The term immune-modulation is the correct term instead of immune-boosting because we never want an overactive immune system; rather an immune system that can modify itself based on each body’s physiology.
Learn about your immune system
Human health comprises physical, emotional, mental, intellectual, and spiritual health all working together in complete harmony.
Only a percentage of the population has severe disease and illness but others have their own immune system to help them prevent and recover from the disease. We are born with this beautiful mechanism of innate immunity. Therefore, understanding how the immune system works and its individual components is the key to achieving longevity.
Here’s what you need to do to boost immunity or reset your immune system:
- Practice balanced nutrition
- Ensure adequate exercise, activity and movement,
- Get quality sleep
- Be mindful and emotionally well
Practice balanced nutrition
Beginning and following a supplement regimen is about staying at your optimal health. A good multivitamin is very important although everyone has a different requirement. There is a fine line between getting enough of these nutrients (which is healthy) and getting too little or too much (which can end up harming you). Therefore I believe in curating vitamins and mineral supplements as per individual requirement. For this I recommend, Vitamin & Me as they offer a unique technology that ensures you get the vitamins exactly right for you.
Simply taking the best supplements will certainly support your immunity, but you have to develop the mind set and knowledge to truly have strong immunity. Eating a really healthy, organic diet helps—with lean, grass-fed animal protein, vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats in the correct quantity has a positive impact on the immune system.
Exercise, activity and movement
There is a direct connection between immunity and activity level. When we move, we enable the circulation of two entities – blood and lymph. Blood carries oxygen, nutrients, and immune cells. Lymph carries immune cells and cellular metabolic wastes. If we are not moving or exercising, we stagnate all the nutrients, immune cells, and oxygen within our bodies. This deprives trillions of cells in our body of the very basic requirements for optimal functioning. Lymph is a fluid that flows within the lymphatic system and works to remove the toxins out of the body. The build-up of toxins or waste products can cause multiple ailments and a slowing of metabolism.
Quality sleep
Sleep and the circadian system exert a strong regulatory influence on immune functions. Sleep deprivation decreases the activity of our immune system significantly. The activity levels of natural killer cells can plummet as a result of even one night of sleep deprivation.
No matter how much you exercise or how well you eat, missing out on a good night of sleep can weaken your immune system over time.
The immune system repairs itself while we sleep along with restoring systemic balance after initiating the response to eliminate foreign cells. Hormone levels are also regulated during sleep, for example, the secretion of growth hormones to strengthen damaged tissues.
Irregular or lack of sleep increases belly fat and hormonal imbalance.
Mindfulness & emotional wellbeing
In affective immunology, emotions are defined as “an essential part of the process of an organism’s interaction with stimuli.” Similar to emotions, the immune response is the “tool” the body uses to interact with the external environment. Thanks to the emotional and immunological response, we learn to distinguish between what we like and what we do not like, to counteract a broad range of challenges, and to adjust to the environment we are living in. Recent compelling evidence has shown that the emotional and immunological systems share more than a similarity of functions. This review article discusses the crosstalk between these two systems and the need for a new scientific area of research called affective immunology.
It’s easy to see that the state of mind affects an individual’s state of health. Chronic stress be it physical, mental, or emotional, can lower and suppress immunity.
Cortisol is a stress hormone and an antagonist to the immune system. It increases inflammation, interrupts the sleep cycle, increases blood sugar levels, and makes our body prone to infections. Stress in a small dose is protective, but high doses of stress can cause massive imbalances in the body.
To achieve a state of mindfulness and emotional wellness, meditation and breathing exercises are the way to go.
As I said, earlier, only when our physical and mental activities are harmonic can we achieve optimum immunity. To help you achieve that, I just launched an online course, the 21-day Immunity Reset program. So one has to have mastery over all 4 – nutrition, sleep, exercise, emotions.
