Natural Ways to Boost Your Immune System

I have been wanting to post this blog for the last two weeks but it's hard preparing for a quarantine! Quite a few people have been asking me how I am keeping healthy in the face of Covid-19. Here is my guide for keeping your immune system healthy:

1. Eat Clean: I know this will be hard for many because it's so easy and tempting to stress eat right now. I've also heard people talking about gaining the dreaded Covid-19 (like the freshman 15). Get it? This is such a ridiculous thing to even think or worry about when we are in the middle of a global pandemic. There are so many worse things right now than gaining a few extra pounds. Let's put things in perspective, shall we? Eating clean means trying to eat as non processed as possible. Try making your own meals instead of ordering out. I am a plant based eater which causes less inflammation in the body. However, now may not be the time to try a dietary shift so I just ask you to severely limit your intake of red meat. Its highly inflammatory to the body and inflammation is not good for your immune system. Dr. William Li, author of Eat to Beat Disease says there are 5 top foods that you can consume for your immune health. These are mushrooms, tree nuts, tomatoes, pomegranate juice, and broccoli. A healthy dose of citrus doesn't hurt either. Grapefruit is exceptionally good for lung health and a kiwi has more vitamin C than an orange. I would try and stay away from sugar for sure! It wrecks your immune system. Natural sugars are fine, in terms of fruit but processed sugar should be minimized.

2. Move Your Body: Keep your body moving. It might be easy to stay in bed or on the couch but move. Going outside gives you bonus points because not only will it help with Vitamin D which is essential for fighting off viruses, it's good for your stress level to be out in nature.

3. Supplements: This is the category I have gotten asked about the most. I am taking a few different things to help boost my immunity as well as my other host of vitamins. I have put these in order of importance.

* Vitamin D: I am currently taking 5000IU of this.

* Elderberry: Amazing in warding off viruses. Adult: 1 tsp.daily in with a little water Child: 1/2 tsp.

* Ester C packs: extra Vitamin C, however you choose to take it can help.

* Manuka honey: This medicinal honey is packed with antiviral and antibacterial properties.

* Colloidal silver: 1/3 small dropperful daily.

* I also use an herbal throat spray. This can be found in most health food stores.

4. Minimize Stress: This one will get it's own future blog post because it's so hard yet so important. However, to boil it down....don't watch too much news coverage and meditate or consciously breath daily. Just know that this too shall pass.

5. Get Proper Sleep: This one might be hard now with all of the anxiety surrounding the current pandemic. However, if you get to bed late, sleep in if you can. Don't be too hard on yourself if your sleep and eating cycles are completely off. This is all normal.

Make sure to check with your provider before starting any supplementation. As I have said before. I am not a doctor.

We are all in this together people and keeping your immune system in tip top shape is one way that we have control in a scenario where we tend to feel out of control.