For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Its main purpose is to protect your body from viruses and bacteria and help you recover after an illness. Consistently taking good care of yourself is the best way to support your overall health and immunity.

Help strengthen your immune system by maintaining a healthy lifestyle with these 11 daily practices! Your immune system is made up of a network of cells, molecules, tissues, and organs working together to protect the body.

Each type of cell plays an important role in identifying, marking, and destroying harmful pathogens that enter or develop in the body.

So how does it work? If the immune system encounters an antigen, it triggers an immune response. An antigen can be a microbe such as a virus, bacteria, toxins, chemicals, or other substances that come from outside the body.

If the body encounters an antigen for the first time, it will store information about the germ and how to fight it. Antibodies are special proteins that lock on to specific antigens. It then signals other parts of the immune system to attack and destroy the harmful pathogens. Once an antibody has been produced, a copy remains in the body so that if the same antigen appears again, it can be dealt with more quickly.

This is how the human body develops immunity. When you start to feel sick, your symptoms are a sign that your body is fighting back against the infection or virus, triggering an immune response. You may not have a lot of control over how your immune system functions, but there are ways to keep from getting sick.

Consider these daily practices when strengthening your immune system! From eating a healthier diet to exercising and getting enough sleep, there is a wide variety of things you can try to best suit your lifestyle.

Focus on incorporating more plants and plant-based foods in your diet. Choose leafy greens kale, collards, spinach or cruciferous vegetables broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower. You can also add vegetables to soups and stews, smoothies, and salads. Sleep is when we repair our cells, especially our brain cells, and when we do most of our digesting and absorbing of nutrients.

Not getting enough sleep can lead to higher levels of stress hormones and it can cause more inflammation in the body. It's recommended that individuals get 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night. To help improve sleep quality, use a cervical pillow to keep the neck and upper spine in a neutral position while sleeping.

This helps reduce stress and strain to these areas of the body. Regular exercise can help you boost your immune system and fight off infections. The recommended time is 30 minutes a day. Exercise helps to increase blood flow, reduce stress and inflammation, and strengthen antibodies.

Need a few suggestions to get started? Find yourself a resistance band and read these articles. Washing your hands is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of germs. Scrub for seconds to reduce the risk of infection. Fill up a water bottle and have it next to you while you work, exercise, travel in your car, etc.

Vitamin D plays an important role in regulating immunity as it triggers an antimicrobial response and acts to protect the body from bacterial and viral agents. When exposed to pathogens, Vitamin D enables you to quickly fight off these invaders before it becomes a full-blown infection.

Some claim drinking apple cider vinegar protects the body against heart disease and helps fight infection. However, there is limited scientific evidence to support these claims. Common dosages range from 1—2 teaspoons to 1—2 tablespoon per day.

Smoking can tear apart sensitive lung tissue, which increases the risk of contracting bronchitis and pneumonia. Stop suppressing the immune system with cigarettes and cigars. Instead, plan home cooked meals with whole foods.

Whole foods have not been processed or refined and are free of additives and other artificial substances. Eating more whole foods and cooking from scratch will reduce your sugar intake.

Consuming too much alcohol can have negative effects on the immune system. Alcohol can also lead to dehydration. It causes your body to remove fluids from your blood through your renal system at a much quicker rate than other liquids.

It can also decrease the number of white blood cells available to fight infection. Lowering your stress levels through meditation, yoga, exercise, and other mindful practices can help keep your immune system functioning properly. Have a hard floor or need more cushioning?

You can practice yoga with a THERABAND exercise mat. You can make several lifestyle and dietary changes to help strengthen your immune system. These include reducing your sugar intake, staying hydrated, working out regularly, getting adequate sleep, managing your stress levels, and more.

What is known, is that the body is continually generating immune cells. The extra cells naturally remove themselves through the process of cell death called apoptosis — some before they see any action, others after the battle is won.

