I go to drop off my son in his pre-school when I find that half of the kids are down with cold and flu. I even find a few mommies struggling with their kids along with a sore throat and a big headache. Many kids are not even able to make it to the school.
I feel sorry for those sick, kids and moms. But then my maternal instincts kick in. I worry thinking about my son. There is a high chance that he might catch the flu from all those sick around him. Should I not send him to school then? No, that isn’t an option. He can’t stay away from school half of the year and I won’t be helping him that way.
What I can try doing instead is trying to boost the immunity of my family. You can do the same as well. Our busy lives have made us ignore the simple things that might help us boost our immunity.
It is time to avoid immunity busting practices and embrace ways to boost it up. How do you think you compromised your immunity? First; you don’t sleep enough everyday, second; you don’t exercise, third; you take too much stress, and last; you don’t pay attention to your diet. How do you boost up your immunity then? Reverse what you did wrong!
- Sleep Well:
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Sleep time is extremely important for our body. We need atleast 7-9 hours of sleep to be in the best of our health. You might have busted your body’s defense by not allowing it to rest adequately.
When our body doesn’t rest well it gets stressed and the level of stress hormone rises, reducing our immunity. It is time to boost it up by a regular sleep every night.
- Exercise:
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Again our busy lifestyle led us into shortage of time to exercise our body. But you have already heard about its importance. Now is the time to apply it in your life. Exercise, even light or moderate level, helps fight the infections that attack our body.
You might have seen someone who exercises regularly and catch a cold less often. The body is well prepared when you exercise and it also helps you sleep better, thus, helps your immune system.
- Stress-free:
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If you remain stressed all the time, it will have an adverse effect on your body. Your immunity levels will decrease significantly. The higher amount of the stress hormones would suppress the immune system. It is important to let go off the stress and stay happy so that your body can fight off infections more easily.
Learn to vent off all the negative energy and stress through various means like meditation, work out, connecting with other people and having a good laugh more often.
- Diet:
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Learning to eat right is not always about trying to lose some weight. A healthy diet (which leads to a healthy weight eventually) helps keep your body strong and fight infections properly.
That doesn’t mean that you won’t catch a disease if you eat your veggies! You need to create a balance between everything. But you can build your defenses strong if you eat the right foods.
There are many immune boosting foods in our kitchen that we might not be aware of. Foods rich in Vitamin C, zinc, selenium and other vitamins and minerals are helpful to improve our immunity.
- Herbal remedies:
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You might find a number of herbal remedies to improve your immunity in any herbal store. Even if there might not be enough scientific evidences about these herbs, but many of them work on many people.
Although everything might not work for everyone, it is entirely dependent on one’s own opinion and experiences.
Garlic, ginseng, Licorice root, etc are some of them. Furthermore, probiotics are popular immunity boosting foods. These are actually the good bacteria residing in the digestive tract. Many foods naturally are good sources of probiotics such as yoghurt, and you can find probiotic supplements too.
The natural way to build up our immunity is to live a healthy lifestyle and avoid triggering factors. You might very careful (almost like you have an OCD) about washing hands with anti-bacterial soap, keeping your dirty shoes away and staying away from all the street food (which is good, I agree) to avoid any sort of disease. But if you don’t eat healthy, drink lots of fluid, exercise or sleep sufficiently, you are vulnerable to diseases.
So, pay attention to your diet and exercise and rest well to stay healthy and happy.
Love Being A Mama 