5 Tricks to Prime Your Immune System
What are some basic things that you can do to prime your immune system? The things that anyone can do at anytime?
Step 1: Get Enough Sleep
First and foremost, get sleep! Nothing will compromise your immune system more than lack of sleep! I know right now so many things are keeping petiole up at night. You’re worried about your job! You’re worried about money! You’re worried how you’re going to survive another day of homeschooling your kids!! When you sleep, you produce substances called cytokines that actually help you fight off infections! You also DETOX during sleep!! It’s the time that the garbage men come and clean up! Think about it. Poor sleep means you are more prone to getting sick AND you can’t clear all of the built up toxins that your body needs to get rid of to start anew the next day!
Step 2: Get Lots of Rest
The next important step is to learn to manage stress or become more resilient to stress. I’ve come to realize that I get a ton of eye rolls when I mention decreasing stress. So now I recommend learning how to manage it or adding to your stress resiliency! Simply asking for help when you’re feeling overwhelmed or getting a good cry in might be all you need! But most need more ongoing management of stress! This is where meditation, exercise and deep breathing come in! You’d be surprised what 5 minutes of guided meditation can do for you on a consistent basis! Or 30 minutes of getting a good sweat on! Or just try 10 deep belly breaths three times a day! This literally stimulates your vagus nerve which slows your heart rate and causes you to relax!
Step 3: Stay Hydrated
Promoting natural detoxing helps keep your immune system happy and healthy! This includes staying hydrated throughout the day to make sure you’re peeing, which clears toxins by way of the kidneys! Hydrating and taking in adequate fiber will also assure that you keep your bowels functioning well and prevents constipation! Bowel movements are another potent mode of detoxification! And going once every 3-5 days is not good! Things are building up that need to come out! And sweating is an excellent way to remove toxins through your skin so get a good sweat sesh in or hop in an infrared sauna for 15-20 minutes!
Step 4: Feed Your Body
And detoxing on the cellular level is important as well but not talked about as often! We can get to this level by eating specific foods (and avoiding others) and targeted supplementation! In regards to food, you want to focus on foods that are going to help with inflammation and promote cellular detoxification by eating healthy fats and oils such as coconut oil, olive oil and coconut oil, organic, pasture raised and grass fed meats as well as avoiding such foods as factory farmed meats, industrial seed oils and packaged/processed foods high in added sugars!
We’ll target some supplementation recommendations in the next blog post! Stay tuned!
In the meantime, make sure you join my Happy, Healthy & Holistic Facebook group!