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Triumph During Every Cold, Flu, RSV, And COVID Season With Not Even a Scrape With These Tips To Bolster Your Immune System. And Medical Weight Loss In Littleton, CO, Can Boost Defenses!
Like clockwork, every fall, pesky viruses circulate, with everyone heading indoors for entertainment. Every time you turn around, somebody is telling you they have a cold or flu.
And you’ve probably gotten those texts — complete with a picture of a positive test stick — that COVID has invaded a friend or family member’s household, and you were exposed.
While you can surrender to the illnesses and let them run their course, hoping for no complications, boosting your immune system is your defense to remain in the game all season, never missing a beat.
However, did you know that excess weight can weaken your immune system? Through medical weight loss in Littleton, CO, you can enhance your body’s natural defenses and stay healthier year-round.
Build up the best defense against microbes by getting your immune system in tip-top shape.
Tips To Boost Your Immune System
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Get Enough Sleep
Sleep — a dear friend you’re always yearning for more of, right? You try to go to bed at a decent time, but life doesn’t always allow that. And that 6:00 a.m. alarm seems to hit earlier than expected every morning.
No matter your schedule, make sleep a priority. That might mean going to bed an hour earlier or altering your routine so you slumber a little longer.
The average adult needs at least seven hours of sleep each night for their body to perform optimally. Everything from your brain function to your energy levels to your cardiovascular health relies on you getting that shut-eye. It’s the time for your body to regenerate, including your muscles.
Those aren’t the only reasons, either. One that doesn’t get enough attention is your immune system. Several studies, including this one, point to a lack of sleep hindering your body’s ability to fight off sickness.
But why?
When you go into a deep, non-REM sleep especially, your body releases cytokines, a type of protein that helps ward off infection.
You’ve probably been told since childhood to get rest — and plenty of it — when you’re sick. Besides your body releasing that protein then, sleep frees up the necessary energy, so your immune function is at its peak because your metabolism is lower.
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Get Outside
Besides sleep, the great outdoors is another key to avoiding illness. For one, in the spring and summer, you’re not in a confined space where airborne pathogens are flying, and you’re a sitting duck. Plus, the fresh air clears your lungs.
But the real benefit of getting outside is what it does for your nutrient intake, vitamin D specifically. Your skin converts sunlight to vitamin D, which then goes through a process involving your kidneys and liver — no reason to go into details.
Because the sun isn’t out as much, nor are most people, vitamin D levels drop in winter. In fact, science can back that. Studies show a relationship between respiratory illness and low vitamin D levels. Research conducted on children revealed a connection between those who go outside less and higher rates of respiratory infections.
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Eat More Leafy Greens
Oranges get all the credit for protecting you from infection with their vitamin C, but that’s not the only produce — or even the best option — that elevates your defenses. Romaine lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, and other veggies in this category are the true legends.
While they promote bone health and protect your heart, among other advantages, they play a role in methylation — a process needed to regulate your immune system. Without it, you’re vulnerable to autoimmune or immunodeficiency disorders.
On a side note, folate and B vitamins are the figures behind the curtain but are the real heavy hitters for methylation, making all the following champions in this arena as well:
- Garlic
- Onions
- Beets
- Avocado
- Asparagus
- Legumes
Supplements can help, too, if you’re worried you aren’t getting enough of these nutrients.
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Getting Exercise
Your cardiovascular system reaps the rewards of exercise as well as various other areas of your body, even your immune system. As physical activity ramps up your heart rate, blood flow carries white blood cells throughout your body more rapidly to fight invaders.
Exercise also elevates your body temperature as a fever does, which works to eliminate those intruders. Going back to the first point, physical exertion improves sleep, making it a triple threat against any germs.
So you know, the exercise intensity matters. Moderate-paced physical activity is best. High-impact physical activity, like marathon running, actually suppresses the immune system because it raises stress hormone levels and puts your body in a hyper-focused state on physical recovery.
For those struggling with weight-related inflammation, medical weight loss programs in Littleton, CO, can provide personalized strategies to make exercise more effective and sustainable.
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Getting to Your Ideal Weight
In addition, your weight is another factor that matters to your defense system. When you have excess fat in the abdominal area, you can develop chronic inflammation throughout the body, potentially minimizing how well your body can protect itself from viruses and bacteria.
Not to mention, being overweight or obese throws your immune cells off balance, so sometimes, your immune system may respond too much or, other times, not enough. You might even have fewer immune cells because of your weight.
Through medical weight loss in Littleton, CO, you’ll align and increase your immune cells, preparing them to go to battle. Inflammation will decrease, letting your immune system do what it’s supposed to do.
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Minimize Your Antibiotic Usage
Even the medicine you take has an impact, specifically antibiotics. While they’re hailed as marvels of modern medicine, they wipe out the healthy bacteria necessary to balance out the bad.
Shockingly, in the U.S. alone, practitioners prescribe antibiotics over 236.4 million times each year, and they are only needed around 70 percent of the time.
What this all boils down to is you need to be selective about your antibiotic usage.
Know Your Immune System — Fact Vs. Fiction
Especially with the Internet and outdated information still being passed down through generations, some of what you *know* about your immune system is false. This is what you should really know about this body system and keeping it strong.
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Mostly Myth: Vitamin C Will Save the Day
Vitamin C might not be as much of the knight in shining armor as you thought it was. While this vitamin supports your immune function to an extent, researchers found that loading up on it once cold symptoms start is an outdated practice. Even taking it every day only helps shorten a cold slightly by about eight percent.
So, while you’re wasting your time taking it once symptoms begin, you should get enough each day for all its other health benefits and its role in immune activity.
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Fact: Zinc Is an Immune-Boosting Hero
Since a 1984 trial found zinc to help with a common cold, other researchers climbed aboard to study this mineral’s immune advantages. Subsequent trials found it had a placebo effect, though.
However, in 2011, the tables turned back in zinc’s favor with a Cochrane review of several studies that indicated it has a small to moderate effect on reducing the duration of cold symptoms.
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Potentially a Fact: Echinacea Helps With a Cold
Echinacea is touted as a natural pain reliever with innate anti-inflammatory properties. As far as its immune system benefits, research is mixed, with some showing it slacked at preventing cold symptoms and others indicating it could strengthen your immune system and minimize the duration of a cold.
While it’s rich in antioxidants and is safe for many, you might not get the cold shielding properties you want from it.
Learn more here: Semaglutide Weight Loss: Could It Be Your Key to Finally Shedding Pounds?
Reach Out for Immune System Support Today
Ageless Expressions supports various aspects of your health, from your sexual prowess to your hormone balance to your confidence and beyond.
But, our medical weight loss in Littleton, CO, does more than you may have thought by improving your safeguard against those microscopic nuisances. And with all the other tips, viruses and bacteria won’t stand a chance!
Our services also include Hormone Replacement Therapy, which can be particularly beneficial if hormonal imbalances are hindering your weight loss efforts.
We revere ourselves as a nearly full-service medical spa, and our clients highly regard our treatments and have plenty to say about their experiences. See our reviews click here.
If you’re ready to boost your immune system and improve your overall health, our medical weight loss program in Littleton, CO, offers customized plans to help you achieve your goals. Contact us today at (720) 864-1272 for a consultation!
We’re located near Smokin Fins, to give you an idea if we’re local for you.
