Your immune system does an amazing job of defending you against disease-causing microorganisms. When it comes to improving your immune system, you must remember your immune system is precisely that—a system. To function well, it requires balance and harmony. Researchers have spent years exploring the effects of lifestyle, diet and exercise on the immune system. All the best research keeps pointing to one thing, your best line of defense is to choose and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Last week we discussed three things you can do to be ready for cold and flu season. Here are a few more things you can do to keep your immune system as healthy as possible.

Maintain Your Normal Routine

According to the Director of Integrative Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, “the most important thing you can do for your immune system is to achieve lifestyle balance and adopt the fundamentals of healthy living.” This will give your immune system what it needs to function at optimal capacity. In other words, get into a healthy routine of sleep, work, good eating, play, physical activity and exercise. Our bodies prefer normal. During stressful times, do as much as you can to keep your daily routine as normal as possible. Changing your normal routine introduces new stressors to your body which can cause all sorts of problems. Check out this study published in 2020 showing that, over the past 20 years, the annual switch to daylight savings time is associated with a 6% increase in fatal car crashes during the week after we all lose an hour of sleep.

Have fun

A pleasant event offers a small boost to your immune system that can last for as long as two days, while negative stressful events take their toll on your immune system for only a day. While stresses like a conflict with your spouse can make you more vulnerable to infectious diseases, so can missing customary pleasures like getting together with friends or playing with your kids.

Dr. Arthur Stone, a psychologist at the medical school of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, tracked the effects of daily activities of 100 men for three months. He found that stresses like being criticized at work weakened immune function on the day they occurred. But events like a pleasant family celebration or having friends over enhanced the immune system for the next two days. Having fun can be twice as impactful on your immune system as a negative event.

Make sure you are intentionally taking time every day to have fun. Play with your kids. Call your friends on the phone. Watch a few clips of Parks and Recreation. Go to a sporting event. Spend some time outdoors. Or just go fishing.

Eat as Many Colorful Edible Plants as You Can

We all know fruits and vegetables are full of vitamins—especially the antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E. All of these vitamins should be obtained from real, whole foods. Taking antioxidant vitamins has been shown to increase the risk of colon cancer and lung cancer. There is no magic pill. If you eat two to three servings of fruit and four or more servings of vegetables every day, you will get all the vitamins you need.

It’s also important to get as much variety as you can. All fruits and vegetables contain phytochemicals, which are plant (phyto) chemical compounds that can interact with compounds of other living organisms. Phytochemicals give plants their color, aroma and flavor. In humans they have been shown to stimulate the immune system, slow the growth rate of cancer cells, and prevent DNA damage that can lead to cancer and other diseases. Scientists have currently identified over 5,000 different phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables, and they speculate that there are thousands more that have not been discovered.

Eat a wide variety of colorful fruits and vegetables to get as many different phytochemicals as you can.

Drink 8 to 12 Cups of Water Every Day

Drinking plenty of water is the foundation of our Simple 9^© nutritional program. Everyone should start with a minimum of 8 to 12 cups and improve from there.

Water naturally helps your body eliminate toxins and bacteria that cause illness. Your kidneys filter your blood and remove toxins all day long. The more water you drink, the better your kidneys function in flushing out unwelcome toxins through urination. Also, if you don’t drink enough water, your immune system may have to focus on a bladder infection, which will reduce its ability to fight off other invaders. Dehydration can also cause constipation, which keeps toxins in your body longer.

Exercise Regularly

Regular exercise is one of the pillars of healthy living. It improves cardiovascular health, lowers blood pressure, helps control body weight, and protects against just about every type of disease known to man.

But too much of a good thing can hurt you. Athletes who over-train end up getting sick, a lot. Don’t over-do it. Thirty-minutes of moderate physical activity a day is enough to make very positive changes in anyone’s health and mental attitude. Going for a 30-minute walk outside in fresh air (even when it’s cold outside) is probably the most beneficial thing you can do for your overall health. If you can’t get 30 minutes, walking three times a day for 10 minutes is just as beneficial. A study conducted at the University of Arizona found that walking just 10 minutes is enough to lower your blood pressure.

Don’t forget strength training. Strength training of any kind has been shown to increase white blood cell count, particularly neutrophils (your body’s first line of defense). Again, don’t overdo it. Our experience has been that 20 Minutes A Week will give most folks the immune boost they need to say healthy.

Combining physical activity and strength training, as we recommend, has been shown to greatly reduce chronic inflammation in cancer patients. This is extremely important because anti-cancer therapies lead to non-resolving inflammation, which greatly reduces immune function. Exercise should always be part of your regular routine.

We want you to know that our coaches are here to support you. If you have questions about improving your health, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Stay Strong,

Bo Railey