There is no definitive answer on how many cells or what the best mix of cells in the immune system is in order to function at optimal level. One study of immune response in healthy twins between the ages of 8—82, determined that while genetics play a role, the strength of our immune system is mainly determined by noninheritable factors.

Researchers continue to explore the effects of these lifestyle factors on the immune response. Healthy living strategies are always recommended as your first line of defense in giving your immune system the upper hand in the fight against invading germs. Good nutrition is a key factor to help maintain a healthy immune system.

Try to eat protein rich foods from lean animal and plant sources, colorful fruits and vegetables that provide necessary antioxidants, and foods that contain probiotics and are high in fiber.

Eat well and stay healthy! The best any of us can do is try and take care of ourselves and give our immune system its best fighting chance of doing its job. Skip to content. Boosting your immune system — is it even possible? It has longer lasting effects as well. Laughter has the ability to reduce your stress levels and as a result can potentially help you fight off illness.

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And older adults may find their immune system cannot fight disease as well as it did when they were young. Scientists are studying direct connections between lifestyle choices and strong immune systems. What we know now is that healthy living is good for overall health and vaccinations are the best supplement available.

Most studies show that dietary supplements are only useful if you have a deficiency in a nutrient. Taking supplements on top of a healthy diet does not add much to your immune system. Note that most supplements are not superior to the nutrients you can get from food.

Studies show the immune system is very responsive to exercise. Exercise and immune regulation are interrelated and affect each other. Exercise changes immune regulation by affecting cells and has anti-inflammatory effects. Sleep loss reduces natural killer cell activity, which increases the risk for cancer and viral infections; generates production of inflammatory cytokines, which increases the risk for cardiovascular and metabolic disorders; and reduces production of antibodies, which increases the risk for infections.

Stress of all sorts—psychological and physical—directly weakens parts of your immune system, increasing risk for infections or reactivation of viruses inside you. Shingles, a painful rash that arises from the reactivated chickenpox virus, often flares up when people are experiencing chronic stress.

Stress can also cause "patrols" in your immune system—certain cells that tell the immune system to wind down an attack—to fail.

When this happens, too much inflammation can occur. Vaccines, also called immunizations, teach the immune system to make antibodies that fight off infections before they make you sick. Taking zinc supplements at the beginning of a respiratory infection can reduce the severity and duration of symptoms.

Ask your doctor to recommend brands and appropriate dose for you. Joshua Milner, MD , is director of the Division of Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology and professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is a leader in the field of discovery and immunopathogenesis of genetic diseases that lead to allergic symptoms.

What You Really Need to Do to Boost Your Immunity. October 20, Share this page Share on Facebook Share on X formerly Twitter Share on LinkedIn Share by email. Weak immune systems It is almost never the case that your immune system is completely weak, says Milner.

A reduction in immune response to infections has been demonstrated by older people's response to vaccines. For example, studies of influenza vaccines have shown that for people over age 65, the vaccine is less effective compared to healthy children over age 2. But despite the reduction in efficacy, vaccinations for influenza and S.

pneumoniae have significantly lowered the rates of sickness and death in older people when compared with no vaccination. There appears to be a connection between nutrition and immunity in the elderly. A form of malnutrition that is surprisingly common even in affluent countries is known as "micronutrient malnutrition.

Older people tend to eat less and often have less variety in their diets. One important question is whether dietary supplements may help older people maintain a healthier immune system. Older people should discuss this question with their doctor. Like any fighting force, the immune system army marches on its stomach.

Healthy immune system warriors need good, regular nourishment. Scientists have long recognized that people who live in poverty and are malnourished are more vulnerable to infectious diseases. For example, researchers don't know whether any particular dietary factors, such as processed foods or high simple sugar intake, will have adversely affect immune function.

There are still relatively few studies of the effects of nutrition on the immune system of humans. There is some evidence that various micronutrient deficiencies — for example, deficiencies of zinc, selenium, iron, copper, folic acid, and vitamins A, B6, C, and E — alter immune responses in animals, as measured in the test tube.

