To get back to the soda, the next time you feel like grabbing a glass substitute it for fruit or vegetable juice or even better would be water. Fruit juice is still high in sugar, but it doesn’t have all of the chemicals in it that the soda does.

While we’re talking fruit and vegetable juice let’s talk about fruit and vegetables themselves. It is really important to eat lots of fruit and vegetables because they contain antioxidants. Antioxidants are essential for a healthy immune system. Ideally you should be eating 5 serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit every day as a minimum.

You don’t have time to prepare a ‘proper’ meal? That’s no excuse. If you eat frozen or microwave dinners then choose the ones that contain vegetables and then add extra. You can buy a bag of salad at the supermarket and re-bag it into smaller serves at home. Pop your dinner into the microwave, grab one of your baggies of salad and eat them together – perfect!

Take little snacks in your bag if you know you’re going to be traveling around abit – carrot and celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, even a piece of fruit these are great ways of adding fruit and veggies to your day.

Fruit and vegetables alone can’t keep your immune system healthy without back up and the back up comes in the form of pro-biotics and omega 3.   Fiber is also important, but if your fruit and vegetable intake is up then you should be getting fiber.   Pro-biotics are the ‘friendly bacteria’ found in yogurts, so having a yogurt every day is important.   Again there’s no excuse if you’re in a hurry as you can now buy yogurt drinks which are handy for people on the go.

Omega 3 can be found in fish, nuts and seeds.   Eating fish three times a week is a great way of boosting your immune system, but if you’re not keen on fish there are other things you can do.   Nuts and seeds are an ideal snack food because they are an absolute powerhouse of a food nutritionally speaking and are easy to transport and eat.   Buy a selection of nuts and pop into individual bags that you can pop in your bag for snacking on the run.   I usually have a selection of nuts, seeds and a few bits of dried fruit all mixed together – delicious and healthy, what more could you ask for?

All of this food is making me thirsty and that brings us to another important thing for your immune system – water!   I like to think of water as the oil for your car because your car won’t run without oil and your body can’t run without water.   You will be getting water from the fruit and vegetables that you eat, but it’s important to drink at least 8 glasses a day if you want a strong immune system.

Now that we’ve tackled that 4 letter word – diet, it’s time to move onto the next part of the equation which is exercise.    Exercise is important for a healthy immune system.   Why is it good?   Well when you exercise your body releases endorphins, now you may have heard of endorphins before as they are known as natural valium.   Endorphins are a great side effect of exercise because they improve your mind making you feel happier and more positive.

Back to the immune system – endorphins also have a positive effect on your immune system because they can activate what are called Natural Killer cells in the body.   Natural Killer cells help to keep your immune system strong by killing off virally infected cells.   NK cells also target and kill tumors.   

A number of years ago I was unable to exercise for months and when I did start up again I had a problem with my joints swelling up when I walked too much.   What I did is a great idea for anyone who hasn’t exercised for a while – I walked for only 5 minutes a day for about a week.   I then increased it to 10 minutes a day for another week.   You really want to aim to be exercising for 20 minutes a day, building up to it gradually is absolutely fine.

Adding incidental exercise into your day is also a great idea.   An example is parking a little further away from your place of work and walking a block or two or taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

Now that you’ve implemented those steps I’m sure you’ll find your immune system just keeps getting stronger and stronger.