More than 5.4 million people around the world have Covid-19. Despite the calls of WHO to limit social contact and take precautions, people are still spreading the virus.
Even though this is one of the most aggressive viruses to ever appear among humans, the immune system can still battle against it and build antibodies to prevent future infections.
Aside from taking precautions like wearing a mask in public and washing hands often, everyone should work more on improving their immune system. According to the immune system facts, certain factors can lower the strength of the system — lack of sleep, having no physical activity, and stress can all affect its work.
During the pandemic, everyone had to change their way of life. Some found it difficult to adjust to these changes. Below are a few tips that will help you make your immune system stronger during the pandemic.
Get More Sleep
Sleep is essential for the regeneration of the entire body. Aside from being a necessary part of our daily routine, it is also valuable for more processes inside the body, including strengthening immunity.
The simplest way to explain how the immune system works is to imagine white blood cells detecting and eliminating intruders within our bodies. This process is more complex, though. The T-cells, which are one of the three types of immune cells called lymphocytes, can activate integrins, which are a sticky-like protein that manages to connect with an infected cell and kill it.
Sleep helps this process. While sleeping, the T-cells have a higher level of integrins. In other words, sleep helps the body defend better and raise overall immunity. So get more sleep during the pandemic. If you’re quarantined and work from home, this might be a great time to get a good night’s sleep.
Drink Enough Water
Water is beneficial for many processes inside the body, and boosting immunity is one of them. When drinking water, we help the entire body’s metabolism function better, which, among other things, results in getting the toxins out of our body. This process is important for overall human immunity.
Toxins can consist of different things that the body does not need. They are flushed through the skin or by the urinary system. With it, the level of toxins in the body is getting lower. Water is preventing the creation of toxin build-up, which, in return, helps the immune system work better.
Avoiding Stress and Anxiety
We’re all affected by people and situations in our lives that make us feel anxious. During the pandemic, additionally, a lot of people are hooked up to the news channels, taking in every new bit of information that will be provided by the institutions.
The smartest thing a person should do at these times is to completely shut down the mass media because it only creates more stress. Do something that makes you relaxed. Practice a hobby, do some yoga, or read a book. Do something that will prevent stress build-up.
These ideas are not just good for keeping a healthy mind and feeling better during the national quarantine, but it’s also a great way to help the immune system be stronger.
The three main stress hormones are cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine. They all affect the immune system, but cortisol, also known as the stress hormone itself, suppresses the immune system’s work if the body continuously has a high level of it.
Consume Healthy Food and Lots of Vitamins
We’re used to eating unhealthy food. We’re aware that this is not good for us, but we do it anyway. The pandemic is the best time to start changing your habits and start practicing a much healthier diet.
Try to get more vegetables and fruits because they are the ones that have the most vitamins crucial for developing a strong immune system. Some of the most important vitamins for helping it are vitamin C and vitamin D. They are both largely found in almost all fruits and vegetables.
What these vitamins do is help different aspects of the immune system’s work. Vitamin D is involved in many different immune-related genes, while vitamin C is known to help create new antibodies.
The antibodies are one of the essential factors in the fight against the Covid-19 virus. Being very aggressive, it keeps attacking new cells, and our body needs constant production of new antibodies that will continue the battle against the intruder. Lack of vitamin C will slow down this production and let the disease take over.
Conclusion
It’s important to know that Covid-19 is no different by its effect on humans than any other virus known to us. Our immune system is capable of fighting against it. A problem appears if the person infected is not in the perfect health condition. That’s when the virus takes over and easily defends against the immune system.
This is why elders and people with chronic illnesses have the highest risk of getting infected and losing the battle against Covid-19. People who live a healthy life and have a strong immunity will most likely not get the virus, or they will recover fast after getting it.
