With the 24-hour updates on the latest outbreak of the coronavirus, you may feel like permanently wearing latex gloves, or trying not to touch anything at all. Keep washing your hands and remember these three things that can improve your immune system and your health.
First, sleep.
Get 7-9 hours of sleep. Research conducted in Germany has linked a good night’s sleep with improved immune system functioning. Sleeping increases the effectiveness of T cells in our immune system.
T cells recognize pathogens and are activated to tackle the invaders. When studying sleep, researchers found that people getting a good night’s sleep had higher levels of T cell activation.
Second, eat your veggies.
One of the best predictors of health is a healthy microbiome. Feed your gut bacteria with the fiber found in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. People with inflammatory diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, asthma tend to less variety in their gut bacteria.
The digestive system can have between 500 – 1,000 different types of bacteria. Influencing our health and our immune response. Boost your bacteria with whole, unprocessed plant foods.
Third, exercise.
Moderate, not strenuous levels of exercise boost our immune system. To be clear, strenuous levels mean more than one hour per day, every day of the week.
One study on cyclists showed that people who exercise regularly have no age-related changes to their immune system. Our thymus gland makes T cells and researchers thought that it started to shrink with age, but an 80-year old exerciser can have the same thymus function as someone 20-years old.
And of course, keep washing your hands.
Shayla
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