Over time, we have caused tremendous harm to our immune system. Day in and day out, we have potentially risked our lives by being so casual with our health choices. But still, is it possible to leverage some of this burden and thus make our immune system stronger? What if we incorporate some healthy habits into our daily regime? What if we improvise on our diet? Take certain additional vitamin supplements perhaps? Make other lifestyle changes in the hope of achieving a near-perfect immune system?

What exactly is the Immune System?

The immune system in layman language can be considered as a protective cover of the human health system. We are surrounded by millions of pathogens (disease causing germs) that have the ability to enter into the body and cause damage to it. Here comes in the importance of the immune system, the body s natural shield against these pathogens.

How can you boost your Immunity?

You definitely cannot evade all the pathogens and get a top-notch, impeccable immune system, but you can at least try and listen to what your body has to say, and take steps accordingly.

The first and foremost protective measure can be to follow certain general good-health guidelines.

Do not smoke. There can be no compromise on this issue. Smoking or consuming tobacco in any form brings about a host of health complications; the most pronounced of them all is probably cancer. Smoking, in more ways than one, can spell real trouble for your immune system. So better cut down on your puffs or gear up to face the various medical banes of smoking.

Eat a diet which is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low in saturated fat. Some examples may include citrus fruits, green leafy vegetables such as spinach or lettuce, yoghurt, almonds, lean meat. Sipping on green tea thrice a day is a wise choice in this regard. These measures not only strengthen the immune system but also enhance the Immune System.

Drink plenty of water. Water keeps the body hydrated, the ultimate prerequisite for a strong immune system. It helps to flush out all the toxins and ensures that the cells get the optimum levels of oxygen. Drinking a glass of lukewarm water mixed with honey and lemon on an empty stomach after getting up in the morning can prove to be one of the best health choices that you can make for your body.

If you drink alcohol, drink only in moderation. Excessive alcohol consumption causes dehydration and it can deprive your body of the valuable immunity boosting nutrients. It also impairs the body s ability to fight off germs and infections.

Get adequate sleep. One reason behind stressing on the need to get adequate sleep is because it s so closely linked to the immune system. While you sleep, the body secretes certain hormones and substances which help better fight infections and diseases. This makes these hormones so vital and indispensable at the same time. So now you know what wonders can those 8 hours of sleep do to you.

Exercise Regularly. If you're looking for a safe and smart way to boost your immunity, regular exercise is the answer to it. But we are not talking about being an ardent, hard-core gym-junkie; rather exercising in moderate amounts would suffice. Cardiovascular exercises such as walking or swimming, performed 30-45 minutes a day, can prove to be very beneficial.

Including good hygiene habits in your daily routine, such as washing your hands properly, bathing and brushing your teeth daily, etc. can be useful as well. Good sanitary habits can be the most basic way to ward off infections at the germination stage. Keep a hand sanitizer with you all the time.

7 Healthy Habits That Keep Your Immune System Strong

An autoimmune disease often develops when your immune system, which guards your body against any kind of illness, starts attacking your own body. It decides that your healthy cells are foreign and attacks the healthy cells. Depending upon the type of illness, an autoimmune disease can influence one or various types of body tissue. It can bring about unusual organ development and changes in organ functioning.


A good diet is essential and a basic requirement so that it does not trigger aggravation in the digestion systems and further weaken your intestines. The diet should be taken in small portions to avoid bloating in the stomach. One should eat in small portions after every two to three hours. Some of the dietary measures for an autoimmune disease are as follows-


Stay away from gluten: In case you have an autoimmune disease, you generally require a lab test to know that you need to stay away from gluten. This protein, which is found in wheat, spelt, rye and grain, is connected to numerous immune system conditions.
Locate your reactive foods and discontinue them: Even grains that do not contain gluten like corn and rice can cause reactions in the immune system in a few people. Atomic mimicry happens when your body confuses your own body tissue for the similar kind of proteins found in a few foods. See whether you are having any food that you might be allergic to.
Include green tea and turmeric into your daily diet: They dampen the autoimmune reaction in many parts of the body especially the brain.
Stay away from refined table salt: Table salt has been shown to irritate and aggravate some of the autoimmune conditions.
Consume egg whites: They have anti-bacterial components and have the property to bind some of the nutrients. A few people will argue that they're fine when cooked. However, if you choose to just have the yolks, you can do so without any worry.
Take a healthy meat diet: Some meats like chicken, fish, sheep and turkey are good for the health. Swordfish and lord mackerel are high in mercury. Select infection free chicken, turkey, and sheep.
Consume low Glycemic Organic Fruits: Consume fruits including apples, apricots, avocados, berries, cherries, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, peaches, pears, plums for healthy glucose absorption.
Coconut intake: Coconut margarine, coconut cream, coconut milk, coconut oil, unsweetened coconut pieces, unsweetened coconut yogurt are great for health.
Herbs and Spices: Spices like basil, dark pepper, cilantro, coriander, cumin, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, ocean salt and thyme should be used.
Fermented food: Kimchi, cured ginger, aged cucumbers, coconut yogurt, kombucha, water kefir, and so forth need to be consumed for the vitamins and nutrients they contain.

