Want to boost your immune system? Here are four actions you can take!
1 - Incorporate intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting has myriad benefits, including improved detoxification and increased metabolism. One of the many benefits includes boosting immune function.
When you fast, it activates cellular regeneration called autophagy, which is the body’s process of cleaning out. During the process of autophagy, cells that are damaged or old are recycled, and new, healthier, higher-functioning cells emerge. As such, old and damaged immune cells are replaced with new, healthy immune cells, thereby strengthening your immune function. Fasting allows the body to focus on this regeneration because it’s not spending its energy on digesting and clearing the new toxins from the foods you’re consuming.
2 - Improve the health of your gut and immune system.
When you have a healthy gut, you have healthy immunity. Most of the immune system lives in the mucosal barrier of the gastrointestinal tract. Factors that damage the mucosal lining include:
- poor dietary choices,
- pathogens and bacterial imbalance
- exposure to toxins,
- infections,
- synthetic foods and preservatives,
- pharmaceutical medications,
- and mental and emotional stress.
Check out my blog post to learn more about the relationship between gut health and immune health and steps you can take to improve the health of your gut.
3 - Reduce stress on your immune system.
Stress suppresses immune function. Elevated cortisol from the fight-flight-freeze stress response suppresses the production and secretion of immunoglobulins in the lining of the gut.
If you experience chronic mental or emotional stress, you have a chronically stressed immune system.
Internal, physiological stress is just as hard on the body as mental and emotional stress. These physiological sources of stress can include a GI pathogen, food sensitivity, infection or inflammation, or a high toxic load.
Even if you’re cooler than the other side of a pillow with no mental or emotional stress, if you have an internal stressor: then immunoglobulin production will decrease, thus suppressing your immune system. I discuss this further in my blog post about gut health and the immune health.
So if you want a strong immune system, make stress reduction – all forms of stress – a priority.
4 - Get healthy sleep.
Healthy sleep strengthens your immune – something vitally important during a pandemic – but also generally important all the time!
While you’re sleeping, your immune system releases small proteins called cytokines. If you’re sick or injured, the cytokines help your body fight off inflammation, infection, and trauma.
So if you want strong immune functions, make healthy rest a priority.
Looking for more healthy immune system hacks? Check out my blog for more tips, and look for my upcoming workshop, Healthy Immune Hacks – Boost Your Body’s Defense, which is coming up in February!
Optimal is possible!
