The Nation Newspaper

Tag: immune system

  • 10 essential habits to boost your immune system, stay healthy

    10 essential habits to boost your immune system, stay healthy

    A robust immune system is vital for maintaining overall health and well-being.

    Incorporating simple habits into your daily routine can lower your risk of illness and support a healthy lifestyle.

    Here are 10 key practices to help you stay healthy:

     1. Stay Hydrated: Drink plenty of water throughout the day to help your immune system function properly.

     2. Exercise Regularly: Engage in moderate-intensity exercise, such as brisk walking, cycling, or swimming, for at least 30 minutes a day.

     3. Eat a Balanced Diet: Focus on consuming whole, unprocessed foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats.

     4. Get Enough Sleep: Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep each night to help your immune system recharge.

     5. Practice Good Hygiene: Wash your hands frequently, especially during cold and flu season.

      6. Manage Stress: Engage in stress-reducing activities like meditation, deep breathing, or yoga.

     7. Stay Up-to-Date on Vaccinations: Consult with your healthcare provider to ensure you’re current on all recommended vaccinations.

    Read Also: Mutiple sclerosis: Beyond friendly immune system fires

     8. Limit Sugar Intake: Consume sugary foods and drinks in moderation, as excessive sugar can weaken your immune system.

     9. Get Enough Vitamin D: Spend time outdoors, take vitamin D supplements, or eat vitamin D-rich foods like fatty fish, egg yolks, and fortified dairy products.

     10. Avoid Smoking and Secondhand Smoke: Quit smoking and avoid exposure to secondhand smoke, as it can significantly weaken your immune system.

  • Ways to boost your immune system naturally

    These everyday lifestyle habits will keep your immune system in top shape and ready to fight off infections. 

    We all know how it feels to have a cold coming on: a pain in your sinuses, tickle in your throat, and heaviness all over your body. You’re getting sick, and you start cursing yourself for not scrubbing your hands after exchanging a handshake with your coughing co-worker or logging enough hours of sleep each night.

    Nobody wants this to happen, which is why you need to keep your immune system in infection-fighting shape. And the secret to that isn’t that complicated. “If you take care of yourself, the immune system will take care of itself,” says Timothy Mainardi, MD, an allergist and immunologist based in New York City.

    Read on for the healthy lifestyle habits you can practise in your day-to-day routine to cut down on sick days, and keep your immune system strong and ready to fight off any virus.

     

    Eat a nutrient-packed, well-rounded diet

    “The most important way to keep your immune system functioning normally is the old-fashioned way that nobody likes to talk about: diet and exercise,” Dr. Mainardi says. “Having a varied diet can be difficult, I do understand that, but it’s definitely worth trying to do and will keep you much healthier in the long run.” An eating plan rich in fruits, veggies, whole grains, and lean proteins will defend your body against germs. (Try these antioxidant-rich foods.)

     

    Exercise regularly

    Working out does more than keep your waist trim. “As boring as it sounds, exercising regularly and eating healthy are the most significant factors for your immune system,” Dr. Mainardi says. “It’s been proven that people who live more sedentary lifestyles are far more likely to get colds or other infectious diseases.” Recruit a workout buddy or try a new group fitness class next time you’re paranoid about catching the bug that’s going around.

    When you’re feeling overwhelmed by your endless to-do list, it can be tempting to skimp on sleep to get everything done. But if not prioritising your shut-eye becomes a habit, it can have serious ramifications on your health. “There’s an association with lack of sleep and getting sick,” Dr. Mainardi explains. “Medical and surgical residents who would notoriously work 100-hour weeks during their residencies were at a much higher risk of not only getting an infectious disease, but also reactivation of a past disease.” Reactivation happens when an old virus reawakens in your system and causes a different, sometime worse, disease. A common example of a reactivation disease is chicken pox and shingles.

     

    Wash your hands with soap and water

    “Washing your hands is an extraordinarily good way of helping one from getting sick, but it’s something that we don’t always do very well,” Dr. Mainardi says. The FDA recently announced that washing your hands with plain soap and water is really all you need, and an antibacterial soap isn’t quite necessary or good for us in the long run. So find a soap that you love and remember these hand-washing techniques.

     

    Use hand sanitiser

    If you’re out in public and can’t use soap and water to scrub, using a hand sanitiser is the next best thing. “Purell is phenomenal if you can’t get to a sink,” Dr. Mainardi says. “We have it all over the hospital.” Not to mention, it’s offered in convenient, pocket-sized bottles and tons of different scents.