Autoimmune Diseases - 10 Diet Facts You Must Know

If you are looking for an effective immunity boost in your body, you should choose Ayurveda and undertake ayurvedic procedures and remedies. Good health, according to Ayurveda, involves balancing of your doshas such as vata, pitta and kapha and making sure that your agni or digestive system is working smoothly. There are several Ayurvedic ways using which you will be able to boost your body s immune system and its capability.

They are as follows:

Keep your immune system in proper balance by eating proper food: A weakened immune system makes you prone to all sorts of illnesses and diseases. In case the immune system becomes overactive, it targets your body s own tissues, confusing them for foreign invaders and attacks them. Your diet is very important for balancing this fighting response within your body. If your body gets the right nutrients and eliminates toxins effectively, the immune system gets strengthened. You should consume leafy vegetables, whole grain, nuts, legumes and highly pigmented food.

Detox: According to Ayurveda, ama is a primary factor, which leads to the development of diseases. Ama is the name of stored toxins in Sanskrit language and if your body has unhealthy ama, an environment is created where invaders thrive. Ama may occur due to both mental and physical indigestion. Ama and indigestion prevent essential nutrients from reaching your tissues, which weaken your immune function. You need to detoxify your body at regular intervals if you have unhealthy eating habits or get exposed to harmful environmental toxins.

Keep your agni strong: The digestive system or agni is very important for your health and it highly influences your immunity and immune system capability. The ability of digestion, assimilation and absorption of nutrients by the body also determines your immune strength. If your agni gets impaired because of an imbalance within the tridosha, your metabolism is affected, which weakens the immune system and body s natural resistance. Eating food items which are harmful for the digestive system leads to excess ama formation. A toxic environment is created in the body. This factor interferes with the natural intelligence of every cell which is encoded with the will of living healthy and working as a whole, together. Ayurveda aims at restoring this intelligence factor. You can boost your agni by consuming hot water and ginger tea regularly.

Yoga and meditations are important for boosting immunity, according to Ayurvedic traditions. Yoga and meditation help in reducing stress and positively affect your immune system.

Immunity - How Ayurveda Can Help You Restore it?

Ayurveda is a holistic method of treatment which focuses on treating the cause of the disease rather than the symptoms. There are ayurvedic remedies, which boost the immune system that keeps the body healthy. A well-functioning immune system is essential for your body to be in optimal health.

The various ayurvedic tips that help in boosting your immune system:
1. Use spices in your food: various spices such as cumin not only add flavor, but also have certain properties which help in boosting immune system. They aid in the digestive process and allow the nutrients in the food to be absorbed more readily.
2. Choose wisely: you must eat natural foods as much as possible for a healthy immune system. Eating processed foods creates various problems in the body which reduces your immune strength. Eating natural foods also provide your body with the necessary nutrients and vitamins, which are beneficial for the body.
3. Limit alcohol intake: you should restrict alcohol consumption as it impairs the functioning of white blood cells in the body. It also impairs the oxygen delivery mechanism of the body.
4. Exercise on a regular basis: you should exercise on a regular basis to keep your body healthy. Exercises such as running improves your cardiovascular endurance and increases stamina levels in the body.
5. Sleep: you should get 6 to 8 hours of sleep to help your body recover and regenerate. Lack of sleep can impair the functioning of the immune system and makes you prone to various disorders.
6. Herbs: various herbs such as ginger, garlic and amla help to boost your immune system as they contain various medicinal properties. They increase the white blood cells in the body which enhance the immune system.
7. Meditation: meditation has been linked with lower stress levels; implying that it has a beneficial effect on your body.
8. Pranayama: you should practice pranayama as it helps in strengthening the body and calming the mind. It reduces stress in the body thus enhancing your overall well-being.




Health & Immune Development With Ayurveda

Catching a cold once in a while is nothing to worry about, but needing to take sick leave every few weeks is a sign of low immunity. Immunity can be defined as our ability to fight infections. By eating right and making a few lifestyle changes, you can easily strengthen your immune system and lower your risk of catching infections. On that note, here are 10 ways to strengthen your immune system.

