The best defense against any type of pathogen, viruses and bacteria is a strong immune system. There are certain things you can do to boost your immune system naturally. In this video, I will discuss some of these things that you can start doing today. Here are my top 5 Immune boosters: 1. Sleep When you're sleep-deprived your body produces stress hormones like cortisol which will suppress your immune system. People who got a full eight hours of shut-eye had higher levels of T cells than those who slept less, according to a 2019 study. Try to get at least seven hours of slumber a night, as a 2015 study, published in the journal Sleep, found that people who did so were four times less likely to come down with a cold than those who clocked less than six. 2. Meditation New research suggests that mindfulness meditation can have benefits for health and performance, including improved immune function. Meditation also helps reduce stress hormones. 3. Eliminate Sugar A research study done by Loma Linda University in which participants were fed different forms of sugar found that the effectiveness of white blood cells (our immune cells which fight infection) decreased up to 50% after 1-2 hours of eating sugar, lasting up to five hours! 4.Cold Therapy Cold water immersion causes your lymph vessels to contract, forcing your lymphatic system to pump lymph fluids throughout your body, flushing the waste out of the area. This then triggers the immune system's white blood cells to attack and destroy any unwanted substance in the fluid. The effects of cold water on the immune system have been studied widely. Cold water helps to boost the white blood cell count because the body is forced to react to changing conditions. Over time, your body becomes better at activating its defenses. 5. Take the Right Supplements Vitamin C – can help support cellular functions needed by the immune system. Vitamin D – this will help to keep your immune system strong, with the ability to fight off infections quickly. As most vitamin D is received from sunlight, the UK Government recommends a daily supplement between October and March. Zinc – this contributes to the normal function of the immune system and can be found in seafood, red meat, and eggs. Be careful not to consume more than the recommended daily allowance, which is 25mg. Medicinal mushrooms - like Reishi and Shiitake chaga: Mushrooms contain powerful compounds that enhance and balance your body's ability to fight disease and stay healthy. These fancy fungi are jam-packed with healing antioxidants and anti-inflammatory components that destroy infections, slow down aging, and regenerate nerve cells.
As always there's quite a bit of conflicting information out there about how to break a fast. One thing everyone agrees on is that the fast needs to broken slowly and gently. You also need several days to go back to eating normally. For example, if you do a 7 day fast, you need about 3 days of refeeding. On a 10 day fast, you'll need 4-5 days and so on. How you break the fast will make or break the whole experience. If you go right back to your old way of eating, you can easily negate all the benefits of your fast. One school of thought insists on breaking the fast with fruit, more specifically watermelon and then lots of veggies and more fruit. Since my goal is to remain in ketosis, I will be taking a different approach. I will be eating protein, fat and some low-carb veggies, bone broth and lots of water. I would also recommend abstaining from alcohol for at least a few days so you're not overburdening your liver. Listen to your body. Don't force the food if yo...
Comments
Post a Comment