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The wet and chilly winter weather makes our bodies susceptible to colds and flu viruses. This is because viruses spread more easily in cooler temperatures. The strength of your immune system plays a massive role in whether you stay healthy or are constantly under the weather all season.
Poor nutrition, food allergies, chronic illnesses such as HIV and cancer, old age, and autoimmune diseases can cause a weak body defense system. A person with compromised immunity is likely to fall sick often during winter. Therefore, enhancing your natural defenses is vital.
How to Enhance Your Body’s Defenses During Winter
Boosting your body’s ability to fight infections requires you to deploy a combination of strategies, from upping your level of hygiene and nutrition to ensuring a healthy mental state. Here are seven foolproof ways that you can use to ensure that your immune response works at its maximum this winter.
1. Exercise Regularly
Physical activity is vital in promoting your body’s defense system. It lowers blood pressure, improves cardiovascular health, reduces stress, helps control body weight, and flushes out toxins. These benefits of exercising put your body at its optimum performance to fight off any viruses that might attack your body.
Exercise can be as simple as swimming, walking, or cycling. If you want to take it a step further, go to the gym or enroll in an aerobics or yoga class. However, exercising without moderation might lead to wearing out of body tissue, which is not good for your immune system. Therefore, always watch your limit.
2. Eat a Healthy and Balanced Diet
What you eat is a huge determinant of how strong or weak your immune system will be. This winter, incorporate foods that are rich in antioxidants and anti-bacterial properties. Such foods may include citrus fruits such as oranges and lemons, leafy vegetables such as kale and spinach, garlic, ginger, and poultry.
It is vital to ensure that your plate has balanced quantities of all food groups, including whole grains, healthy fats, vegetables, legumes, fruits, and lean proteins. Foods with high amounts of zinc, such as beans, red meat, and oysters, can help reduce cold symptoms.
Meanwhile, foods rich in vitamin C are significant in producing white blood cells, which are essential for fighting diseases. Additionally, ascorbic acid is vital in getting rid of free radicals which trigger diseases in body cells. Also, you can enhance your intake of crucial nutrients by taking natural supplements. Reputable brands such as PureHealth Research use science-backed formulas for heart, gut, brain, and liver health, which are guaranteed to boost your immunity during winter.
3. Stay Hydrated
Blood and lymph, which contain immune cells, require water to circulate through the body. While it might be easier to drink more during summer and slump your water intake in winter, that isn’t the solution. Your body is constantly losing fluids when you breathe, sweat, urinate, and defecate, and it is vital to replace the lost water. Try to reach the recommended daily water intake of eight glasses per day.
If you struggle with drinking enough water, you can use hacks such as adding lemon and honey to it. Both of these have immune-boosting properties. Honey has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and when combined with the vitamin C from lemon, what you have is an elixir for fighting off the flu.
4. Get Enough Quality Sleep
A study on the relationship between susceptibility to the common cold and sleep shows that people who get at least seven hours of sleep are at a lower risk of developing a clinical cold. This is because a body needs time to heal and rejuvenate itself so its defense system can perform optimally.
High-quality sleep ensures your immune system is ready to fight off infections the next day. To ensure that you get quality sleep, you can practice proper habits such as having a regular sleep schedule, not using electronic devices an hour before bedtime, and practicing a wind-down routine.
5. Prioritize Your Mental Health
Winter is often a stressful season for most adults as it coincides with major holidays. Stress is unavoidable in life, and it can have adverse effects on your immune system. Stress and anxiety lead to the release of cortisol which can alter your immune system’s responses and suppress the reproductive, digestive, and growth processes. These effects make you prone to contracting every manner of disease.
It is, therefore, essential to adopt stress management techniques such as meditation, exercise, journaling, and breathwork. Additionally, you can talk to a trained therapist.
6. Make the Right Lifestyle Choices
A study on the relationship between susceptibility to the common cold and sleep shows that people who get at least seven hours of sleep are at a lower risk of developing a clinical cold. This is because a body needs time to heal and rejuvenate itself so its defense system can perform optimally.
High-quality sleep ensures your immune system is ready to fight off infections the next day. To ensure that you get quality sleep, you can practice proper habits such as having a regular sleep schedule, not using electronic devices an hour before bedtime, and practicing a wind-down routine.
To ensure the vitality of your body’s antibodies, you must embrace healthy lifestyle choices that do not damage your body’s immunity. Such habits include:
• Washing hands properly
• Ensuring the cleanliness of your home
• Reducing alcohol intake
• Limiting sugar intake
• Quitting smoking
7. Get Vaccinated
You can boost your body’s defenses through vaccinations. While your body can develop immunity from exposure to a disease, vaccines help it develop natural immunity more effectively. Therefore, you need to keep up with your flu shots and COVID-19 vaccines this winter to foster your antibodies all season. Vaccinations are particularly important for people with underlying health issues.
8. Educate Yourself
By reading this article, you are taking an exemplary first step to boost your body’s defense. There are reliable sites, such as PureHealth Research, where you can learn from the many studies and tips on improving your immunity. Implementing what you discover is the next significant step to ensure you’re not frequently catching a cold during winter.
Final Thoughts
It is essential to realize that you only reap maximum and lasting body defense if you stay dedicated and consistent to immunity-boosting habits. Moreover, seeking a doctor for medical advice is critical if you still experience viral infections often during winter. Lastly, give your body an extra shield with effective supplements.
You should be able to enjoy quality family time over the holidays. It’s the worst time to fall sick and stay in bed. You can only fight off viruses if you take the vital steps of boosting your immune system. Start today!