How to boost your immunity?

In this time of coronavirus outbreak, it is useful to recall a few daily habits and practices that naturally boost your immunity and, thus, reduce your risk of getting sick.

First of all, it is not by coincidence that all health practitioners remind us about thorough and frequent hand washing as one of the best ways to reduce the spread of any disease. You need warm water, soap and about 30 seconds (or, as my husband likes to put it, signing twice ‘a happy birthday to me’ song). So, please do wash your hands, especially before eating, touching your face or eyes, etc.

And now onto some practical tips to increase your immunity:

1. Get sufficient quantity and quality of sleep – at a risk of repeating myself, sufficient sleep is absolutely key for our overall health. Listen to your body to see how much sleep you actually need and when is a good time to go to bed. You should feel rested in the morning when you wake up – if you don’t investigate why. There might be something that is disturbing your sleep and preventing you from getting full benefits. Keep in mind that in this period coming out of winter, your body may need more sleep than usual. 7-9 hours works for most people.

2. Manage stress – stress lowers our immunity, literally. The stress hormone cortisol lowers the number of lymphocytes and thus suppresses the effectiveness of our immune system. Some of the tools you can use include deep breathing, meditation, walk in the nature, yoga and so on. It is key to find what works for you. And use it frequently to keep the unavoidable stress at bay.

3. Eat balanced diet that is right for you – our gut is packed with some 60-70 percent of the body’s immune cells. That is why, keeping your gut healthy and happy is one of the best things you can do to strengthen your immunity. A lot of things I am listing here will also naturally protect and strengthen your gut. In addition, add good quality daily probiotic (and/or eat regularly fermented foods), eat foods rich in fiber (prebiotics) to feed your gut bacteria, avoid taking unnecessary antibiotic, and eat less sugar and artificial sweeteners (which cause dysbiosis – imbalance of your gut microbes – reducing the good guys and increasing the bad guys).

4. Exercise regularly – again nothing new. But regular, moderate exercise is proven to be intimately linked with immunity and avoiding illness. You need to find a way to make regular exercise that you enjoy a part of your daily routine.

5. And finally, use good quality supplements. Whenever I am asked what supplements I would recommend, I always say the best way to know is to work with a health car practitioner and have your blood tested for the level of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.

   • But, for most of use living in a 4-season climate zone, you can safely assume that you are deficient in Vitamin D for most of the year, but especially during winter. The dose can be best established by your doctor but a safe start is 5,000 IU of D3 per day. Make sure that your Vitamin D3 comes together with Vitamin K2 that is responsible for depositing calcium in the right places in our body.

   • Another one of my favourites is the already mentioned daily probiotic. Do some research before you buy or talk to your health practitioner. Ideally, you should take one with 20-50 billion viable organisms.

• And finally, Omega 3. Omega-3 is responsible for reducing inflammation in our body while Omega 6 does the opposite. The key to help is to keep these two in balance – some inflammation is actually good for us and, even more so, necessary to our survival. The problem is that with our modern diet we often consume too much Omega 6 and not sufficient Omega 3 and, thus, the balance gets tilted towards inflammation. Supplementing with Omega 3 can remedy this (1-2 gramms per day).

And a final word on what to do if you are feeling that you may be coming with a cold. In terms of supplements, I would take a mega dose of liposomal Vitamin C (3-4 grams every hour), D (50,000 IU) and zinc (25 mg per day) at least for 1-2 days to see if this is sufficient to stop the sickness in its track. You can see some more details in this article. In addition to a healthy diet, up your intake of garlic, onions, ginger, and spices (oregano, turmeric). All these have proven antimicrobial properties and also keep your gut happy.

Hello! I am Magda and I work with people that are ready to transform their health and wellbeing. What are your health goals that you have not been able to reach? Read more about me and my services.

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