The body’s immune system works hard to keep you protected from potential health threats caused by bacteria, germs, viruses and others. That’s why it’s important to make sure that it’s optimized and at its best with healthy practices.
Unfortunately, certain lifestyle habits can do more damage than good! What are these habits and how can you correct them? Read on to find out.
Bad Habits Can Affect Your Immune System
What you eat and what you do influences your overall health. This includes your immune system. For a stronger resistance to infections and illnesses, make sure to support your immune health by avoiding or correcting these bad habits.
- Diving into Too Much Work and Stress. Stress is a normal part of life, but too much can wreak havoc on your immunity. This is because the stress hormone cortisol can suppress immune response by reducing the number of lymphocytes (white blood cells) that go after invading bacteria, germs and others. On top of this, stress can also have an indirect effect on the immune system as you may resort to unhealthy coping strategies such as binge eating sweets, smoking or drinking.
What You Can Do: Take breaks regularly. Whether for socializing or for personal time, you’ll find that breaks can leave you feeling refreshed and even more productive.
- Smoking. It doesn’t matter if you’re smoking traditional cigarettes or e-cigarettes. Both are bad for your health. Nicotine, like stress, increases cortisol levels which impacts the production of white blood cells and affects immune response.
What You Can Do: Quitting smoking is easier said than done. But what can work is to come up with a plan for quitting. Pick a date for your quit day, and decide whether you want to quit abruptly or gradually. Identifying triggers and changing your routine to disassociate smoking with these triggers will also help.
- Drinking Alcohol. Much like smoking, drinking alcohol can have a range of harmful effects on the body, which can contribute to poor immune response. In general, it can damage immune cells. Alcohol can also trigger inflammation in the gut and destroy microorganisms that help in maintaining a healthy immune system.
What You Can Do: Drink water instead. While water does little to prevent germs and bacteria from causing damage to your health, it prevents dehydration which can lead to complications that increase your susceptibility to illness.
- Frequently Staying Up Late. Did you know that less than seven hours of sleep for three nights in a row has the same effect on the body as missing a full night of sleep? Poor sleep can have both short-term and long-term health consequences. For your immunity, it can negatively affect how white blood cells destroy infected cells.
For adequate sleep, experts recommend aiming for 7 or more hours each night for adults, 8-10 hours for teens, and up to 14 hours for younger children and infants.
What You Can Do: Practice easing into early sleep by limiting screen time before bed, and dimming your room lights (if not turning them off completely).
- Skipping Workout Time. Being consistent with a workout routine can be challenging, but studies say that regular moderate exercise may reduce inflammation and promote the healthy turnover of immune cells.
What You Can Do: Make working out a main part of your daily routine, and opt for exercises that you can do regularly. Jogging, biking and brisk walking are great options for moderate exercises.
Daily Diet + Supplementation for Immunity Boost
One of the best ways to strengthen your defenses against infections and illnesses is by eating healthy. Make sure to fill up your daily plate with:
- whole plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, brown rice, wheat, and nuts, for antioxidants
- healthy fats such as salmon, tuna and sardines for its anti-inflammatory effects
- fermented foods such as yogurt, kimchi and natto (fermented soybeans), for probiotics
Eating the right food is one thing, eating enough is another. Especially when balanced meals are not readily accessible, supplements can help ensure that you meet the recommended daily intake of nutrients for a healthy and well-functioning immune system. Along with proper diet and exercise, take Sodium Ascorbate + Zinc (ImmunPro®) that has Vitamin C and Zinc with a ZincPlus Tablet Technology that ensures a stabilized Synergy and absorption of vitamin C and zinc. You may also click here to purchase ImmunPro® online.
Read more health features and tips on how to boost the immune system and more.
IF SYMPTOMS PERSIST, CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR.
ASC Reference No. U166P110521IS
