What are the Lifestyle Factors that deplete you immune system, making you more vulnerable to catching the Corona Virus? Here are a few ways you can strengthen your immune system:
Excess Dependency on Caffeine, Alcohol & Packaged Foods
These all provide poor nutrition for the immune system. It makes your body & mind work on an empty gas tank…… and you can’t go very far on that. These are the foods that are devoid of vitamin/ mineral nutrient enriched food, so essential to a healthy and resilient immune system.
In the cold winter months when colds are more easily propagating their community of offspring in your body, is when fresh fruits & vegetables are hard to come by & are expensive to buy. Our immune system is in the most demand then, when the source of fresh fruits & veggies is harder to come by in their variety & quantity.
Forgetting to Do a Daily Vitamin/Mineral Supplement Regime
A healthy immune system that is resilient to an abundance of cold & flu bugs in the work environment needs high level nutrients to do its defending well. Most of us don’t think the immune systems need attention, but when the weather gets colder, darker and wetter in the fall and winter, there are several micronutrients that your body needs. Can you guess what some of those micronutrients are? Have you been taking your Vitamin C, zinc, Vitamin D3 every day? How about the other essentials of Vitamin A, B complex, iron, calcium & magnesium?
Chronic Sedentary Lifestyle
Putting off exercise each day after a stressful day of work & chilling in front to the TV screen can make your immune system sluggish. The garbage disposal system of the body known as the lymphatic system, the liver & the extra cellular fluids collect toxic wastes that the cells excrete into on a daily basis. Exercise is needed to move these wastes out through the proper channels of the body. When you don’t get regular exercise, it makes your lymphatic system more stagnant, providing extra food for viruses to thrive on.
Grief & Loss
We are all more vulnerable as human beings when we experience a major loss in our lives, be that a pet, a partner, a parent or close friend. Grief experienced over a long period of time ( a year) can depress the immune and respiratory systems.
Exposure to Cold Bugs on Planes & In Closed Loop Office Environments
Many of us would never connect the dots when we are sitting in such environments, that someone coughing & sneezing further away is sending droplets of viral containing substances into the common breathing space. Once these air borne pathogens get breathed in by this recirculated air, they get taken into your lungs and throat. It takes 3 days for them to multiple to begin their invasion in your body. The first place cold viruses settle in is the delicate tissues of the throat.
Overuse of Antibiotics
Most antibiotics drugs wipe out the friendly flora that are essential to the gastro intestinal health. The GI track is the first line of defenses for the immune system to be vibrant and thriving. So keep up your probiotic supplements during or after a series of antibiotics is mandatory support to back up your immune system. Consider increasing your intake of naturally fermented food. You know some of them: yogurt, kefir, kim chi, kombucha, sauerkraut. They help replenish some of the killed off friendly probiotics that antibiotics wipes out.
