immunity

How to boost your immune system

How do you improve the immune system? Overall, your immune system does an excellent job of protecting you from pathogenic microorganisms. But sometimes it fails: bacteria successfully invade and make you sick. Can you intervene in this process and strengthen your immune system? What if you improve your diet? Taking certain vitamin or herbal preparations? Make other lifestyle changes in order to produce a near-perfect immune response?

What can you do to boost your immune system?

The idea of boosting immunity is tempting, but it turns out that the ability to do so is difficult to achieve for several reasons. This is the immune system-a system, not a single entity. To play a good role, you need balance and harmony. Researchers still do not understand much about the complexity and interconnection of immune responses. Currently, there is no scientifically proven direct link between lifestyle and enhanced immune function. But this does not mean that the impact of lifestyle on the immune system will not arouse people's interest, nor should it be studied.

Researchers are exploring the effects of diet, exercise, age, psychological stress, and other factors on animal and human immune responses. At the same time, general healthy lifestyle strategies are a good way to start taking advantage of the immune system.

Healthy ways to strengthen your immune system

Your first line of defense is to choose a healthy lifestyle. Following the general good health guidelines is the only best step for you to naturally keep your immune system strong and healthy. When protected from the environment and supported by the following healthy living strategies, every part of the body (including the immune system) can function better:

Don't smoke
eat more fruits and vegetables.
Exercise regularly. Maintain a healthy weight.
If you drink, please drink in moderation.
Get enough sleep.
Take measures to avoid infections,
such as washing hands frequently and cooking meat thoroughly.
Minimize stress.

Increase immunity the healthy way

Many products on the shelves claim to enhance or support immunity. However, the concept of enhancing immunity does not actually make much sense in science. In fact, increasing the number of cells (immune cells or other cells) in the body is not necessarily a good thing. For example, athletes participating in a "blood stimulant test" (pumping blood into their system to increase the number of blood cells and enhance their performance) are at risk of stroke.

Cells that try to strengthen the immune system are particularly complex because there are many different types of cells in the immune system that respond to multiple microorganisms in many ways. Which cells should you add and how much? So far, scientists do not know the answer. As we all know, the body is constantly producing immune cells. Of course, it produces more lymphocytes than it might use. Excess cells clear themselves through a natural cell death process called apoptosis-some before seeing any effect, some after winning the battle. No one knows how many cells the immune system needs to reach the optimal level.

Immune system and age

As we age, our immune response capacity will decrease, leading to more infections and more cancers. As life expectancy in developed countries increases, the incidence of age-related diseases also increases. Although some people can age healthily, many studies have concluded that older people are more likely to be infected with infectious diseases than young people, and more importantly, they are more likely to die from infectious diseases. Respiratory tract infections, influenza, COVID-19 virus, and especially pneumonia are the main causes of death for people over 65 years old worldwide.

No one knows why this happened, but some scientists have observed that this increased risk is associated with a decrease in T cells, which may be due to thymus atrophy and the generation of fewer T cells to fight infections with age. Whether the decline in thymus function explains the decline in T cells or whether other changes are at work is unclear. Others are interested in whether the bone marrow becomes less efficient in producing stem cells that produce immune system cells.

Older people's response to vaccines has shown a reduced immune response to infection. For example, studies of flu vaccines have shown that compared to healthy children over 65 years old (over 2 years old), the vaccine is less effective for people over 65 years old. However, despite the decline in efficacy, vaccination against influenza and Streptococcus pneumoniae has greatly reduced the disease and mortality of the elderly compared to unvaccinated.

There seems to be a connection between nutrition and the immunity of the elderly. Even in rich countries, forms of malnutrition are common and are called "micronutrient malnutrition." Malnutrition of micronutrients can cause the elderly to lack certain essential vitamins and trace minerals obtained or supplemented from the diet. Older people tend to eat less and have fewer dietary choices. An important question is whether dietary supplements can help the elderly maintain a healthier immune system. The elderly should discuss this issue with their doctor.

Diet and your immune system

Like any combat power, the immune system army is also advancing on its stomach. Healthy immune system fighters need good regular nutrition. Scientists have long recognized that people living in poverty and malnourished are more likely to contract infectious diseases. However, whether the impact of malnutrition on the immune system has led to an increase in the incidence of disease is uncertain. There are relatively few studies on the effects of nutrition on the human immune system.

There is some evidence that various micronutrient deficiencies (for example, zinc, selenium, iron, copper, folic acid, and vitamin A, B6, C, and E deficiencies) can alter the animal's immune response, as measured in test tubes. However, the impact of these immune system changes on animal health is unclear, and the impact of similar defects on human immune response remains to be evaluated.

So what can you do? If you suspect that your diet does not meet all your micronutrient needs (for example, you may not like vegetables), then taking multivitamin and mineral supplements every day may bring other health benefits and may not have any beneficial effects on the immune system . Do not take large amounts of vitamins in a single dose. More is not necessarily better.

Improve immunity with herbs and supplements?

Walking into a store, you will find several bottles of pills and herbal preparations that claim to "support immunity" or otherwise enhance the health of the immune system. Although some preparations have been found to alter certain components of immune function, so far, there is no evidence that they can actually enhance immunity, allowing you to be better protected from infections and diseases. So far, it is a very complicated question to prove whether herbs (or any substance) can enhance immunity. For example, scientists do not know whether an herb that appears to increase antibody levels in the blood is actually beneficial to overall immunity.