Have you heard? We can venture outside our homes now!
That means you can go not only to Walmart, Lowe's or the grocery store, you can attend the local Farmers Market, have a coffee with a friend at a café, resume date-night with your special someone and even participate in more outdoor activities.
But how do you do all of this and feel safe about your health and the strength of your immune system? How does the fact that it is now summer make a difference?
It involves 5 healthy strategies to boost your immunity and help you to enjoy the summer while preparing for the next cold and flu season. You may even find that you include several of these strategies in your daily or weekly routine already.
Have you heard?
That means you can go not only to Walmart, Lowe's or the grocery store, you can attend the local Farmers Market, have a coffee with a friend at a café, resume date-night with your special someone and even participate in more outdoor activities.
But how do you do all of this and feel safe about your health and the strength of your immune system? How does the fact that it is now summer make a difference?
It involves 5 healthy strategies to boost your immunity and help you to enjoy the summer while preparing for the next cold and flu season. You may even find that you include several of these strategies in your daily or weekly routine already.
STRATEGY #1 – EAT NUTRITIOUS FOODS
Eating foods that contain certain vitamins and minerals will help you optimize your body’s ability to fight off illness. This may be one of the most important components of maintaining or gaining a healthy immune system. Here are the categories of food to focus on.
Vitamins: A, C, K2 and D3 – These vitamins are the immune strengthening, disease fighting, tough guys in your system. Vitamin A boosts your immunity while it lowers your risk of infection. Vitamin C in particular helps your body fight influenza viruses like Covid-19. With the sun shining stronger now that it is summer, get outside and expose your naked skin to its wonderful rays. The more skin exposed the more D3 your body can make. Avoid sunscreens and being out during the mid-day hours. What happens is your skin grabs the healthy rays of the sun (blocked by sunscreen) and converts it into vitamin D3, boosting your immune system. Foods to choose: A rainbow of colored vegetables, especially orange and dark leafy greens (kale). Add fruits with color, like berries and citrus. If you eat meat, choose grass-fed and/or wild caught, which not only contain needed vitamins and minerals, but essential amino acids needed by the body.
Minerals: Zinc, Selenium – Zinc has been shown to be one of the most important minerals needed to destroy the Covid-19 virus and helps create and activate your immune system’s white blood cells. Selenium, usually found in our soils and thus in the plants we eat, has become depleted in the soils they are grown in. It is a powerful antioxidant needed for our immune system protecting our body from free radicals that tear down our immune systems.1 Foods to choose: Grass-fed meats, true nuts (not peanuts), pumpkin seeds and spinach.
Probiotics: Fermented sauerkrauts and vegetables, fermented drinks (like Kombucha or Lemonade), Kefir and plain Yogurt. All these foods help promote the growth of the healthy bacteria in your gut. Fermented foods introduce the friendly, healthy bacteria to your gut and is one of the best ways to optimize your immune system. Your gut is the key line of defense against disease causing germs, as well as an aid in producing antibodies2. Foods to choose: Homemade or live culture sauerkrauts, I prefer one with lots of healthy garlic, a powerful disease battling food. Kefir is like a liquid form of yogurt and you will want to choose one without added sugar. I like the raw Kefir from Organic Pastures. Other foods could include, natto, kimchi, pickles, miso, or tempeh.
Fiber: Both soluble and insoluble fiber found in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Fiber balances your gut microbiome and improves your immune system by feeding your healthy gut bacteria. This results in bowel movements and keeps waste moving through your colon like it should. Fiber also benefits your heart health and works to control your blood sugar levels.
Obviously, you can see how important your gut healthy is to fight off the “bad guys” of disease and strengthening your immune system. This is why it is the first thing I usually work on with clients in my health programs. There are a few other strategies that can take your immune system to the next level.
STRATEGY #2: GET PLENTY OF SLEEP
Seriously, this can be a battle for most women (and men) that I see in my practice, but it is so particularly important to maintaining good health and a strong immune system. We all need a minimum of 8 hours of sleep each night and it needs to include the hours between 11pm and 3am when we get most of our healing sleep. You may think that you do “just fine” on 5-6 hours but the reality is, lack of sleep puts your body at greater risk of illness. As Dr. Mercola notes, “lack of sleep quickly decreases your immune function, leaving your system wide-open for environmental influences, including viruses like colds and flu.”3
STRATEGY #3: AVOID SUGAR!
White sugar has been identified as a carcinogen4 and continues to contribute to the increasing rate of chronic diseases in our country. Sugar works in your body destroying the healthy gut bacteria you may have worked so hard to increase, thus weakening your immune system. Avoiding sugar can be difficult and seem nearly impossible as research has shown that it affects your brain in the same way that narcotics do and may trigger a strong addictive response.5 This explains why it is so difficult to “have just one” cookie. Read labels of pre-made products you buy in the store. Look for the word sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, evaporated cane juice, from concentrate and words ending in -ose. These are all different ways of saying SUGAR.
STRATEGY #4: MANAGE YOUR STRESS
Chronic stress can make you more susceptible to colds and flu’s. That is why it is so important to learn how to keep stress in check. As women, we are usually always ready to help a friend in need, take some of the load for someone else and adopt the motto: “I am woman, hear me roar!” But really, we need to take care of ourselves so we can be healthy enough to take care of others and those we love and cherish. What you can do: Develop a daily quiet time, just 10 or 15min to meditate, pray or journal. Take time to mindfully breathe. Stress and tension cause us many times to hold our breath so, breathe in slowly through your nose, hold it, then exhale slowly through the mouth. These are just a few of my strategies for managing stress each day. If you struggle with managing stress and would like to chat more about other ways you can decrease and manage your stress, send me an email at healthcoachkellogg@gmail.com.
STRATEGY #5: INCLUDE DAILY ACTIVITY – EXERCISE!
As little as 20 minutes of walking five days a week can increase your immune system and function.6 It is so important to keep moving throughout each day. Now that most of our work and relationships are maintained online, we have become more sedentary than ever before. Sitting at the computer for hours on end, is detrimental to your health and decreases your immune system.7 So set your alarm or timer for every 2 hours (or less) and then, get up and walk to the bathroom, the mailbox or the kitchen to grab a healthy snack. If you have a standing desk, then rotate between standing and sitting for 30 to 40 minutes at a time. Schedule time during the week for 2 or 3, 30-minute workouts to get your heart rate up and build muscle strength.
Sheltering in place is over for most of us, so now is the time to venture back out into the public, among the people in our community and elsewhere. You certainly need to be smart about your health and wash your hands, keep a safe distance, and stay at home if you are not feeling good. But most importantly, we all need to be building a healthy microbiome in our gut and putting into practice those strategies that will help us build a strong immune system to help us avoid illnesses and diseases that keep us from going to work and making memories with those we care about. If you would like more information, or have questions, click on the link to my website and sign up for a FREE Health Consultation. I would love to hear about your health goals and how I can support you in reaching them.
Cheering you on,
References:
1 PubMed December, 2008
2 Mercola February 01, 2018
3 Mercola February 01, 2018
4 Encyclopedia of Systems Biology The Warburg Effect
5 ABC News February 25, 2015
6 Mercola February 01, 2018
7 Health Care Associates of Texas October 29, 2018