Strengthen Your Immune System

Strengthen Your Immune System 

The first line of defense is choosing a healthy lifestyle. The following general health guidelines are the single best step in maintaining the natural functioning of the immune system. All parts of your body, including the immune system, work better when you are protected from environmental attacks, and these are supported by healthy lifestyle strategies:

• Don't smoke.
• Eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables.
• Exercise regularly.
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• If you drink alcohol, drink only in moderation.
• Get adequate sleep.
• Take steps to avoid infection, such as washing your hands frequently and cooking meats thoroughly.
• Try to minimize stress.
• Keep current with all recommended vaccines. Vaccines prime your immune system to fight off infections before they take hold in your body.

Increase Immunity the Healthy Way

    Many products on store shelves claim to strengthen or support immunity. But the idea of ​​raising immunity doesn't make much scientific sense. In fact, it is not necessarily a good thing to increase the number of cells in the body - immune cells or otherwise. For example, athletes who engage in "bleeding" - pumping blood into their systems to increase blood cell counts and improve performance - are at risk for stroke. Enlargement of immune system cells is particularly complex because there are many types of cells in the immune system that respond in many different ways to different microbes. Which cells are worth increasing and how many? Scientists do not yet know the answer. It is known that the body is constantly producing immune cells. In fact, it produces far more lymphocytes than it can use. The extra cells remove themselves through a natural process of cell death called apoptosis - some before they see any action, others after they win the battle. No one knows how many cells the immune system has or what is the best combination of cells to function at optimal levels.

Immune System and Age

As we age, our immune response decreases, which in turn leads to more disease and more cancer. As life expectancy has increased in developed countries, so have age-related conditions. Although some grow up healthy, many studies conclude that older people are more likely to catch infectious diseases than younger ones and, more importantly, more likely to die from them. Respiratory diseases, including influenza, the COVID-19 virus, and especially pneumonia, are the leading causes of death among people over 65 years of age worldwide. No one knows for sure why this happens, but some scientists claim that this increased risk is related to a decrease in T cells, probably from the atrophied thymus. It is not entirely clear whether this decrease in thyroid function explains the decline in T cells or whether other changes play a role. Others are interested in whether the bone marrow is so effective at extracting stem cells that cause cells in the immune system.

A reduction in immune response to infections has been demonstrated by older people's response to vaccines. For example, studies of influenza vaccines have shown that for people over age 65, the vaccine is less effective compared to healthy children (over age 2). But despite the reduction in efficacy, vaccinations for influenza and S. pneumoniae have significantly lowered the rates of sickness and death in older people when compared with no vaccination.

There appears to be a connection between nutrition and immunity in the elderly. A form of malnutrition that is surprisingly common even in affluent countries is known as "micronutrient malnutrition." Micronutrient malnutrition, in which a person is deficient in some essential vitamins and trace minerals that are obtained from or supplemented by diet, can happen in the elderly. Older people tend to eat less and often have less variety in their diets. One important question is whether dietary supplements may help older people maintain a healthier immune system. Older people should discuss this question with their doctor.

Diet and Your Immune System

Like any fight, the immune system does it in the womb. The immune system needs good food, regular nutrition. Researchers have long found that poor and malnourished people can get sick. For example, scientists do not know that certain special foods, such as cooked food or soft drinks, can have a negative effect on performance. Weak work. There is still research on the effects of good nutrition on the human body. There are some indications that many micronutrient deficiencies - for example, lack of zinc, selenium, iron, copper, folic acid, and vitamins A, B6, C, and E - alter the immune system. . However, the effect of the immune system on the health of the animals is not pure, and the effect of the defect is on human immunity. The disease has not yet been diagnosed. So, what do you do? If you feel that your diet does not provide you with all your physical needs - perhaps, for example, you are not interested in vegetables - take plenty of vitamins daily and add foods that can have other health benefits, rather than beneficial effects and the immune system. Getting mega doses of vitamins alone does not happen. Many things should not be good.

Stress and Immune Function

Modern medicine is valued for the relationship between soul and body. The effects of depression are associated with many ailments, including abdominal pain, hives, and even heart disease. Despite the problems, scientists have been studying the relationship between depression and the immune system. On the one hand, depression is difficult to define. What seems like a difficult situation for one person is not for another. When people face situations that they find stressful, it is difficult to measure how much stress, and it is difficult for a scientist to know if human stressors are affected. The scientist can only measure certain things that affect stress, such as heart rate per minute, but this measure can also affect other factors. Most scientists studying the relationship of stress and immune function, however, do not study a sudden, short-lived stressor; rather, they try to study more constant and frequent stressors known as chronic stress, such as that caused by relationships with family, friends, and co-workers, or sustained challenges to perform well at one's work. Some scientists are investigating whether ongoing stress takes a toll on the immune system.

But it's hard to do what scientists call "control experiments" in humans. In controlled experiments, the scientist can make changes, such as the cost of a particular drug, and then measure the effect of the change on other measurable outcomes, such as vaccines formed by certain types of drugs. prevent mental illness from poisoning. In living animals, and especially humans, this type of control is simple because nothing else happens to the animal or person during the measurement. Despite past difficulties in measuring the relationship between stress and immunity, scientists have succeeded.