Things I Do To Help Boost My Immunity!
I know things have been crazy lately in the world, so I wanted to share what I am doing for myself and my family in hopes that it might alleviate some stress. Research has shown that it will assist in the building of our immunity. If we do acquire any illness, it will give our bodies what it needs to help fight it. I am not saying that this will prevent any illness, or say that following what I do will make you immune to any disease or illness out there. Just that it might help give your body the tools it needs to aid in the fight,
Right now, we are in the social distancing phase, which my family and I are adhering to. This helps protect us (although we are strong enough to fight it off), and even though we are healthy it helps protect the people we love. A healthy person can carry bacteria and viruses and transmit them to someone who might not be able to fight them off.
I’m not sure if you have been out recently, but I was out yesterday just to get groceries. What I found interesting was that the fruit and vegetable section was incredibly full, along with the supplement section.
The items that were picked over and gone were the canned goods, the white pasta, the refined white bread, toilet paper (sorry, had to say it), facial tissues, and paper towel.
To me, this is backwards… your body needs the fruit and vegetables and the nutrients it contains to fight off infections. Produce is filled with Vitamins, Fiber, Antioxidants, Magnesium, Iron, Protein, etc.. These nutrients are needed to help fuel your body. Also, in times of stress and cold/flu season sometimes your body needs some extra support from supplements – so adding extra nutrients to your body will be beneficial (always talk to a health care professional before starting any supplement program).
A lot of the processed foods and refined breads that were missing off the shelves are highly processed and contain a great deal of sugar. I call these the “non-foods." Things like coffee, sugar, refined breads and pastas, and highly processed foods are void of many nutrients. Your body uses valuable nutrients to digest these foods and break them a part in your body, while the food itself doesn’t have a lot of nutrients. This creates a nutrient deficit in your body. Nutrients are important in every process in our bodies. We should be fueling them, not using our stores and resources on foods that may taste good but have no positive effect on our bodies.
I wanted to share a few things that I am doing for my family during this time to help build our immunities. Remember always check with your health care provider, naturopath or nutritionist before starting any supplement program to ensure that it's right for you and that it will not counteract with any medications or supplements you are currently taking.
1. Juice Plus – I discovered this whole food in a capsule last year and we’ve been using it ever since. It is the most researched supplement on the market with 39 double blind placebo studies done on the effectiveness of this product. Here is a link on Juice Plus and Immunity. The fact of the matter is not many people get enough fruits and vegetables in their diets. Fruits and Vegetables contain antioxidants that fight free radical damage, as well as polyphenols which can help reduce inflammation in the body and can be linked to several diseases (See Study Here).
You can purchase Juice Plus on my website: https://johannedouma.canada.juiceplus.com/ or contact me at 416-300-8736 or info@thewellnessequation.ca This company is truly amazing, it offers free product for one child with every 2 or 3 blend ordered, as well as giving you a 4 month money back guarantee--that should tell you how great the product is. To get the free child product please contact me as I have to input that information
2. Probiotics – Your immunity begins in the gut. The gut contains both good bacteria, bad bacteria, yeast etc... Without a healthy community of good bacteria it will limit your immunity (it will also affect your digestion, vitamin B production and mental health as well, but that’s for another post). I have a 3 and almost 6-year-old. I always give them a probiotic when there is a lot of colds/flus going around or when they start school. Probiotics work by blocking pathogenic bacterial effects and compete with pathogens and toxins for adherence to the intestinal epithelium (the cells that line the intestinal wall which perform functions of digestion, water and nutrient absorption, and forms a barrier against luminal pathogens). (See Study Here)
I like to switch up my probiotic every once and a while to make sure I am getting different strains of bacteria. At the moment my kids are on Genuine Health Probiotic for Kids and I am taking Genestra Multi Strain Probiotic.
3. Vitamin D – Helps our bodies stay balanced through cold and flu season. (See Study Here) It also helps reduce the occurrence of the flu in school aged children (See Study Here)
4. Vitamin C – It is a potent antioxidant. Vitamin C contributes to your immune system by supporting various cellular functions. Vitamin C deficiency can impair your immunity and make you more susceptible to infections. (See Study Here). I read articles (See article here) stating that in China they were treating Covid-19 patients with high doses of Vitamin C intravenously.
5. Diet – This is the number one thing you can do. Nothing replaces a healthy balanced diet of whole nutrient dense foods.
a. Avoiding Sugar – A lot of my topics come back to avoiding sugar. This one affects your immunity in a large way. 1 tsp of sugar can shut down your immunity for 2 hours. So, think about what you are doing when you’re consuming that chocolate bar, and is it a good idea to shut down your immunity at that time.
b. Eat more fruits and vegetables, which are rich in nutrients like vitamins C, antioxidants, beta-carotene and zinc. I always tell my clients to "eat a rainbow," making sure you are getting a variety of colours on your plate in a day.
c. Fill your diet with immune boosting foods, some of which have anti-bacterial/anti-viral properties such as garlic, ginger, turmeric, and onion.
d. Water – The majority of our body is made up of water, which helps flush out unwanted toxins. Drink at least 8 glasses a day.
e. Keeping up with foods rich in zinc. Meat, shellfish, legumes, chocolate, seeds, nuts, dairy, eggs, w hole grains and some vegetables. Zinc helps with metabolism, over 300 enzyme functions, digestion, nerve function, DNA synthesis and it is important for the development and function of the immune cells. Most of us get enough zinc in our diets, but sometimes we need extra supplementation depending on other circumstances in our diets/lifestyles.
6. Sleep – Sleep helps the immune system, and helps immune cells called “T Cells” (See Study Here). When you get a good night’s sleep, it enhances the ability of the T cells to adhere to and destroy cells infected by viruses and other pathogens. Constantly getting inadequate sleep (less than 7 hours a night) will put your body in a fight or flight mode and stress out your adrenal glands (see stress below).
7. Stress – I will do a longer post on this in the future. In short, stress or panic sends your body into fight or flight mode. There was an article online from the Cleveland Clinic that states: In short spurts, cortisol can boost your immunity by limiting inflammation. But over time, your body can get used to having too much cortisol in your blood. And this opens the door for more inflammation, Dr. Calabrese says. In addition, stress decreases the body’s lymphocytes — the white blood cells that help fight off infection. The lower your lymphocyte level, the more at risk you are for viruses, including the common cold and cold sores. This was directly copied from the article, and the full article can be found here.
What are you doing to protect yourself? How are you doing with everything going on in the world today?
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