     

    Try probiotics

    The bacteria in your gut may affect your body’s ability to fend off infections. That’s why Dr. Mainardi suggests eating foods with live and active cultures. “A slew of new data has recently come out saying that probiotics may protect against certain inflammatory conditions,” he says. “Fermented foods and beverages such as kombucha and kimchi, for example, may offer additional benefits compared to regular food.” Consider taking a daily probiotic supplement or try some of these simple recipes that include a dose of probiotics.

     

    Be skeptical of supplements claiming to strengthen your immune system 

    “For the general, run-of-the-mill person who doesn’t have any illnesses, vitamin supplements aren’t really necessary,” Dr. Mainardi says. “The vast majority of nutrients we need we can get from the food we eat, and vitamins can get expensive.” But, if you do decide you want to take a vitamin, he advises taking the recommended daily dose of a general multivitamin. Be careful with individual supplements of vitamin A, D, E, and K, which can be dangerous to humans if taken in high doses.

     

    • Culled from: www.health.com/cold-flu-sinus/boost-immune-system

  • Scientists trick immune system to combat cancer

    A vaccine that trains the body to fight cancers as though they were viruses has passed its first clinical test in three advanced patients.

    Scientists claim that the breakthrough is a strong basis to form a recommendation for a “universal” vaccine that could prime the immune system to eradicate cancer cells.

    The treatment works by persuading immune cells to fight the disease.  Particles of genetic code, in a virus-like structure, are injected into the bloodstream, where they are detected by dendritic blood cells, triggering an assault on tumours.

    A team in Germany, led by Ugur Sahin, tested the method on mice and then gave the vaccine in small but increasing doses to three patients with advanced melanoma. All three began massing T ells, the shock troops of the immune system, within weeks. One patient found that a chest tumour shrank significantly, while another remained stable in spite of eight metastases in the lungs. The third, who had had the metastases removed by surgery before vaccination has been tumour-free for seven months.

    The technique uses a genetic messenger molecule called RNA to hand the immune cells the blueprints for antigens, compounds on the surface of tumours that can mark them out from healthy cells. In theory bio-engineers should be able to load the vaccine with the code for the antigens from any cancer.

    Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists said that this wasthe first time a cancer vaccine based on these tiny particles had achieved its aim. Jolanda de Vries and Carl Figdor, cancer immunologists at Radboud University in the Netherlands, called for a larger, randomised trial to validate the findings.

  • Building your immune system (III)

    Building your immune system (III)

    IN concluding the series on building your immune system this week, it is necessary to look at the side effects of some of the fruits that also help to build the body system. Some of these fruits/diets are not merely bad for the sake of it, but when taken without certain precautionary measures, they constitute major health challenge. For instance, if lettuce is contaminated and is taken without proper care, it can develop serious health hazards.
    However, the whole essence of having fruits daily is to keep the body properly attuned to defend the body. Fruits are widely taken as the best sources of vitamins of all sorts. Worldwide, fruits constitute people’s daily menus and this is why Nigerians have been advised by nutritionists and medical personnel to continuously make it a habit to eat fruits daily. It is even better to take fruits more frequently than food.
    According to Dr. Chris Ebaeju of Saint Augustine’s Hospital, Ikorodu, Lagos, fruits serve as cleansers, because they have the natural properties to make the body system not only cleaner and stronger, but make the blood system work more effectively and efficiently. “Yes”, he said, “their primary role is to help the body function better. Once the blood stream is cleaner and better, of course, that helps to ward off external forces that otherwise would invade the body system.”

    GINGER: It is the medicine for the chest. It has wonderful spice effect, time-tested, digestive-friendly and has other healing properties good for the body. In Asia, for instance, Ginger is used in practically every food in daily life. It is their antidote for curing and battling cold and flu. However, if you haven’t been feeling hungry, may be you’ve lost your appetite, just take a toke of Ginger and it will sooner than later fire up your appetite. Ginger energises your digestive juices and before you know you’ll begin to feel hungry. It clears the microcirculatory channels of the body, including the pesky sinuses. If you feel nauseous, then chew a piece of ginger, preferably with a drop of honey and it will clear your throat and this will make you cool and light.
    Ginger helps to reduce flatulence, if your tummy is either moaning or groaning under cramps, especially early in the morning, then munch on ginger. When you have a joint pain, please chew a ginger because with its anti-inflammatory properties, it can bring relief. It can be added to bath water to ease aching muscles and painful joints. This is more applicable often during cold.
    After an operation, you can chew ginger to help overcome nausea. You can also add to tea to get rid of throat and nose congestion. It also has aphrodisiac properties.

