He thinks the impending illness has greatly affected everyone's nerves. It causes anxiety, and when you're nervous, you want to do something about it. That's why you see stories of people stockpiling toilet paper, disinfecting wipes and stealing face masks. (None of these will help keep them healthy, by the way)
Like you, I can't help but see and hear all the stories about how to wash your hands, how to avoid people who are sick, and how to use hand sanitizer to protect yourself and your family from COVID-19.
As a health and fitness expert, I agree that's good advice, but I also know they're missing out on more stories. Why hasn't anyone talked about what you can do to boost your immune system from within?
Healing is an inside job. It's a nonsensical message, so it doesn't appear on the headlines.
Your health comes from within. It has always been there and always will be. It's human nature to want a quick fix and try to blame others for your health, but in the end, only you can make yourself healthy or sick.
Here is a brief summary of scientifically proven ways to boost your immune system.
The science behind boosting your immune system isn't complicated. These are common practices that science and the medical community support.
Boosting your health by boosting your health from within will help protect you and your family more than hoarding toilet paper and face masks. I will share with you here what the science says about boosting your immune system:
Regular moderate exercise*.
* Moderate exercise strengthens your immune response, while excessive exercise weakens it.
Regular, moderate exercise reduces inflammatory responses and increases immunomodulatory capacity.
Exercise helps move and clear pathogens from your respiratory tract, and helps circulate antibodies and white blood cells faster and to the furthest parts of your vascular system.
Exercise reduces the release of cortisol, the stress hormone. High cortisol suppresses your immune system.
The temporary increase in body temperature caused by exercise can weaken or kill certain bacteria or viruses (similar to your body's fever response).
Give advice:
Go for a brisk walk or bike ride for 30 minutes, play a sport, do some gardening, do yoga or Pilates.
Do 30 minutes of moderate exercise each day. Bonus if you do it outside. If your workouts are extreme, cut them down. Remember that moderate exercise builds and restores the body, while excessive exercise depletes it.
Provide your diet and gut microbiota.
The quality of your food will determine the quality of your health, and the typical American diet doesn't help.
Nutrition is directly related to your immune system by providing the building blocks your body needs to function at peak performance, and indirectly by influencing your gut microbiome. Friend. Your gut microbiome is responsible for communication between your brain and your immune system.
Your gut microbiome also affects the amount of cortisol you produce. As mentioned above, too much cortisol weakens the immune response.
The health of your gut biome affects the health of your gut lining, and this lining is the first line of physical defense against disease.
The typical American diet is notoriously processed. It's full of calories, but low in nutrition. Micronutrient deficiencies of zinc, selenium, iron, copper, folic acid or vitamins A, B6 or E have all been linked to a weakened immune system.
Give advice:
Drink 2 extra glasses of water a day (in addition to what you already drink).
Eat an extra fruit and vegetable each day.
Stop eating fried foods, foods with added sugar, and replace white grains with whole grains. Eliminate all sugary drinks (naturally or artificially sweetened).
Eat less at restaurants
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