At bdb we understand the importance of health when living a truly successful life, which is why we asked friend of bdb and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, Mark Wignarajah, to give provide some tips on boosting your immune system:
During this current health crisis, the word “immunity” is a hot topic. It’s an area of health that is open to opinions, contradictions and it can often be confusing to know what you should be doing to make sure your immune system is at its best.
You’ve been following the advice to wash your hands, stop touching your face and socially distance but what else can you be doing now to feel healthier and make sure your immune system is as strong as it can be?
Increasing Immune Resilience
I like to think of resilience as a battery and your immune system as a reserve battery backup. You start off with a full battery and doing plenty of self-care and eating the right foods keeps your battery topped up. But when you get stressed (tight deadlines, demanding kids, lack of sleep, lack of self-care) our battery can quickly become depleted and we can start going into our reserve. It’s at this point that our immune system can quickly become compromised.
You could conclude that the key to a strong immune system is making sure that our backup battery is always topped up and we can do this in a number of ways:
Sleep well
- Prioritise sleep, get to bed early. Don’t stay up watching the latest news!
- Where possible in these times of working at home, make your bedroom solely for sleeping and remove anything that can be distracting or noisy.
- Get your brain into sleep mode – you can do this by using blocking out white light (from devices like mobile phones and TV) as it tells your brain to stay awake. White light suppresses Melatonin (the sleep hormone) so can stop you falling asleep. Don’t watch TV in your bedroom, keep your phone away from your body and put it into flight mode. Wearing blue blocking glasses a few hours before bed can calm your brain down and help you fall asleep. Turn on phone / iPad Blue light filters – instructions here.
Daily exercise
- Exercising increases feel good hormones and endorphins and it can increase the mitochondria (the engines in our cells) to produce more energy. This helps to increase white blood cells which are part of our antibody immune response.
- Aim for a minimum of 20-30 minutes a day and choose an exercise to get the blood flowing – go for a walk, yoga.
- Add in more intense activity twice a week for about 20 minutes.
- Les Mills, School of Calisthenics and Ekhart Yoga are offering free programmes to follow from home.
Reduce stress
- This may feel like a challenge at the moment but taking time to do calm, restful activity for as little as 5 minutes 3 times a day can help to reduce your stress which in turn impacts on your immunity.
- Take a pause to breathe deeply, try box breathing or meditation. Calm and HeadSpace are both great apps with guided meditations. Or try the app based technique HeartMath.
- Get outside. Being in nature even for short periods of time (20 mins) can have a profound impact on stress reduction and calming your nervous system.
Nutrition
- In addition to a balanced diet and drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated, consider adding supplements: vitamin C, zinc, and vitamin d3 which have all been scientifically proven to boost the immune system.
- You could also take Liposomal Glutathione to help build your body’s resilience and directly influence your lymphatic cells. The Lymphatic system is your body’s way of removing toxins from the body. Glutathione is the body’s master antioxidant, but other food sources of antioxidants include, raspberries, goji berries and even dark chocolate.
- Reduce alcohol consumption. Alcohol disrupts the immune pathways and compromises your body’s ability to fight against infection.
Promote healthy gut bacteria
- Eating fermented foods like kefir or kimchi can help increase the good bacteria in our guts. The gut microbiome is a complex ecosystem composed of millions of microbes, and these bacteria play important roles in digestion and in regulating the immune system. You can also directly influence this bacteria by taking soil based probiotics that contain Lactobacillus and reducing the use of Antibiotics.
The above points are guidelines only so don’t feel that you need to implement them all immediately. The most important thing to remember is to be kind to yourself during this stressful time.
For more information and blogs on health and wellbeing visit my website or connect with me via LinkedIn
Mark is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and Bulletproof Performance Coach. He specializes in helping professionals get to the root cause of health and wellbeing issues using functional lab testing and holistic health coaching so that they can perform at their best.
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11115795
Exercise,Infection,andImmunity:PracticalApplications
The chronobiology of human cytokine production.
Defining the Human Microbiome - NCBI - NIH
Neiman: Exercise, Infection, and Immunity: Practical Applications
Cell‐autonomous stress responses in innate immunity
Visceral Inflammation and Immune Activation Stress the Brain
Immune and Neuroendocrine Mechanisms of Stress Vulnerability and Resilience
Vitamin C Infusion for the Treatment of Severe 2019-nCoV Infected Pneumonia
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6104162/
Disclaimer: the content provided in this blog is the personal opinions of the bperformance Blog / Mark Wignarajah and is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute any type of professional advice. The content may or may not be true. The bperformance blog / Mark Wignarajah makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. The bperformance blog /Mark Wignarajah encourages you to seek the advice of from your general practitioner before making any decisions related to health or taking supplementation.
Posted by: Andrew Brook-Dobson | Posted in: News
