How to boost your immune system | Sunday Observer

How to boost your immune system

20 September, 2020

How can you improve your immune system?

On the whole, your immune system does a remarkable job of defending you against disease-causing microorganisms. But sometimes it fails: A germ invades successfully and makes you sick. Is it possible to intervene in this process and boost your immune system? What if you improve your diet? Take certain vitamins or herbal preparations? Make other lifestyle changes in the hope of producing a near-perfect immune response? What can you do to boost your immune system?

The idea of boosting your immunity is enticing, but the ability to do so has proved elusive for several reasons. The immune system is precisely a system, not a single entity. To function well, it requires balance and harmony. There is still much that researchers don’t know about the intricacies and interconnectedness of the immune response. At present, there are no scientifically proven direct links between lifestyle and enhanced immune function. But that doesn’t mean the effects of lifestyle on the immune system aren’t intriguing and shouldn’t be studied. Researchers are exploring the effects of diet, exercise, age, psychological stress, and other factors on the immune response, both in animals and in humans. Healthy ways to strengthen your immune system

Your first line of defence is to choose a healthy lifestyle. Following general good-health guidelines is the best step you can take toward naturally keeping your immune system strong and healthy. Every part of your body, including your immune system, functions better when protected from environmental assaults and bolstered by healthy-living such as:

* Don’t smoke.

* Eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables

* Exercise regularly

* Maintain a healthy weight

* Take alcohol in moderation

* Get adequate sleep

* Take steps to avoid infection, such as washing hands frequently and cooking meats thoroughly

* Try to minimise stress Increase immunity the healthy way

Many products on store shelves claim to boost or support immunity. But the concept of boosting immunity actually makes little sense scientifically. In fact, boosting the number of cells in your body — immune cells or others — is not necessarily a good thing. For example, athletes who engage in ‘blood doping’ — pumping blood into their systems to boost their number of blood cells and enhance their performance — run the risk of stroke.

Attempting to boost the cells of your immune system is especially complicated because there are different kinds of cells in the immune system that respond to different microbes in many ways.

Which cells should you boost, and to what number? So far, scientists do not know the answer. What is known is that the body is continually generating immune cells. Certainly, it produces many more lymphocytes than it can possibly use.

The extra cells remove themselves through a natural process of cell death called apoptosis — some before they see any action, some after the battle is won. No one knows how many cells or what the best mix of cells the immune system needs to function at its optimum level. Immune system and age

As we age, our immune response capability becomes reduced, which in turn contributes to more infections. As life expectancy in developed countries has increased, so too has the incidence of age-related conditions.

While some people age healthily, the conclusion of many studies is that, compared with the young, the elderly are more likely to contract infectious diseases and, more likely to die from them. Respiratory infections, influenza, the Covid-19 virus and particularly pneumonia are a leading cause of death in people over 65 worldwide. No one knows for sure why this happens, but some scientists observe that this increased risk correlates with a decrease in T cells, possibly from the thymus atrophying with age and producing fewer T cells to fight off infection.

Whether this decrease in thymus function explains the drop in T cells or whether other changes play a role is not fully understood.

-Internet

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