Your immune system is constantly working to defend your body against disease-causing microorganisms, but the occasional germ can make its way in and cause illness. There is no definitive way to boost your immunity system but there are many small things that can be done to improve the body’s general health and balance, which will support your immune system work at its best.
Improve your sleep and recovery
Sleep deprivation can have profound consequences on your physical health. As well as bad mood and lack of focus, regular poor sleep can put you at risk of serious medical conditions, including obesity, heart disease and diabetes, and a shorter life expectancy.
Sleep is the body’s time to recover from everything it has been put through physically and mentally throughout the day, this is done by your immune system producing a type of protein that targets inflammation and infection called cytokines. Without sufficient sleep, your body produces and releases fewer cytokines meaning less recovery for your body.
Find more information about improving your sleep quality here.
Increase your physical activity
It is known that keeping active can reduce your risk of developing heart disease. It can also boost your mood and reduce stress, as well as control your weight, reduce blood pressure and cholesterol.
There is also the theory that exercise could help remove bacteria from the lungs, and another theory that a rise in body temperature (during and after physical activity) could prevent bacteria from growing).
Do 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity every week. One way to do this is by doing 30 minutes, 5 days per week.
See our ‘Improve your physical activity’ posts for more guidance and benefits of exercise.
Improve your nutrition
Eating more nutritional foods such as wholegrains, fruit, vegetables and making sure you are getting the right amount of complex carbohydrates, healthy fats and protein to keep your body functioning efficiently supporting your immune system.
Have a look at our Health and Wellbeing portal and our Healthy eating blog for more ideas on how to improve your nutrition.
Improve your gut microbiome
The gut microbiome is comprised of organisms such as bacteria, yeasts, fungi, viruses and protozoans that live in the gut or gastrointestinal tract.
The gut plays an important role in the absorption and synthesis all the nutrients from the food you have eaten so they can be used around the body where they are needed.
Our gut microbiome begins to develop from an early age and is influenced by genetics, delivery method, age, stress, illness, environment, medication use and diet. This means everyone’s gut is different so there is no ‘ideal healthy gut’, but there are things we can do to keep our gut running as optimally as possible. Such as adding more fermented foods into our diet and keeping our meals nice and colourful.
See our ‘Improve gut microbiome’ post for more details.
Reduce stress and anxiety
You are more likely to catch something that is going around if you are under stress. The stress hormone corticosteroid can suppress the effectiveness of the immune system (by lowering the number of white blood cells) leaving you more vulnerable to catching anything going around. Finding ways to reduce your general stress and anxiety levels can help to keep your immune system working at its best.
See our ‘Reducing Stress and Anxiety” blog post for more details.
Reduce alcohol intake
Adults are advised to drink no more than 14 units a week on a regular basis, which is equivalent to 6 pints of average-strength beer or 10 small glasses of low-strength wine.
Regular or frequent drinking means drinking alcohol most weeks. The risk to your health is increased by drinking any amount of alcohol on a regular basis.
Stop smoking
Smoking is the largest preventable cause of cancer in England, causing 3 in 20 cancer cases across the UK.
Smoking is also linked heart and respiratory disease, as well as stress, anxiety and depression. Cutting out smoking improves your physical and mental health.
