How to keep your immune system healthy

Your immune system is your body’s powerful army that relentlessly fights against disease and infection while helping your body to recover after injury or illness. Without a strong immune system, you are more likely become sickened from common viruses and bacterial infections. All of which can drain energy and negatively impact your quality of life. That’s why it is vital to understand how you can strengthen your immune system so it can work at its best and provide the strongest protection to all of your body’s cells.

How do I boost my immune system support?

To understand how to help strengthen your immune system, you first need to understand what can weaken it. Lack of quality sleep and high levels of stress can begin to chip away at your immune system, hampering its ability to function at its peak. But luckily, by implementing a few simple strategies you can keep your immune system healthy and strong.

Stress management for a healthy immune system

When you are faced with a stressful situation, your stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol are released from your adrenal glands. During acute periods of stress, this response is helpful as it can help you to mobilize energy stores to better respond to the stressor you face. But chronic stress- where you feel stressed out day after day – causes these hormones to remain constantly elevated. And over time, these high levels of stress hormones circulating in the body can wear down the immune system, making you more susceptible to illness.

In order to boost your immune system support, getting a handle on your daily stress is key. And one of the best ways to do this is to control your breathing. Using a technique called ‘belly breathing,’ you can slow your heart rate, relax your mind, and get a handle on stress. To perform it, simply breathe in slowly through your nose into your abdomen. Hold the breath for a second or two, then slowly exhale through pursed lips, like you are whistling. This controlled breathe can instantly help to curb stress – and you can do it anywhere!

Boost your antioxidant intake for a healthy immune system

It’s no secret that a poor diet can have a negative impact on health. If you are lacking the essential nutrients your body needs each day, it becomes impossible for your body to perform at its best. Inadequate nutrition can impact all functions of the body, and the immune system is no different. However, a diet rich in antioxidants can help to strengthen your immune response by fighting against free radical damage that can damage cells. For instance, a deficiency of the powerful antioxidant vitamin C has been found to impair immunity and increase your susceptibility to , while supplementing with this vitamin provides your immune system with support.

To help ensure you are consuming adequate levels of antioxidants, aim to consume at least five to seven servings of a variety of produce each day. The more color you can add to your plate, the better when it comes to boosting your dietary antioxidant intake. But even the most balanced diet can still have a few gaps. That’s why adding in a high-quality supplement is also a great way to support a healthy immune system as it can act as a sort of ‘insurance policy’ filling in any nutrient gaps.

What is the best supplement to support a healthy immune system?

Although there are many supplements that promise to benefit the immune system, not all nutrition supplements are created the same. When choosing the best supplement to support a healthy immune system, you want to look for a product that includes nutrients that have been shown in research to have a positive impact.