However, the impact of these immune system changes on the health of animals is less clear, and the effect of similar deficiencies on the human immune response has yet to be assessed.

So, what can you do? If you suspect your diet is not providing you with all your micronutrient needs — maybe, for instance, you don't like vegetables — taking a daily multivitamin and mineral supplement may bring other health benefits, beyond any possibly beneficial effects on the immune system.

Taking megadoses of a single vitamin does not. More is not necessarily better. Walk into a store, and you will find bottles of pills and herbal preparations that claim to "support immunity" or otherwise boost the health of your immune system. Although some preparations have been found to alter some components of immune function, thus far there is no evidence that they actually bolster immunity to the point where you are better protected against infection and disease.

Demonstrating whether an herb — or any substance, for that matter — can enhance immunity is, as yet, a highly complicated matter. Scientists don't know, for example, whether an herb that seems to raise the levels of antibodies in the blood is actually doing anything beneficial for overall immunity.

Modern medicine has come to appreciate the closely linked relationship of mind and body. A wide variety of maladies, including stomach upset, hives, and even heart disease, are linked to the effects of emotional stress.

Despite the challenges, scientists are actively studying the relationship between stress and immune function. For one thing, stress is difficult to define.

What may appear to be a stressful situation for one person is not for another. When people are exposed to situations they regard as stressful, it is difficult for them to measure how much stress they feel, and difficult for the scientist to know if a person's subjective impression of the amount of stress is accurate.

The scientist can only measure things that may reflect stress, such as the number of times the heart beats each minute, but such measures also may reflect other factors.

Most scientists studying the relationship of stress and immune function, however, do not study a sudden, short-lived stressor; rather, they try to study more constant and frequent stressors known as chronic stress, such as that caused by relationships with family, friends, and co-workers, or sustained challenges to perform well at one's work.

Some scientists are investigating whether ongoing stress takes a toll on the immune system. But it is hard to perform what scientists call "controlled experiments" in human beings.

In a controlled experiment, the scientist can change one and only one factor, such as the amount of a particular chemical, and then measure the effect of that change on some other measurable phenomenon, such as the amount of antibodies produced by a particular type of immune system cell when it is exposed to the chemical.

In a living animal, and especially in a human being, that kind of control is just not possible, since there are so many other things happening to the animal or person at the time that measurements are being taken.

Despite these inevitable difficulties in measuring the relationship of stress to immunity, scientists are making progress. Almost every mother has said it: "Wear a jacket or you'll catch a cold!

Probably not, exposure to moderate cold temperatures doesn't increase your susceptibility to infection. There are two reasons why winter is "cold and flu season.

Also the influenza virus stays airborne longer when air is cold and less humid. But researchers remain interested in this question in different populations. Some experiments with mice suggest that cold exposure might reduce the ability to cope with infection. But what about humans?

Scientists have performed experiments in which volunteers were briefly dunked in cold water or spent short periods of time naked in subfreezing temperatures. They've studied people who lived in Antarctica and those on expeditions in the Canadian Rockies. The results have been mixed. For example, researchers documented an increase in upper respiratory infections in competitive cross-country skiers who exercise vigorously in the cold, but whether these infections are due to the cold or other factors — such as the intense exercise or the dryness of the air — is not known.

A group of Canadian researchers that has reviewed hundreds of medical studies on the subject and conducted some of its own research concludes that there's no need to worry about moderate cold exposure — it has no detrimental effect on the human immune system.

Should you bundle up when it's cold outside? The answer is "yes" if you're uncomfortable, or if you're going to be outdoors for an extended period where such problems as frostbite and hypothermia are a risk. But don't worry about immunity. Regular exercise is one of the pillars of healthy living.

It improves cardiovascular health, lowers blood pressure, helps control body weight, and protects against a variety of diseases. But does it help to boost your immune system naturally and keep it healthy? Just like a healthy diet, exercise can contribute to general good health and therefore to a healthy immune system.

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