Our Favorite Ways to Boost Immunity With Changing Seasons

When the seasons start changing, it’s important to focus on ways to boost immunity and keep yourself healthy. Here are our favorite ways to do so.

There might be a pandemic right now, but Mother Earth clearly doesn’t know it. Take a look out the window and you’re sure to notice the fact that spring is already firmly in full bloom throughout most of California! That sun sure is a welcome visitor, even if most of us are still stuck indoors for the moment each day.

Spring, being a time of renewal, is also the perfect time to refocus on your health, good habits, and overall wellness once again. One of the best ways to do that is to take simple steps to boost your immunity and your body’s own ability to heal. Here are a few of our favorites to get you started.

Eat Well

Food is fuel – and the body needs the right fuel in order to function. Eating a healthy diet (ask your pharmacist if you aren’t sure what that entails) with the right balance of fats, protein, carbs, and other essential nutrients is your best defense against illness.

Try to eat three meals a day (yes, that includes breakfast) whenever possible. Or, try eating six small meals instead if you prefer to graze. Most importantly, follow the food guide and avoid skipping meals whenever you can. This sends your body into “starvation mode” and forces your immune system to underperform.

Too many skipped meals could even result in excessive weight loss or being more susceptible to colds and flus – including COVID-19.

Stay Hydrated

Drinking enough water is also important to boost immunity. In fact, proper hydration is necessary for everything from your ability to think to basic cardiovascular function and even digestion. For example, chronic dehydration often prevents you from being able to absorb nutrients in the food you eat. If you become deficient in substances like vitamin C or E, your body will seriously struggle to heal small wounds and fight off colds. That’s a recipe for disaster.

The best way to stay hydrated is to simply drink plain water more often. But you should also try to limit or avoid dehydrating beverages, such as soda, coffee and alcohol. These can actually strip water from your tissues despite how refreshing they feel to enjoy, leaving you further behind than when you started.

Eat More Garlic

It’s delicious, and that’s reason enough – but there’s plenty of evidence that garlic can actually help you boost immunity and fight off illnesses, too. Garlic contains a compound known as allicin, which has been proven to hold antimicrobial properties. At least one study even showed a direct ability to inhibit the common cold!

In simple layman’s terms, that means it might kill bad bacteria and viruses that attempt to invade your body. Of course, it isn’t a replacement for true antibiotic therapy and should only be used preventatively.

Curious about how to best add garlic into your diet? Pretty much any Italian recipe contains it, but you can flawlessly integrate it into smoothies and other dishes. If you aren’t fond of the taste, try garlic tablets instead – they also prevent the classic “garlic breath” some people experience after a meal.

Try Echinacea

In the wild or in home gardens, echinacea presents as a beautiful flowering plant with bright, daisy-like petals. It’s a cheery delight beloved by butterflies, bees, and other insects, but they’re far from the only ones who benefit from it.

Research shows that taking echinacea preventatively or when cold and flu symptoms first begin might fully prevent or at least shorten the course of illness. And that could mean you’re only stuck with the symptoms for a day versus a week!

Echinacea is also antibacterial and antiviral, but the way it functions is unique. Rather than killing germs on contact, it prevents the body from over-releasing inflammatory cytokines that cause the most painful cold and flu symptoms. The result is that your body can focus more on healing than on creating mucous.

Ask your pharmacist if echinacea is right for you – and remember that it works best if you take it preventatively. It won’t fix or cure a cold you already have.

Get Outside (Within Reason)

With the pandemic raging all around us, many of us are spending more time than ever stuck indoors. That’s safe, but it isn’t necessarily the best for our lungs and our bodies. Less exercise and fresh air can hinder the body’s ability to clear toxins and maintain endurance. This might cause problems over time.

Being stuck inside in stuffy air is also especially problematic for people who use a lot of heavy scents and those who have pets. Even if you aren’t allergic, being bombarded with dander or even the best-smelling essential oils constantly can produce mild to moderate irritation.

So, what’s the answer? Get outside as often as you can provided that it’s safe and easy to do so – even if it’s just to your backyard. Or, open a window throughout the day to let the fresh air in. You may even find you feel better just being exposed to the gentle breeze as you go about your day.

Get Some Sun

Speaking of getting outside, when is the last time you spent a good 10 minutes in the sun? If you can’t remember, you might not be doing yourself any favors. In fact, you might even be sabotaging your immune system in the process.

And that means you might want to get out there more often and soak up those rays. But wait… aren’t we supposed to avoid the sun’s harsh UVA and UVB rays? Isn’t too much sun a bad thing?

Well… yes. But too much avoidance can actually be more harmful than a little moderated exposure.

The human body requires sunlight to produce nutrients like Vitamin D and for clearing away toxins and old, dead cells. If you aren’t getting any sunlight, you can quickly become deficient. Without enough vitamin D, the immune system struggles to signal tissues to regenerate and loses its ability to target harmful germs. Vitamin D deficiencies can also lead to other health issues.

Get Enough Sleep

Speaking of sunlight, lack of exposure at the right time of day can also impair your ability to sleep at night, too. And not getting enough sleep directly affects how well the immune system functions over time. Your body becomes much less effective at identifying and responding to bacteria and germs, raising your risk for infection.

But frankly, it doesn’t matter WHY you’re suffering from insomnia. The end result is always the same: a greater risk for being sick. And that’s reason enough to try and get at least six to eight hours a night on a schedule.

If you find you’re struggling to sleep at night, try a little sun exposure – just 10 minutes should do – each morning when you first wake up. This will signal your brain to wake up while also immediately triggering vitamin D production at the same time.

Why It’s Important to Boost Immunity

Still struggling to boost immunity? Your problem with sleep might be starting at night. Make sure you’re shutting down any bright screens and turning out the lights at least an hour before bed. This signals the brain to start slowing down and heading for sleep.

It’s incredibly important to boost immunity to help your body function, improve your quality of life, and avoid illness.