Boost Your Immune System With These 10 Hacks

Now more than ever, it’s essential to keep your immune system strong. We are forced indoors in cubicles all day, breathing in each other’s stale air. Then, there’s the spread of pandemics these last few years, like Ebola and the COVID-19 coronavirus. Our immune system has a lot to contend with; so, the best way to go about life is with your dukes up. Here are ten ways to boost your immune system.

There’s more to boosting your immune system than popping an Emergen-C or eating an orange. Many factors are at play that impede your immune system. Your body needs you to tend to them all.

Otherwise, you run the risk of something slipping through the cracks. This “something” typically comes in the form of a free radical or bacterial overgrowth. Boosting your immune system is a well-rounded approach to wellness. Here are some tips to boost your immune system that you can easily implement into your day-to-day routine.

Cut Out Allergens

A significant reason why we get sick is that our immune system is already pretty worn out. So many commercial foods are made with potential allergens in them. As the world of food production gets more contaminated with hormones, pesticide, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the more likely these allergic reactions are going to occur. The top two allergens in food are gluten and dairy.

Gluten

For many of us, gluten causes our body to produce zonulin 1. Zonulin is an enzyme that allows for nutrients in the small intestine to permeate back into the system. Unfortunately, if we’re still consuming these gluten-laden foods, that means whole food particles are entering the bloodstream.

These undigested particles don’t commute with the receptors on blood cells. So, this awkward interaction causes the immune system cells to spark inflammation. So, if you are sensitive to gluten and eat a lot of it, your immune system will be compromised.

We are the only mammals to do two things–drink milk past infancy and consume another mammal’s milk. Adult bodies have not evolved to break down lactose properly. Up to 50% of adults are lactose intolerant 2.

Eat More Fruits and Veggies

The greatest support we can lend our immune system are antioxidants. They fight off the growth of free radicals that can cause the spread of disease. Our most significant sources of antioxidants are fruits and vegetables.

There are many types of antioxidants. Each helps boost your immune system in their own particular way. So, the most efficient way to boost your immune system with fruits and vegetables is to eat the rainbow.

Adding a variety of colors into your diet will ensure you are getting optimal nutrition. That’s because each fruit and vegetable get their color from a specific group of antioxidants. So, more diverse colors mean a more robust immune system.

Diffuse Essential Oils

For centuries, our ancestors would put herbs, fruits, and vegetables into medicines. Many would heat the item, causing its flesh, leaves, or stems to release aromatic molecules. These molecules are known as terpenes, and they have amazing healing properties.

Some of the best essential oils to boost your immune system include:

• Ginger
• Eucalyptus
• Lemongrass
• Bergamot
• Tea Tree
• Clove
• Frankincense

You can also add essential oils to a carrier oil and apply to your skin. This practice is an excellent to rejuvenate your skin naturally while simultaneously boosting your immune system.

Get More Sleep

Sometimes our immune system needs a break. That means it requires us to shut off our brains, stop moving around, forget interacting with others, and get some Zs!

Not to mention, your immune cells work better when you are sleeping. Researchers found that being awake promotes the production of neurotransmitter norepinephrine 4.

This hormone interferes with microglial cells. These are immune cells that work on the brain. So, being awake stops immune cells from helping our brain cells repair themselves.

Exercise Regularly

We sit down up to 6.5 hours per day 5. Living such sedentary lives sets us up for weight gain and cardiovascular disease. You don’t need to be a doctor to realize that these will all hurt your immune system.

Simply put, if you want to boost your immune system, start exercising. Movement causes the heart to work harder. Therefore, oxygenated blood cells will make it to more areas of the body. In turn, debris and other potential immune suppressors get flushed out of the system.

Meditation

There’s no denying that life can be quite stressful. Whenever we experience stress, we get elevated levels of norepinephrine. Norepinephrine causes the angsty adrenaline we feel when we’re stressed. However, stress also causes cortisol production.

Cortisol is our fight-or-flight mode. So, it creates a constant state of feeling like you have to react. When stress becomes chronic, it makes it harder for other hormones to influence the system. In turn, we might not produce enough melatonin to help us sleep through the night or enough reproductive hormones to be intimate with a loved one. Not meeting these needs will suppress the immune system.

So, try meditation out. Not only will you clear your mind, but you’ll become more in tune with your body’s needs. That way, you might be able to draw energy to areas that need TLC and perhaps thwart off the growth of an illness.

Garden

Vitamin D

The outdoors contains the sun, our greatest source of Vitamin D. This essential vitamin is a catalyst for many benefits. For one, it plays a role in how our immune system responds to invaders.

One analysis of Vitamin D and its influence on the immune system noted,

“Researchers found vitamin D caused dendritic cells to produce more of a molecule called CD31 on their surface and that this hindered the activation of T cells 6.”

– University of Edinburgh

Dendritic cells carry toxins into the system. By causing more CD31 to grow, it inhibited the antigen cell from latching onto other cells. Scientists noted that these reactions lessened immune response.

Microbes in Soil

Also, being in a garden exposes you to microbes in the soil. As they say, “some kids need to roll around in the dirt.” So, do adults.

One study found that six weeks of clean bedding was more likely to cause asthma in mice than those who had bedding made of soil 7. They found that animals who are accustomed to soil produce more of an enzyme called A20.

Furthermore, these microbiomes had higher levels of Bacteroidetes than Firmicutes stomach bacteria in the system. Subsequently, people who have asthma tend to have low levels of those two microbial phyla.

Get More Fruits and Veggies

Not only does the act of gardening boost your immune system, but so does consuming the fruits of your labor…literally. The end result is one of the other hacks on this list. So, you complete multiple tasks in one!

Intimacy

Just as you exchange bacteria with the soil when you garden, you do the same when coming into personal contact with another human.

While swapping spit can get you sick, it can also boost your immune system.

An analysis of the immune-boosting properties associated with sex found,

“112 college students reported the frequency of their sexual encounters and were divided into four categories: none, infrequent (less than once a week), frequent (one to two times per week), and very frequent (three or more times per week). Participants also described their overall sexual satisfaction. Saliva samples were collected and assayed for salivary immunoglobulin A (IgA). Individuals in the frequent group showed significantly higher levels of IgA than the other three groups, which were comparable 8.”

– Psychol Rep.

IgA are antibodies your immune system creates. They help fight off sickness. So, having a sufficient level of them is never a bad thing, especially when you’re heading into cough and cold season.

Change Your Shower Routine

Probiotics

Approximately 70% to 80% of our immune cells are generated in the gut 10. So, we need to make sure that the first live beings they meet are the beneficial kind. The best way to assure this is through probiotics.

If you allow harmful stomach bacteria to reign supreme, it will cause chronic inflammation.

Therefore, new immune cells don’t even stand a chance. They’re get scorched before they know what hits them.

So, get your gut tested with Ombre. Based on those results, we will recommend a targeted probiotic supplement for your gut microbiome. Then, we help you find foods that you...and your gut bacteria...will surely love!

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