7 Tips to Combat Coronavirus

Now more than ever, you should work on building your immunity.

If the Coronavirus or the Flu touches you, you’ll be strong enough to fight it.

A healthy lifestyle will ensure your defences are as good as they get.

When your immune system comes into contact with a pathogen (a bacterium, virus or other disease filled microorganism), it triggers an immune response. The immune system releases antibodies, which attach to antigens on the pathogens and kills them – dead!

7 TIPS TO BUILD YOUR IMMUNITY

1. Keep moving

Every single day. To be immunologically fit, you need to be physically fit. White blood cells can be quite sedentary, Exercise mobilises them by increasing your blood flow, so they can do their surveillance jobs and seek and destroy in other parts of the body.  Lymphatic vessels are activated during movement of the musculoskeletal system. The main lymph vessels run up the legs, arms, and torso so moving these areas will move the most lymph. The lymphatic system is the body’s drainage system – cleaning up and disposing of waste.

 

2. Deep Breathing

Breathe deeply into your lower belly, expanding ribs sideways.  Deep Diaphragmatic Breathing facilitates the movement of the lymph through the bloodstream and dramatically increases the elimination of viruses, bacteria and fungi.

3. Avoid massive hangovers

Heavy drinking depletes our immune cells and makes the body more susceptible to infections.

Drink plenty of water.

4. Sleep

Exercising and eating well will have the likely knock-on effect of helping you sleep better, which is a bonus because a tired body is more susceptible to bugs.

5. Manage stress

Stress hormones such as cortisol can compromise immune function.

Ensure you find time to deeply rest your mind – learn deep breathing techniques, do yoga, practise mindfulness, go for a walk, meditate and my favourite most effective resting technique – Yoga Nidra (a meditation where you get to lie down).

6. Foods to help strengthen your immune system:

• Blueberries
•  Dark Chocolate
•  Oily Fish
•  Broccoli
•  Sweet potato
•  Spinach
•  Ginger
•  Garlic
•  Green Tea
•  Kefir
•  Sunflower seeds
•  Almonds
•  Kiwi Fruit
•  Red Capsicum

Feed your gut flora by eating a more varied diet with lots of high-fibre foods.  Being vegetarian isn’t a prerequisite for microbiome health, but the more plant foods you consume, the better.

The microbiome really likes fibre, pulses and fermented foods.  Kefir yoghurt and pickles such as sauerkraut and kimchi are among the fermented delicacies now fashionable thanks to our increasing knowledge of the microbiome.

7. Low Tox Products

The skin microbiome is important, too.  Overwashing with chemically-laden strong products such as soaps, moisturizers and perfumes are not friendly to our skin microbiomes.  There is no definitive evidence, as yet, but there is reason to believe overexposure to chemicals can cause chemical-induced damage to the immune systems.

There is no research on the effects on the human body from the increasing daily cocktail mix of chemicals that are absorbed and ingested from the air, our food, water, the materials we wear and live in and our household cleaning and beauty products.

Opt for low tox or no tox products where you can.

Coronavirus is mostly spread by droplet transmission, so hygiene is key to prevention. Wash your hands, use antibacterial gels, or natural ones like tea-tree and eucalyptus oils and sneeze and cough into tissues.

Let’s hope this soon passes and many lessons are learned!

Meanwhile – come and spend an afternoon doing almost all of the above.