How to Boost your Immune System

Well isn’t this the topic of the season with all the germs going around?!  Scientists are still researching on how one can actually boost or improve their immune system to avoid getting sick.  There are still things you can do to improve your chances of not getting sick, or AS sick!  According to Harvard here are a few things you can do to ensure you have a strong and healthy immune system.

  1. Sleep well! Make sure you are getting restful sleep with 7-8 hours of sleep per night.  There are many things you can do that involve actually getting restful sleep which include but are not limited to avoiding too much screen time right before bed and trying to meditate for a few minutes before bed.
  2. Exercise.  Try to get at least 30 min of exercise in everyday, even if this is only a 30 min walk. Bundle up for cold temperatures and try to get that heart rate going!
  3. Don’t smoke!  Seems like this one is a given right?
  4. Minimize stress.  We all have some sort of stress going on in our lives.  Try to find coping mechanisms so that this does not get into the way of your daily routine of life and start to negatively affect your mental health.  Coping mechanisms may include: yoga, gardening, walking, other forms of exercise, reading, painting, colouring (yea this helps! it’s actually so satisfying).
  5. Ensure you are eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet.  These are essential for your body’s growth, maintenance and repair.  Remember your body was designed to try to heal itself.  By incorporating healthy food into your diet and staying away from processed food you are allowing it to do just that.  Heal itself.  Famous quote that says “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food” is what we like to live by!

Remember, the immune system is a system.  So its not a single entity and needs balance and harmony to function properly.