Boost Your Immune System for Protection Against Coronavirus
Prevention of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Coronavirus is spreading its tentacles far and wide at a swift pace and has reached almost all the continents of the globe. It is no secret that prevention is always better than cure. So, rather than panicking the ideal thing would be to look at ways of prevention of coronavirus disease. An important observation derived thus far about the infection is that stronger your immune system, higher are your chances of keeping the infection at bay. Even in the unfortunate scenario of you getting laid down by the virus, a stronger immune system will give you a brighter chance of recovering faster without any serious complications.
Now the question is how to boost the immune system naturally? There is a range of immune system boosters available as a part of a balanced diet. If you follow a balanced diet on a daily basis, you are bound to have a stronger immune system naturally. To be on the safer side, you may pay more attention to include a lot of immune system booster foods such as fruits and vegetables in your regular diet. Also, there are some lifestyle habits to boost the immune system that if followed regularly will keep you in good stead to ward of not just the attack of coronavirus, but any other disease per se.
Ways to increase immune system functioning
- Include plenty of immune systems booster foods:
Fruits and vegetables are one of the powerful immune system boosters available to mankind. They deliver the necessary antioxidants to the body that help it fight off sickness. Vitamin A is especially effective in keeping the mucosal linings of the nose and lungs in top working condition to defend against an attack of the coronavirus. Vegetables such as sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and beetroot are rich in beta-carotene that the body converts to vitamin A. Fruits such as orange, mango, apricots, and melon are also great to include as a part of your daily diet.
- A healthy dose of vitamin D:
Vitamin D helps stimulate peptide production, the components capable of fighting off bacteria, fungi and viruses eventually ensuring the prevention of coronavirus disease. Include eggs and fatty fish in your regular diet and get some sunlight while taking vitamin D supplements if necessary.
- Hand hygiene:
Good hygiene habits can go a long way in keeping you healthy. Coronavirus is understood to spreading via droplets from coughs and sneezes. When you touch surfaces that have these droplets, you are likely to pick up and be infected with the virus. So, it is a good idea to follow a proper hand hygiene routine. Remember to wash your hands properly and thoroughly with soap and water before and after you use the restroom before you prepare food and put food into your mouth. Also, remember to sneeze or cough only into a handkerchief or a tissue.
Follow the steps given below to the ensure germ-free hands:
- Wet your hands
- Apply soap and rub your hands together to lather the palms, back of the hands, between the fingers and under the nails
- Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds while humming the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
- Rinse your hands thoroughly under clean, running water
- Air dry your hands or wipe them using a clean towel
- In case you don’t have access to soap and water, you may use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol content.
- Quality sleep:
If you short-change on sleep, you are leaving the doors open for the viruses to barge into your body as a sleep-deprived body is not good enough to fight an infection attack. So, get plenty of sleep to remain fighting fit.
- Exercise:
Regular exercise ensures good blood circulation that in turn allows the immune cells to travel the entire body more effectively. Therefore, exercising is one of the ways to increase immune system functioning. Five or more days a week of exercise is how to boost the immune system naturally that will keep any virus including coronavirus attack at bay. In the eventuality of you catching the virus, a regular exercise routine can help you recover quickly with less severe symptoms.
- Reduce stress:
Stress can seriously hamper the working of your immune system. It causes the body to release cortisol, the hormone that boosts inflammation and paves the way for a host of diseases to attack the body. Stress also interferes with the performance of white blood cells, the soldiers of your body, leaving your immune system susceptible to infections. Given the serious repercussions of stress, it is in your best interest to reduce stress in your own way. Relaxation techniques including breathing can greatly help you calm down and successfully manage stress.
- Quit drinking and smoking:
Heavy drinking depletes the body of immune cells and reduces the lymphocytes. With a compromised immunity, you are at risk of catching the coronavirus and not be able to effectively fight it off.
Smoking weakens the lungs leaving smokers vulnerable to the novel coronavirus attack. They are also likely to suffer more as compared to non-smokers in terms of the severity of symptoms.
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