How to Boost Your Health & Immunity with Proper Diet and Exercise

As we all live in a super-fast busy time period and we have to perform multiple tasks throughout the day, it is really necessary to have good health with a strong immune system. Strong immunity means a balanced biological defenses system of a human body itself that helps us to protect ourselves from the infections caused by infectious microorganisms like viruses and bacterias.

So, if you want to make yourself safe from any kind of harmful disease, you have to have a good immune system. To make your immunity stronger you have to practice some healthy habits regularly.

Let us take a look at some of the best tips to boost the health and immunity system.

1. Have a Nutritious diet chart

Dr. Yufang Lin, MD, an integrative medicine doctor at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, says that to keep your immune system working properly you increase the intake of leafy green vegetables, fruits, plant-based foods, herbs, and spices.

“Many plant-based foods also have antiviral and antimicrobial properties, which help us fight off infection,” Dr. Lin says.

According to Dr. Lin, spices like cumin, clove, cinnamon, oregano, thyme, rose merry contain plenty if antiviral and antibacterial components that control the growth of harmful microorganisms like Aspergillus flavus, Bacillus subtilis or Pseudomonas fluorescens etc. The International Journal of Molecular Science has published a report on this in June 2017.

Nutritious Diet Plan

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says that vitamins and minerals play a key role in boosting your immunity. Vitamins like A, C, B6, B12, E, and minerals like zinc, folate, copper, selenium are supported to enhance the immune function.

The other nutrient that can grow up your immunity is protein-rich foods. Protein-rich helps to reduce reflux and keeps blood -sugar level stable. The amino acid in protein supports to create healthy muscle and immunity. is also critical for immune health. Protein deficiency can cause infectious diseases.

Our bodies are made of 60% water. We need to drink water to keep our body system running smoothly, optimize metabolism, boost energy level, and promote good digestion.

2. Stress Control Activity

Life is a big headache on a long noisy road. Life in this 21st century is too stressful. From dawn to dusk all of us have to follow a rigorous schedule. Even children are not exceptional in this.

Every day there are never-ending deadlines to meet. Life is becoming a continuous race for most people. These everyday hazards are building up fatigue and stress in all of us. Research published in the October 2015 issue of The Current Opinion in Psychology reveals too much stress fastens the secretion of the steroid hormone cortisol.

The high level of cortisol hormones sometimes blocks the effectiveness of the body’s immune system against the threats of infectious microorganisms. So, it is important to focus on reducing stress levels in order to boost your immune system.

There are many ways by which we can reduce stress in our lives. Dr. Ben Kaplan, MD, an internal medicine physician at Orlando Health Medical Group Internal Medicine in Florida, says, “I like to give my patients options.”

Meditation

According to his research, you can do journaling, meditation and anything that you love to do can reduce your stress. Try to start with small things and increase your time every day. It can be singing, playing guitar, painting, fishing whatever you want.

We often get stressed because of maintaining a time schedule. If you want to get rid of this, try to get up at least 20 minutes before your usual time every morning. This will help you not get puzzled in the last moment of any important work and you will get time to do things in ease.

The next step to reduce your stress is to share your thinking with someone you can rely on. Do not keep your feelings bottled up. Sharing your problems to the person you trust can bring out some solution to your problems. Moreover do not hesitate to seek professional help if you reach the breaking point.

The next step is to know how to relax the body. Along with this need to calm your mind as stress effects much upon mental health. Practice clearing your mind from disturbing thoughts.

The easiest way to calm your mind is to close your eyes and breathe slowly and chant “Om”. In that case, pranayama is the best way to calm your nervous system.

3. Regular physical activities

As per discussion in Frontiers in Immunology in April 2018 physical activity or exercise can decrease the chance of growth of infectious and chronic diseases in the human body. It is also important to lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.

As we all know that our body contains a natural pain-killer itself. It is known as endorphins, a hormone that heals any kind of body ache or small injuries and gives a relieving effect.

Workout helps to increase the secretion of endorphins. Physical exercises reduce mental stress also. Lin says, “Since stress negatively impacts our immune system, this is another way exercise can improve immune response.”

Physical Workout

Regular exercise lowers high blood pressure and helps to reduce body weight and mental stress. Start by doing whatever exercise you can for at least 10 minutes at a time. Try to meet the minimal physical activity guidelines referred by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Children and teenagers should get workout of a minimum of 60 or more minutes per day and adults should get two hours or more per week. You need not run for the gym all the time – just do some free hands or yoga according to your capability. When it will get habituated and your stamina grows up then go for some more activities for some more minutes.

Going for a walk after dinner or playing basketball in the evening can boost up your stamina. Aerobic exercises and Zumba dancing can improve your physical activity level more intensely. Better to say dancing is a very good exercise indeed.

According to the Frontiers, Immunology review exercises distribute the immune cell throughout the body in search of affected cells and cures them as well. So, this is proven that physical activities help the immune system of the human body more effectively.

Dr.Kaplan suggests taking your exercises outside of the room. Amidst nature you will have fresh air and greenery, that will soothe your mind and you will perform your activity with more enthusiasm. Moreover, exercising in the sunshine can make the body enriched with plenty of vitamin D. Vitamin D is a very much essential element in building immunity systems.

But, each and every activity has some disadvantages too. Like, some researchers say that too much prolonged physical activity can deactivate your body’s immune system. It can make you more vulnerable to illness. Sometimes not having a diet with exercise can increase the chance of hypotension.

At present everyone wants a slimming body or flatter belly and everyone is interested in doing too much workout with minimal food intake, which is really harmful to the body. So, doing exercises and proper food habits like green tonik is the key to boost your immunity.

Wrapping Up

Nowadays, people caught up in the rat-race and they forget to take care of their health. The saying “health is wealth” is very apt as good health comes from a good physique that enables one to enjoy the pleasures and manage the challenges of life. One must follow the aforementioned points to optimize good health and a strong immune system and enjoy a joyful life.

Charu decided to unite her Honors Degree in New Media and lifetime of geekiness to pursue a career in tech and gaming journalism. You can usually find her writing about a variety of topics and drooling over new gadgets and games.