6 Steps to Boosting Your Immune System
What kind of body are you building? How you live your life, the choices that you make every day, will determine the health and vitality of your systems, including your immune system. What choices will you make to boost your immune function AND your health?
Your body operates through a complex set of systems including your cardiovascular system, your nervous system and your immune system. Your immune system helps you resist getting sick and helps you recover when you do get sick. Your immune system is interactive, totally integrated, and constantly communicating with the other systems of your body. How those systems communicate play a vital role in your current state of health.
6 Steps to Boosting Your Immune System:
1. Eliminate or Minimize Sugar – Sugar can take a real toll your immune system. Your body uses Vitamin C in your immune system to fuel your white blood cells. It fights colds, to cancer sores, to cancer. Excess sugar, or glucose, in the blood stream will compete with Vitamin C to get into your cells. Less Vitamin C in the cells impairs the ability of the white blood cells to sweep up and kill bacteria. To get the most out of your Vitamin C, and have a healthy immune system, limit your intake of sugar.
2. Drink Water – To help your body remove impurities effectively and safely, it is important to stay hydrated. If you eat processed foods throughout the day, you might benefit from drinking several 8 – 10 oz. glasses of purified water. This facilitates the cleansing process and enables your immune system to focus on staying free from disease.
If you eat a diet consisting mostly of fruits and vegetables, you are receiving nature’s best…natural, alkaline water from plant food sources that flood your cells with water that is easily absorbed. You are simply eating your water instead of drinking it. But to ensure you have enough water in your system, drink several glasses of water in addition to a healthy diet so that your body stays hydrated and so that your immune system can function effectively.
3. Get Plenty of Rest – In order for your body to stay healthy, you must get plenty of rest. You should try to go to bed before midnight if possible and keep a regular sleep schedule. It’s important that you get between 6 to 8 hours of sleep each day. Each individual is different. Some need more hours, others need less.
Not getting enough sleep has been linked to a laundry list of mental and physical health problems, including those that stem from an impaired immune system. Our immune system is designed to protect us from colds, flu, and other ailments, but when it is not functioning properly, it fails to do its job. Getting plenty of rest helps ensure that your immune system can keep you healthy.
4. Eat Simply, Live Well – Along with sleep, what you eat is likely the biggest determinant of how healthy you are. Eating clean, whole foods is one of the best ways to ensure that your immune system stays healthy. Fresh vegetables and green juices are a great way to ensure your body, and your immune system, are getting the nutrients and nourishment they need.
5. Boost Your Supplements – While supplements are not a replacement for whole foods, they do have an important place in our diets and in our ability to stay healthy. Omega 3 Fatty Acids (Fish Oil) decreases inflammation and builds up the immune system. Vitamin D, which you can get through natural sunlight or in supplement form also helps generate a healthy immune response. And zinc is great for the upper respiratory tract and fighting infections.
6. Chiropractic Adjustments – Nerve irritation suppresses your immune function. Think about it – when your body is in pain, your immune system tries to fight it, depleting your resources to fight off other types of illnesses. Chiropractic adjustments decrease nerve irritation, restore balance in your body, and restore your parasympathetic (rest and repair) state. Adjustments have also been proven to increase your white blood cell count which helps your immune system fight off illness. Chiropractic patients have been shown to have a 200% greater immune competence than people not under chiropractic care†. Getting adjusted boosts your immune system.
Get healthy and stay healthy with Essential Mind and Body. Call for an appointment today to get adjusted and feel great.
Yours in good health,
Dr. Robert Koch