    GARLIC: It is said to cure just about everything, ranging from cold to flu to plague and lots more. Its various healing properties are vast and numerous. It is a sulphurous compound with properties organically proved to have far greater health benefits. It assists people in the management of blood pressure and in the reduction of cholesterol levels.
    Even modern medicine has proved that garlic is good as a very powerful natural antibiotic. Also it has antioxidants that are helpful to protect the body against serious damaging free radicals. It can therefore be made into a food supplement due to its smell. Yet the smell has not reduced its potency or healing properties.
    The World Health Organisation (WHO) monograph affirms that garlic is a reliable source of natural health. Most often, it should be taken with food since the dose cannot be quantified or determined as yet.
    However, garlic mustn’t be taken in excess since it often has side effects. Some people are even allergic to it. Symptoms of garlic allergy include skin rashes, temperature and headaches. For those who fall into this category, it is better to avoid it entirely. Raw garlic is very powerful so eating too much can even produce problems and terrible side effects.

    SOY BEAN: The plant is classified as an oilseed by Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). It is indeed fat-free. And above all, it is a cheap source of protein. Soy milk can be produced out of it as the greatest of energy to build the body. There is also soy sauce, fermented bean paste and more. The bean contains plenty of phylic acid, alpha-linolenic acid and more. It is a source of complete protein, with all the essentials of amino acids needed for human body contained in it.
    For people who want to reduce the amount of meat they take daily, it is instructive for them to resort to soy bean. Raw soybean is not edible and therefore cannot digest in the system. However, it is taken globally as an important crop, providing oil and protein. Often too, an immature soybean can be boiled whole in their green pods and served with salt. (Concluded)

  • Garlic, chicken soup, others can boost immune system

    It is well known that what you eat determines how you feel. Our bodies need vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates and other essential nutrients in order to function properly so that you could be your best self. However, bacteria and viruses do attack and people do get sick once their immune system weakens. Whether your immune system is weak because of stress, or malnutrition or a chronic disease, the right food will help.

     

    • Garlic

    Garlic is one of the most cited foods to fight bacteria and viruses and help you be and stay healthy. What separates garlic from other alliums is allicin, which can’t be found in the necessary amounts in other members of the onion family. Perhaps the smell will put you off, but you can easily put some in your salad, in a sauce or a home cooked meal, and still reap the benefits.

     

    •Chicken Soup

    This is a well-known fact, and if you ever wondered why, here’s the answer: Cystein, which is an amino acid that gets released from chicken during cooking, bears a certain chemical resemblance to acetylcysteine—the bronchitis drug. This is how it works: Cystein stops the accumulation of inflammatory white cells in the bronchial tubes, and the broth keeps mucus thin. In order to further boost its immune power, add garlic and mushrooms.

    •Mushrooms

    Shiitake, maitake, and reishi mushrooms are your answer as they contain the biggest amount of immunity boosters out of all mushrooms. They are efficient because they help your body produce more white blood cells and making them active and aggressive (in a good way).

     

    •Beef

    We are citing beef because of zinc. Zinc deficiency is one of the biggest nutritional shortfalls. With so many vegetarians and people cutting back on beef (or any red meat for that matter) it is no wonder that this is the main reason why some people get ill. This immunity boosting mineral can also be found (in nor so great amounts) in oysters, milk or yoghurt, poultry (see the pattern here) and pork.

     

    • Sweet Potatoes

    When talking about the immune system, we are not just talking about the blood; we are also talking about the other organs, especially skin. As the largest human organ, skin is also the biggest barrier between you and bacteria/viruses. In order to keep her healthy, you need vitamin A, and our recommended source for it is sweet potato. It will deliver the right amount of beta carotene, that will then be transformed into vitamin A and used to produce connective tissue. You can also vary by eating cantaloupe, carrots, pumpkins etc.

     

    •. Fish

    We cannot accentuate the importance of this food. Fish, as well as oysters, lobsters, crabs, and clams, are effective and can help white blood cells produce cytokines (basically proteins that help eradicate flu viruses from your body. Additionally, don’t forget that they are a fantastic source of omega 3 acids.

     

    • Grapefruit

    The benefits of citruses have been known for quite some time, and we don’t need to list in detail why vitamin C, present in grapefruit, lemon, oranges etc. is good for your health. We will, however, say, that red grapefruit is high in bioflavanoids, which produce positive reactions in your system and boost your immunity.

     

    Source: www.google.com