How to Boost the Immune System Naturally

How strong is your immune system right now? In this post, we will look at how to boost the immune system naturally. With all the stress from the Coronavirus-related issues like job losses, bills not getting paid, children doing schoolwork at home, inability to find child care, adults working from home, stores and restaurants not being open as much as usual and some businesses closing permanently, it’s important to keep our immune systems strong. If you’ve had any illness that has affected your immune system, it’s especially important to do all you can to give your body what it needs, not only now but on a daily basis all the time. Let’s get started with what you need to know.

What is the Immune System?

We don’t know how to help our immune system if we don’t know what it is or what it does. So let’s start there. Our immune system is the first line of defense when germs and viruses attack our bodies. If we are doing things that weaken our immune system, like smoking, eating the wrong foods, being sedentary, living and/or working in stressful environments, these kinds of things can impair the immune system and keep it from working as well as it should.

While the above is a simplistic description, a more in-depth description of the complex immune system can be found at simple.wikipedia Part of their description is below.

“The immune system is the set of tissues that work together to resist infections. The immune mechanisms help an organism identify a pathogen, and neutralize its threat.[1]

The immune system can detect and identify many kinds of disease agents. Examples are viruses, bacteria, and parasites. The immune system can detect a difference between the body’s own healthy cells or tissues, and ‘foreign’ cells. Detecting an unhealthy intruder is complicated because intruders can evolve and adapt so that the immune system will no longer detect them.

Once a foreign cell or protein is detected, the immune system creates antibodies to fight the intruders, and sends special cells (‘phagocytes‘) to eat them up.”

So the above information is a quick peek at what the immune system is about. Now let’s consider what we can do to keep it functioning well.

Quality Exercise

There’s nothing like going for a relaxing walk and enjoying the beauty of nature if that’s the kind of exercise you enjoy. The key is to find a way to move around and exercise outdoors for some real vitamin D from the sun for at least 20 minutes every day. Plus, that needs to be something you will continue to do regularly. For instance, that might be walking, running, gardening, mowing the lawn, sweeping, hiking, rock climbing, jumping rope, or any combination of the above. Pick different exercises every day so you won’t get bored.

Healthy Food                                             

Fresh greens, citrus fruits, salads, vitamin loaded foods are the healthiest foods for you. Avoid fried foods as much as possible because they can cause inflammation in your body.  Watch the portions of food you eat at each meal and avoid eating a big meal close to bedtime because it can interfere with quality sleep.

Ample Rest

This gives our bodies time to rebuild which strengthens the immune system. However, we need to take time to do relaxing things prior to going to bed. That means to stop working on projects that will keep the wheels turning in your brain after you crawl in bed. Our bodies and minds need to be able to wind down and prepare for sleep. Also, make sure you know when to cut off any caffeine so it won’t interrupt your much-needed sleep. Counting dots on the ceiling because you can’t sleep from drinking too much caffeine is a rough way to spend the night when you should be sleeping and refreshing your body.

Vitamins/Supplements

As you know, I’m a fan of the healing properties of Vitamin C. And Vitamin D is important for those who are not out in the sun much. In fact, there are many great supplements that will help strengthen the immune system, including Zinc. Beta 1 3D Glucan boosts the immune system and may be a supplement you’ve not heard about before. You can read more about it in a previous post that I wrote about it by clicking here. I can’t say enough good things about how helpful the Beta 1 3D Glucan, Vitamin C crystals, Vitamin D, and Zinc have been to my immune system since having Lyme disease in the past. Also important is taking good multi-vitamin/mineral tablets or powdered formulas to get all the important nutrients that our foods often lack these days.

Healthy Relationships

We’ve all been around people who can’t seem to be nice to others, who are bent on tearing people down or criticizing everything they do and generally creating stressful situations. People like that are toxic to us and to our having a healthy immune system. So we need to step away from those relationships and find some new friends who are fun to be with and who are supportive of us. It may take time to find a couple of new friends, but the quality of our health depends on having people who celebrate us and who value who we are. So go find some genuine new friends and be the kind of friend to them that you wish to have.

Positive Thoughts

What are you thinking about? What are you talking about? What are you watching or reading? When we eliminate as much of the negative information coming into our heads through our eyes and ears on social media, news reports, and through other people we’re around, we’ll see a great improvement in our lives. Really! You should try this and see how much of a difference it makes. I’m not saying grab a harp and float on a cloud chanting positive things all day and avoiding people. I am saying that when we make a true effort to decrease the negative information that feeds the wrong thoughts into our minds, we can think clearer, relax more, and sleep better because cleaning up the negative dirt will give us greater peace of mind.

Peace of Mind                                             

True peace of mind comes from knowing who God says we are and from also knowing how He says He will help us in our daily lives. That’s a different kind of peace than what we experience naturally when everything is going smoothly. Yes, we all prefer to have smooth sailing, but in reality, that is pie in the sky! When we know Jesus, He gives us a deep inner peace that we can’t possibly compare to the natural kind we might have when everything’s going our way. God’s peace is a constant, deep, internal peace within us no matter what storms and trials might come our way. We may not like all the drama in our lives, but at the same time, we have God’s peace that carries us through. It’s the kind of peace where we can lie down and sleep like a baby in the midst of all hell breaking loose around us. That’s God’s kind of peace. Can’t beat that!

Conclusion

So… we’ve looked at a few ways to boost your immune system naturally. Some may require changes in what you’ve been accustomed to doing or what I’ve mentioned maybe a confirmation of what you’re already doing. Making changes now is far easier than being forced to change as a result of major health problems. So think about it and pick one thing from each category that you can start changing today and take action on it. If you’re already doing things to boost your immune system, bravo!! Keep doing it!

Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I would love for you to leave a comment below and share your thoughts and experiences regarding how you boost your immune system naturally. I look forward to reading your comments and responding to what you share.

Have a super day!

Your Rebuilding Lives Coach,

Colleen