Your immune system is a silent hero that works every day, every second, to keep you healthy. When you get an infection, your immune system rallies to defend you, lightning fast! And each time it defeats an enemy, your immune system builds up a memory that makes it even more effective. All this happens in your amazing body, continuously, without you having to think about it.
Can we improve our immune defense?
Can we influence our immune system? Absolutely. Of course we can. Our choices and lifestyle affect how effectively the immune system can do its job. Poor nutritional status, lack of sleep, stress, and alcohol negatively impact the immune defense. And vice versa! Through conscious choices, you can train your immune system to become your best friend. As a bonus, you'll become more energetic, look better, and feel happier. What are you waiting for? It's time to get started!
5 general tips for a stronger immune system
1. Improve your sleep
When you sleep, your body temperature drops and your pulse slows down. Blood pressure decreases and the production of stress hormones diminishes. Your muscles relax, the immune system activates, and your body heals itself from damage. Sleep is, in other words, absolutely essential for the immune system to function optimally. At least half of us get too little sleep. Here are some tips on what you can do to get better sleep.
Turn off your phone one to two hours before bedtime. Don't keep it in your bedroom.
Don't work too late in the evening. Emails can wait until the next day.
Don't exercise intensely too late in the evening.
Don't eat too much food in the evening.
Don't drink coffee too late.
Make sure to get fresh air every day.
Make sure your body gets all the nutrition it needs, then it will feel good and can relax.
Magnesium helps us sleep, especially if we're troubled by restless legs. If you don't have constipation, we recommend magnesium forms ending in lactate, malate, or citrate, for example Holistic Magnesium.
Other nutrients and herbs that help with sleep include Ashwagandha, GABA, lemon balm, hops, magnesium, passiflora incarnata, theanine (L-theanine), and valerian.
2. Eat a varied and nutritious diet
Treat yourself and your body to a wonderfully colorful and nutrient-dense diet, which can certainly be complemented with supplements. Supplements are indeed a fantastic invention. Nutritious food in concentrated form. It doesn't get better than that!
3. Stay active
Intense exercise impairs the immune system's ability to work, but regular, moderate exercise supports the immune system. Vary your exercise with strength, flexibility, and cardio training. Walking counts too.
4. Wash your hands
How many times per day do you touch your face with your hands? Studies show that we touch our faces 23 times – per hour!
Wash your hands every time you've been to the bathroom, every time you've touched something dirty (this includes every time you shake someone's hand). Wash your hands before preparing or eating food. If you don't have access to soap and water, hand sanitizer is an alternative.
5. Stress less
When we think about stress, we think about having too much to do at work. Or stress due to poor relationships. And this type of stress unfortunately lowers your immune system quite significantly, but there are also other types of stress we should avoid.
Alcohol doesn't just have a long-term negative effect. Consuming alcohol lowers your immune system considerably – and quickly. If you're in a situation where you really don't want to catch a cold, then you shouldn't drink alcohol.
Smoking increases your susceptibility to infections, worsens your blood circulation, impairs your lung function, and reduces the oxygen supply in your body. Smoking is not good for those who want to stay healthy. Period.
6 different nutrients that are beneficial during cold season
At Glimja, we are real nutrition hunters. Let's look at some classics for your home medicine cabinet. We'll start with the most classic of them all.
1. Vitamin C
This is a potent antioxidant that approximately half of the population doesn't get enough of.(1) You can find vitamin C in guava, kiwi, oranges, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli. If you take vitamin C as a supplement, we recommend Holistic C-vitamin Acid Neutral. It contains vitamin C in the form of magnesium ascorbate, which is gentle on the stomach.
2. Vitamin D
During the winter months, you don't get any vitamin D at all from the sun. To get sufficient amounts of vitamin D through your diet, you would need to eat fatty fish every day or drink 35 liters of milk every day or eat 100 grams of chanterelles every day.
3. Zinc
This is a rising star that is increasingly talked about during cold season. It is the second most common mineral in our body, after iron, and it is absolutely essential for our immune system. Studies show that zinc can shorten the duration of our colds.(2) Zinc is primarily found in animal products such as beef, pork, and lamb.
4. Beta-glucan
The substance 1,3/1,6-beta-glucan, which is found on the surface of common yeast, helps neutrophils, which eat up and kill viruses, to work better. One of many studies on beta-glucan showed that those who received a daily dose of 1,3/1,6-beta-glucan during cold season didn't get any sick days at all, in stark contrast to the control group.
5. Humic acid
Humic acids are naturally found in soil, water, peat, and coal. They bind to viruses and prevent them from attaching to the cell surface. If viruses cannot enter the cells, they cannot cause infection. (4)
6. Herbs
Traditional herbs for the immune system are ginger, oregano, olive leaf, pau d'arco, thyme, astragalus, and garlic.
Holistic ImmunBalans – brightens up the fall
Holistic ImmunBalans is a dietary supplement that contains Wellmune®, a patented 1,3/1,6-beta-glucan that according to studies activates the immune system. ImmunBalans also contains vitamins C, D and B6 as well as zinc, copper and selenium, all of which contribute to the normal function of the immune system.
Read more
(1) www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC7352522/
(2) Zinc for the treatment of the common cold: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials Michelle Science, Jennie Johnstone, Daniel E.Roth, Gordon Guyatt, Mark Loeb CMAJ Jul 2012, 184 (10) E551-E561; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.111990
(3) The research article by Feldman in Volume 9, Issue 1 of the Journal of Applied Research in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics.
(4) de Melo BA Humic acids: Structural properties and multiple functionalities for novel technological developments. Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2016 May;62:967-74