Eat a balanced meal: Along with fruits and vegetables, your body also requires carbohydrates and proteins. Eating a balanced diet helps keep your blood sugar levels stable and allows your body to prioritize building your immune system over generating energy to perform normal tasks.
Drink plenty of water: When you re ill, fluids help transport nutrients to the infected area and flush out toxins from the same. Hence, it is important to stay hydrated in order to recover faster from an illness and to build your immune system.
Probiotics: 80% of your immune system is located in the gut. Probiotics help the body produce more healthy gut bacteria. Thus, probiotics directly boost the immune system.
A good night s sleep: Ideally, a person should get 8 to 10 hours of sleep on a daily basis. While we are asleep, the body produces cytokines ad antibodies that are vital to a strong immune system. Depriving the body of this sleep can thus make us more susceptible to infections.
Get some sun: While we put a lot of effort into protecting ourselves from the harmful UV rays of the sun, sunlight is also a rich source of vitamin D. Vitamin D helps protect us from a number of serious illnesses. Apart from sunlight we can also get vitamin D by adding cod liver oil, egg yolks and fatty fish to our diet.
Quit sugar: Sugar is an immunosuppressant and hence cutting out added sugar from your diet can have a drastic effect on your immunity. Added sugar refers only to refined sugar in cubed, crystal or powdered form and not the natural sweetners in fruits.
Exercise: Regular exercise improves blood circulation and boosts the production of antibodies. A healthy circulatory system combined with antibodies enables your body to fight infections in any part of your body.
Avoid tobacco and alcohol: Alcohol impairs the immune system and tobacco smoke weakens the body s basic immune system. This holds true for both first hand and second hand smoke.
Reduce stress: Stress increases the production of a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol suppresses the immune system and thus makes us more susceptible to illnesses.
Prevent germs from spreading: Lastly, make simple things like washing your hands before eating and after coming home or using the toilet a habit. This prevents germs from spreading and entering our bodies.

10 Ways You Can Strengthen Your Immune System

Handling an Auto Immune Disease

What are Autoimmune Disorders?
It is a disorder of the immune system where the immune system can get ‘hyperactive’ or on the other end of the spectrum can become exceptional slow in its response to germs and bacterium, leaving the individual vulnerable to a host of infections and diseases.
When in ‘Hyper mode’ the body’s immune system starts producing antibodies (White Blood Cells) attacking and damaging the body’s own tissues (Red Blood Cells) beyond repair. Treatment of the Auto-Immune diseases generally focuses on reducing the activity levels of the immune system so as to let the Red Blood Cells multiply and heal the body to an extent.
Not all Auto Immune diseases are life threatening or terminal in nature. Some are even classified as “commonly occurring” disorders in the larger population. Examples of these would be –
1) Psoriasis – A Skin disorder where overactive immune system blood cells called T-cells collect in the skin. The immune system activity stimulates skin cells to replicate rapidly, producing layers of silvery scaly plaques on the skin. These often look like ‘Dandruff’ and can be seen all over the individual’s body, accompanied by severe itching and skin irritability. Psoriasis is often triggered due to stress and hormonal imbalances along with other environmental factors such as poor hygiene, inadequate diet, lack of sleep etc. Along with oral medication, lifestyle changes such as reducing stress at work or home, making sure one gets at least 8 hours of restful sleep per night and regular head and body massages are known to help reduce the severity of the problem to a great extent.

2) Rheumatoid Arthritis – The hyper immune system produces antibodies that attach themselves to the joint linings and then start to eat away at the cartilage and tissues causing swelling or inflammation and a sharp stabbing continuous pain. Oral medication along with gentle cardio (slow walking) and stretching exercise routines such as Yoga, Tai Chi and Pilates are known to have countered the ill-effects of this movement restricting disorder, to a large extent.


3) Aggravated Thyroid – An aggravated thyroid is a result of the excessive antibodies produced by an overactive immune system which attack the thyroid gland and slowly destroy the cells that produce the all-important thyroid hormone. Prolonged negligence or when left undetected for long, it often leads to Grave’s Disease (linked to hyperthyroidism) or Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis (linked to hypothyroidism.) The former can lead to weight-loss, bulging eyes, rapid heart-rate, and chronic fatigue while the later often causes sudden weight gain, depressed state of mind, dry skin and severe constipation.  A good way to avoid diseases of the thyroid would be to maintain a healthy active lifestyle and a stable healthy body weight. It is also recommended that one goes in for regular preventive health check-ups for early detection of any thyroid related disorders.

A little can go a long way in limiting ill effects of autoimmune disorders.


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