Healthy Habits

Healthy Living
Boost Your Immunity
Healthy Habits

Canadian society is largely health conscious and has good healthcare facilities like other developed nations. But when it comes to developing our immune system, which is a vital element in the protection against diseases, the Canadian society surprisingly lags behind the rest of the developed nations in the world. Researches show that 30% of the post World War II Canadian population is affected by diseases such as asthma and hayfever, indicating our weak immunity power.

How to improve immunity

Fortunately, improving your immune system does not require lots of time, energy or efforts. Some simple changes in food habits and lifestyle along with proper vaccinations will boost the immune system of your body.

Following are the super seven ways to boost your immune power:

1. Change your food habits: Switch to “immunity friendly” food habits. Start using more of fresh lemon juice in your food because lemon restores acid-alkali balance in your body. Add lemon to water, tea, salads, baking or cooking, and use them often. Eat foods rich in proteins and drink enough water.

Include fresh fruits and vegetables in your daily diet.. Raw fruits and vegetables provide antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, fibre and enzymes to your body. Many vitamins found in these fruits and vegetables, such as Vitamin C, protect the cells in your immune system from getting damaged by the toxins in the environment.

Knock off the junk foods and caffeine from your food list completely or reduce as much as possible. If you are advised by your doctor that your immune system needs improvement, stop drinking coffee. Caffeine in the coffee takes away minerals and vitamins, dehydrating you in the process. If you can’t live without your coffee, at least make sure that you drink two more glasses of water for every cup of coffee you drink. Also, stop eating refined white sugar as it can be the single most important factor in decreasing your immunity.

2. Sleep well: A simple, but very effective way of boosting your immune system in the body is to sleep well. A goodnight’s sleep not only keeps you and your skin fresh, it also improves your immune system significantly.

3. Get vaccinated: Vaccines provide you the disease specific immunity. According to Dr. Monika Naus, medical director of the immunization program at the BC Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, you need to keep checking with your doctor or public health authority on a regular basis to get the required vaccinations for adults and children.

4. Maintain cleanliness; but don’t overdo it: While maintaining clean surroundings is definitely a good thing, overdoing it can work against your immune system! When you clean your house to maximum possible extent, you kill even the milder germs present in the environment. Your immune system needs these milder germs to practice its skills and be ready when the more dangerous germs attack your body. If there are no germs at all, your immune system may be ill-prepared when faced with a real danger.

5. Stop smoking: When you smoke your body gets flooded with the toxic mixture of chemicals that exposes your body to illnesses. Also, smoking blocks the airways’ natural mechanisms, which clean out the infectious agents in the body. So, the message is loud and clear. If you want a better immune system, stop smoking, now!

6. Use Antibacterial sanitizers with care: No doubt, antibacterial sanitizers keep your house clean; but if you overuse them, even the less dangerous viruses may be wiped out of the atmosphere and your immune system may loose out on the opportunity to practice its skills for the big fight!

7. Exercise: Because of our modern lifestyles, most Canadians spend a better part of their lives within four walls, hardly getting any exercise. Getting a good workout is imperative to boost the immune system in your body.

Conclusion

As we can see, boosting your immune system is not just about introducing one or two elements in your daily routine. It’s about adopting a new lifestyle. But doing this can be both easy and fun. And of course, it will definitely boost your immune system!