The immune system plays a vital role in keeping us healthy. Ensuring it runs smoothly is in your best interest.
A well-functioning immune system is vital to our health. When your immune system is working as it should, it’s easy to forget it even exists. But, as soon as it stops running smoothly, that story can only end with you getting ill.
1. What Is the Immune System and How Does It Work
The immune system performs many important tasks. It fights disease-causing germs and removes them from the body. It identifies and neutralizes harmful substances from the environment. Last, but not least, it fights disease-causing changes in the body, such as cancer.
When the body comes into contact with an invader for the first time, the immune system stores information about it and looks for ways to fight it. If the invader strikes again, the immune system will recognize it and start fighting it faster.
To function optimally, the immune system needs you to do a few things. One of them is to get enough quality sleep. Sleep has far-reaching importance for virtually every system in the body but consistent quality sleep strengthens the immune system and enables it to work efficiently. On the other hand, sleep deprivation can contribute to making you ill as your defenses will be weakened. Getting adequate sleep frees up enough energy for the immune system to perform the critical tasks it has been assigned to do. Additionally, studies have shown that sleep improves the effects of vaccines, which further demonstrates its benefits for adaptive immunity. So, get some black curtains to ensure a good night’s sleep. Not only will they block light and noise, but they will also insulate your home and lower your utility bill even with the lowest CT electric rates.
Fortunately, there are countless things you can do to provide your immune system with what it needs to function optimally.
2. How To Boost Your Immune System
Although your immune system does a hell of a job at protecting you from illness, sometimes invaders such as COVID-19 manage to get their way into your kingdom. Demonstrating whether an herb or any substance can enhance immunity response is, to this day, a highly complicated matter. The immune system is exactly that, a system, and not a single entity, so it is complex. It requires balance and harmony to function properly, so a healthy lifestyle should be your first line of defense.
Besides ensuring you get adequate sleep to allow your immune system to regenerate and energize, try not to smoke and clog your lungs which supply your body with oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide. COVID-19 has reminded us just how important our lungs are.
The immune system’s army is in your gut. These warriors need to be nourished so you need to eat a healthy diet that will give you energy as opposed to junk food that will keep your system so busy digesting it that you will waste more energy than you gained from the nutrients you consumed. Although there is plenty of more research to be done, studies have shown that deficiencies of zinc, selenium, iron, copper, folic acid, and vitamins A, B6, C, D, and E alter the immune response.
Regular exercise needs to be a part of your schedule as our bodies were not built for sedentary positions. Our bodies need movement. Moderate exercise gets the circulation going, which allows the immune system to work efficiently. Physical activity also helps us flush out bacteria, fight inflammation and infections while also lowering stress hormones.
Stress management is imperative for a strong immune system as constantly being in ‘fight or flight’ leads to hyper elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol that diminishes its effectiveness to regulate both the inflammatory and immune response. To put it in simple words, when we’re stressed, the immune system is less effective at fighting off intruders as it has an inflammation to deal with. If you want to be healthy, you need to learn to decompress, unplug and relax.
Takeaway
The immune system allows us to safely interact with our environment on a daily basis. It is fundamental to healing wounds, warding off infections, and protecting us against both chronic and life-threatening illnesses. If this year has taught us anything, it is the importance of our health and therefore, its main guardian. So, making sure your immune system functions optimally should be among your top priorities.