The environment is home to a plethora of disease-causing microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses. While our bodies are great at fighting them off to help you stay healthy, sometimes, our body’s defence mechanism fails. While it isn’t always easy to predict our body’s immune response, we can take steps to strengthen our immunity.
Our immune system is not a single entity, but a complex system made up of trillions of cells. The most effective way to keep this system up and running is to maintain a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle involves exercising regularly, getting adequate sleep, and having a nutritious diet.
Yet, according to an article published by Harvard Women’s Health Watch, our bodies cannot manufacture over 30 essential micro-nutrients in sufficient quantities.
Gut Health
Your gut health plays a vital role in maintaining a strong immune system. With more than a trillion microorganisms inside our GI tract, microbes are core to regulating metabolism, protecting our body from infections, and helping us in the prevention of bowel diseases. Good gut health is linked to a reduction in obesity, liver problems, fatigue, depression and possibly certain types of cancers. Our microbial health is influenced by our diet, age, genes, and environment.
Probiotics are live microorganisms that support the immune system, and even fight the disease-causing microbes. A healthy diet consists of foods containing probiotics, including yogurts, miso, tempeh, kimchi and other fermented foods. On the other hand, fried foods, caffeine, alcohol, and antibiotics can affect your gut health by reducing the good bacteria in your gut.
Adding probiotic supplements to your diet is known to improve your gut health. Such supplements may not only help you reverse the effects of antibiotics, but also support your immune system. Apart from maintaining a healthy diet, taking probiotic supplements can be useful. Cytomatrix’s Multi Strain-50 comes with 9 strains with over 50 billion live cells that can help your gut health and strengthen your immune response.
Note: People with already compromised immune systems are not advised to take probiotics without consulting a professional.
Vitamin C
As a water-soluble vitamin needed for growth, development and fat metabolism, Vitamin C is one of the most important nutrients for boosting immunity. It not only helps in repairing our body’s tissues but it also helps in the formation of a protein used for repairing skin, developing blood vessels and maintaining bone health.
Additionally, Vitamin C is an important antioxidant. It can protect us from harmful molecules, chemicals and pollutants. Lack of antioxidants is linked to health conditions including heart disease, cancer, and arthritis.
Studies have also suggested that adequate Vitamin C in our diet can prevent complications caused by flu and common cold viruses. Since our body stores only a small reserve of it, we need to ensure our body regularly gets it in adequate quantities. Our immunity kit contains Cytomatrix’s Cyto-C (1000mg) to ensure you get enough Vitamin C (also available individually).
Vitamin B6
Just like Vitamin C, Vitamin B6 is also a water-soluble vitamin and isn’t stored in our bodies. Its deficiency can not only cause sore gums, but it can also make you feel tired. Since it is vital for our immune system’s functioning, it is the key to prevent infections and inflammation. It helps us maintain an optimum level of white blood cells including T Cells.
Additionally, it channelizes the actions of our white blood cells using a protein called interleukin. While it is commonly found in poultry, meat, lentils and certain vegetables, animal-based sources are usually better absorbed by our bodies.
Vitamin D
Sometimes known as the “Sunshine Vitamin,” Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin produced by our bodies in response to the sunlight. It facilitates the absorption of calcium, and supports our immune response. While some symptoms of its deficiency include feeling tired, bone and muscle pain, some people don’t experience any of these symptoms. Sufficient Vitamin D may be linked to reduced chances of multiple scoliosis, flu, precancerous colon polyps amongst other diseases.
Our lifestyle and atmospheric climate may not allow us to be exposed to enough sunlight, and our body may start developing Vitamin D deficiency. Even after being exposed to sunlight, some people’s bodies don’t produce it in adequate quantities. Adding Vitamin D supplements to your diet can be a good idea. Cyto-D3 comes with 1000 IU (per drop) of Vitamin D3 which can help your immune response, bones, and teeth.
Zinc
Zinc not only improves our immune system, but it is also good for our body’s metabolism. Apart from supporting healing, it is known to reduce the intensity of several common colds.
The recommended daily amount of zinc is 8 milligrams (mg) for women and 11 mg for adult men.
Mindfulness
Adopting mindfulness can not only help our immune system by reducing stress, but it can also modify our body’s direct immune response. Various academic studies have pointed to an improvement in gene expression and simulated pro-inflammatory proteins, leading to better coordination amongst our cells and other anti-inflammatory effects.
Our cells’ eukaryotic chromosomes have protective caps called Telomerase. Similar studies have also shown an increased telomerase activity after mindfulness meditation. While these researches are during their early stages, the correlation between mindfulness and a better immune response is undeniable.
