This question arises for many of us at the latest when we've caught another cold. Here you'll find valuable tips on how to sustainably improve your immune system.
Strengthening the Immune System – How Does It Work?
In often too busy everyday life, some things quickly fall by the wayside. These include sufficient sleep, healthy nutrition, and beneficial exercise. Sooner or later, this becomes noticeable through an immune system susceptible to infections and colds.
However, our immune defense needs full energy anew every day: viruses, fungi, and stress constantly challenge it. For our immune system to cope with this, we need resistant defenses.
The good thing: We can actively support our immune system! And with little effort. It's more a question of self-care, paying good attention to oneself, and sensing when one has lost balance. Then the following tips can help us.
The reward for this can be a sustainably strengthened immune system that copes well with intruders and colds.
Tip 1: Immune Strong Through Relaxation
It has now also been scientifically proven that relaxation techniques have strengthening effects on our defenses and immune system. Relaxation breaks and meditation help you to sustainably reduce stress in everyday life.
But what does the stress level have to do with your immune system and colds? Under stress, the body produces stress hormones such as cortisol. You can imagine this hormone as a competitor to your immune system. Cortisol virtually acts against your body's own immune response. This means that under chronic stress, we are weaker, and our defenses are less able to react to viruses, bacteria, and colds.
What can you do? Try to take regular breaks and feel how good they can be for you. Once you have experienced the positive effects of small breaks in everyday life, it will be easier for you to sustainably integrate them into your routines.
It's important here to find out what suits you best: a cup of tea in your favorite armchair, a short walk, yoga, autogenic training, or sports. Experiment and see what fits well into your daily routine.
For relaxation and thus also for our health, the most important foundation is that we get enough sleep. Lack of sleep generally increases susceptibility to infection. About 7.5 - 8 hours of sleep per night are recommended.
Tip 2: Strengthen Your Immune System with Colorful Food
Our defenses need high-quality nutrients, vitamins, and especially enough fluids to function. Regularly drinking enough is the basis for a strong immune defense. A fluid intake of about 1.5 - 2 liters per day through drinks like water, herbal teas, or even juice spritzers is recommended.
A healthy gut and our gut flora are closely related to our immune system. A balanced diet, in turn, supports and nourishes our gut and thus our health.
You can imagine it this way: our immune defense and our gut are in a continuous dialogue with each other. You may have already noticed skin changes if you've eaten fast food for days. The interaction between our gut and immune function is similar, even if you can't immediately see negative changes here.
Everything we put into our bodies therefore shapes, not least, the quality of our gut flora, which in turn is a key to our immune system and our defense.
In everyday life, you can consider the following tips:
- The immune system benefits from a colorful diet with plenty of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Fresh fruits and vegetables are good suppliers for this. They also provide you with valuable plant-based ingredients.
- Flaxseed oil, flaxseeds, walnuts, or olive oil provide the immune system with important fatty acids. Once or twice a week, fresh fish can provide you with important omega-3 fatty acids. They help your body, for example, to better deal with inflammation.
- There are numerous foods that have antibacterial, antiviral, or anti-inflammatory effects in the body. Healthy and immune-boosting hot drinks can be conjured up with turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and honey. Chili, cloves, and garlic are also attributed numerous health-promoting properties.
- Try to avoid nicotine and consume alcohol in moderation. Smoking weakens the immune system.
- The less sugar and processed foods end up in your stomach, the better. However, exceptions are of course allowed, and then that piece of chocolate should be enjoyed (keyword relaxation!).
If you notice that you repeatedly suffer from infections, you can ask your doctor to check whether there is a nutrient deficiency. Especially in people who live vegan, some nutrients are deficient (e.g., vitamin B12).
Here you can additionally support your immune defense and your health with dietary supplements if necessary.
Tip 3: Exercise, Fresh Air, and Sun
Fresh air and Vitamin D produced on our skin through sun exposure support the normal functioning of our immune system. So, those who exercise outdoors directly help their immune system through several factors.
Regular physical activity, or about 20 minutes of moderate exercise daily, most effectively promotes your health.
Sports and physical activities have been shown to help against tension and stress and are therefore beneficial for your immune system.
To avoid losing the fun of exercise, it is helpful to choose the sport that brings you joy: for the immune system, it doesn't matter whether it's yoga, cycling, swimming, or simply jogging. Try it out!
And importantly: don't overexert yourself, but do everything in moderation. Excessive physical activity can, in turn, stress your body.
Strengthen the Immune System – What Else Can I Do?
- Alternating showers in the morning for health: cold stimuli on warm skin can strengthen our immune system. Regular saunas also improve our defenses.
- Regular ventilation at home and in the office: dry heating air attacks our mucous membranes and makes them more sensitive to bacteria and viruses. Humidifiers also help here and can also be filled with healthy essential oils.
- Regular hand washing: Probably as relevant as ever and the easiest way to get rid of bacteria. It is also important to keep hands away from the mouth, nose, and eyes when out and about.
- Incorporate oil pulling into your morning routine: helps detoxify your body and also supports oral hygiene.
- Keep your distance from people who have a runny nose or a cold.
Conclusion: Strengthen and Improve the Immune System
Our individual life circumstances have a great influence on our health and our immune defenses.
A good combination of the tips mentioned is beneficial to prevent colds and to protect oneself as effectively as possible from viruses and bacteria.
Here's a quick summary of the most important things for a healthy immune system:
- Enough sleep
- Integrate time for relaxation into your daily life
- Avoid stress as much as possible
- Drink enough and regularly throughout the day
- Balanced diet, rich in vitamins and valuable nutrients
- Diet with anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and antibacterial foods
- Regular exercise, preferably in nature and fresh air
- Thorough hand hygiene and distance from people with colds
- Regular ventilation
- Alternating showers and sauna
Sources
- Biesalski, H. K.; Grimm, P. & Nowitzki-Grimm, S. (2011). Taschenatlas Ernährung (6. Auflage). Thieme.
- Horn, F. (2009). Biochemie des Menschen. Das Lehrbuch für das Medizinstudium (4. Auflage). Thieme.
- Ebermann, R.; Elmadfa I. (2011). Lehrbuch Lebensmittelchemie und Ernährung (2. Auflage). Springer-Verlag.
All our articles are written by nutritionists and checked for factual quality by subject matter experts.
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