The famous saying “prevention is better than cure” is now more relevant than ever in this time of COVID-19. These challenging times demand that we focus more on our overall health and boost our immunity.
Your overall health comprises of three states,
1. Physical state
2. Mental state
3. Spiritual state
To boost your immunity, you have to take care of them all. Your immune system is the army that protects your body from all the diseases and infections. To strengthen it, you need to adopt healthy eating habits and a healthy lifestyle.
Here are a few ways to strengthen your immune system:
1. Yoga/Meditation
Practicing yoga is beneficial for both the mind and body.
Yoga asana like Surya-namaskar, Pranayama, Kapalbhati helps drain the body of fat, harmful bacteria, and micro-organisms.
Research has shown that practicing yoga promotes healthy eating habits, improves respiration, maintains a balanced metabolism and helps in relieving stress and anxiety.
2. Intake of fluids
Almost 70% of the body weight is water. Your body needs water to flush down toxins and dead cells. An adult who weighs 150 pounds needs around 850 ounces of water per day. Fruits and vegetables are also a source of water and also supply nutrients to the body.
Keeping track of how much water you drink daily can be a difficult task, so it’s better to track your water intake by logging it.
3. Plant-based diet over animal-based diet
It’s a lot easier for your body to digest a plant-based diet over an animal-based diet such as meat. Meat creates more free radicals in the body, which causes damage to cells. To counter this, doctors suggest increasing the intake of the portion of salad and eating it 20-30 minutes before the meal. Since veggies are high in fibre, they help in dilution and absorption of the meat.
Low fat and plant-based diets have anti-inflammatory effects on the body, whereas packed/processed foods are highly inflammatory and therefore are the leading cause of early-aging.
Low fat and plant-based diets have anti-inflammatory effects on the body, whereas packed/processed food is highly inflammatory and is a leading cause of early-aging.
Eat more seasonal food that is readily available at the local farmers market. It is not only fresh but affordable as well.
Use of ginger, turmeric, lemongrass, in cooking and intake of Indian and Asian foods, red bell pepper, spinach, broccoli, yogurt help in boosting the immune system.
4. Weight management
Weight management has long term effects if done correctly. It lowers the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases, and some forms of cancer.
Weight management does not require you to starve yourself, but requires that you eat healthily. You can lose weight and still eat what you like, just by practicing mindful eating.
Mindful eating includes controlling your portion size, getting to know more about your food and body requirements, and planning your meals accordingly.
5. Exercise
Exercise is not only good for your physical health but also your mental health.
Modest amounts of exercise regularly, even a simple 30-minute walk daily, does wonders.
People who tend to exercise regularly are at lower risks of developing cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer. They feel more energetic throughout the day, and can sleep better.
Exercising regularly gives a sense of well-being and positivity to a person.
However, it’s important to note that excessive exercising can be strenuous to the body and can heighten the risk of infections. So don’t push yourself too hard!
6. Enough Sleep
Sleep plays an important role when it comes to your health. A sufficient amount of sleep is needed by the body to heal and regenerate.
Cytokines, a type of protein, mediate, and regulate immune responses. Your body produces and releases most of them during your sleep. Lack of sleep reduces its production and harms the immune system.
Requirements of sleep vary from person to person. Generally, adults (18-64) require 7-9 hours of sleep and older adults (64+), of 7-8 hours.
A good restful sleep leaves you feeling fresh and energetic in the morning.
7. Managing stress
In today’s lifestyle, stress surrounds the people all the time. Along with mental health, it takes a toll on your physical health as well.
Stress can cause you to indulge in emotional eating or skipping your meals, which can have adverse effects on your body.
A few lifestyle changes like regular exercises, yoga, mindful eating, and practicing gratitude can help you relieve stress.
8. Use of Probiotics
Nowadays, it is common to take antibiotics when we feel the slightest symptoms of (cold, flu, and headache). People don’t realize that antibiotics fight only the bacteria in your gut and not viruses. Antibiotics also remove the good bacteria from your body and make it weaker against virus attacks.
Doctors and nutritionists suggest that a good way to replenish the healthy gut bacteria is by consuming probiotics after antibiotics. Probiotics like yogurt, pickles, buttermilk, and some types of cheese, namely mozzarella and cheddar, are filled with good bacteria and help in restoring the balance of your microbiota.
Logging your food and activities helps you in creating a balanced and controlled life for yourself. It promotes mindful eating, helps in weight management, encourages you to exercise more.
The Health Click Away app is an AI-powered smart app, that helps you stay healthy and well-organized by automatically building your grocery list based on your meal patterns. The app not only helps remind you of your next meal, but can also help you find restaurants nearby according to your choice of cuisine based on the requirements of your calorie intake and expenditure.
“A Healthy body is a healthy mind, and vice versa”- by Ruchika Gupta (CEO, Health Click Away)
