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20 Ways to Naturally Build and Boost Your Immune System

We’re still in the middle of the dreaded cold and flu season, but you don’t have to succumb to sickness. There are plenty of entirely natural things you can do to lower your chances of getting sick this year before spring warms things up again.

1. Stay Positive – Stress and anxiety take a toll on your whole body, including your immune system. Smiles and laughter actually bolster your immunity. Don’t let the colder weather get you down—your health depends on it.
2. Sleep – Sleep is when our bodies and our brains clean out the trash and make repairs. You cannot expect to make it through winter or even summer unscathed if you do not get enough sleep. Study after study backs this up. You are more likely to get sick if you aren’t sleeping well.
3. Exercise – Your body also relies on movement to detoxify tissues, remove cellular waste, and even transport immune cells where they are needed. That’s right, the lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump like the heart to do it all, so our activity levels matter more than you know. Exercise also improves heart health and blood circulation to keep cells nourished, healthy, and resistant to infections.
4. Water – Hydration is important in every aspect of health, from digestion to immunity. Drink plenty of filtered water every day. If you are sick, drink more. Inadequate water intake has been linked to worsened symptoms for asthma, allergies, headaches, and much more.
5. Cut Back on Alcohol – Alcohol is a depressant that affects the body and the brain in some interesting and sometimes fun ways. Unfortunately, it also dulls the immune system. You are more likely to get sick after some heavy drinking, so take it easy out there.
6. Cut Back on Sugar – Refined carbohydrates hit our system hard, increase inflammation, and can damage cells throughout the body. Sugar also suppresses the immune system. This isn’t the case with fruits and vegetables which balance sugar with fiber, water, vitamins, and minerals. Eat more of those and avoid the processed stuff.
7. Massage – Chronic stress weakens the immune system and massage is a great way to relieve stress. It also improves circulation of both blood and lymphatic fluid to keep you healthier. Fall, winter, and early spring are great times to indulge yourself in more massages to help keep your immune system in top shape.
8. Probiotics – Your digestive system is one of the body’s first lines of defense. This may sound gross, but if your intestines are full of beneficial bacteria, there’s far less room for the bad ones. The friendly flora and fauna down there work hard to keep invaders from getting a foothold, so feel free to give them a hand every once in a while with reinforcements and supplies as they fight so many battles to keep you safe.
9. Garlic – Garlic contains powerful sulfur compounds with antibiotic, anti-fungal, and antiviral properties. Spice up your meals and your immune system at the same time. You can add it to your recipes more often this time of year or you can mince it up, mix it in warm water, and drink it like tea for a huge boost.
10. Coconut Oil – Coconut oil contains lauric acid which likes to dissolve the lipid barriers of harmful viruses and bacteria. This makes it great for internal and external use during cold and flu season. Use it as lotion to create a barrier on your skin, include it in your cooking, and even take a spoonful once in a while. There are so many more ways to use coconut oil too. Use it as a facial cleanser, add some to your tea, or dab a bit in each nostril to keep from getting bloody noses and give your mucus a bit more germ blocking power.
11. Hot Teas – Warm drinks soften mucus and help your body remove captured invaders. The antioxidants in teas help rejuvenate cells and prepare them to resist illness. Many of the herbs that go into teas also have their own immune boosting benefits.
12. Zinc – Pumpkin seeds are a staple during fall and it turns out that may help prevent and cut short the duration of many colds. Don’t overdo it though. Too much zinc begins to impair immune function. The sweet spot is less than 30mg a day. Spinach, nuts, beans, mushrooms, and dark chocolate are good sources of zinc too.
13. Vitamin D – One reason many people begin getting sick in the fall and winter is due to the huge shift we have away from sunlight. The weather gets cooler, so we put on more clothes, stop hitting the beach, and shun the great outdoors. The sun is also lower in the sky and we get less of its light. Vitamin D is part of creating cathelicidin, a protein that kills viruses, and it may be how many immune cells communicate with one another. On the warmer days, head outside and soak up twenty minutes of sunshine and maybe look into a supplement. Vitamin D3, the more bioavailable form, is even now offered for vegans and vegetarians, coming from lichen.
14. Natural Vitamin C – There is little evidence that supplemental vitamin C actually helps with colds or flu, but that may not hold true for the natural forms found in foods. Synthetic vitamin C found in supplements is just a part of a complex of compounds. Natural vitamin C from whole foods is a vital antioxidant that is used throughout the body. Citrus and red bell peppers are two of your best places to find it.
15. Cinnamon – Cinnamon is a spice we start using more often as it gets colder. It warms the body and has antibiotic and antiviral properties that make it a great addition to your defenses. Cinnamon tea is an excellent way to keep your immune system warmed up and ready each morning.
16. Vegan Omega 3s DHA & EPA – These omega fatty acids are good fats that decrease inflammation and increase the activity of phagocytes, cells that literally eat the bad guys. Flax seeds, chia seeds, walnuts, and purslane are good vegan options. Wild salmon is one of the best sources for any of our non-vegan readers.
17. Adaptogens – There are many herbs that help the body deal with stress and adapt to changes. Astragalus and ginseng are two that are especially good at boosting immune function, by increasing white blood cells and interleukins.
18. Essential Oils – Clove, lemon, cinnamon, eucalyptus, rosemary, lavender, and so many more essential oils help kill bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Dilute them in coconut oil and rub them on your hands as a safe sanitizer. Mist them in your room to soothe and calm sore throats and sinus issues. Or put a few drop in a bowl of hot water to inhale and steam away illness.
19. Immune Shield – Silver ions are another powerful antibiotic, antiviral, and antifungal. Immune Shield combines ionic silver with fulvic acid and nourishing minerals to make it even more effective.
20. Liquid Vitamin Mineral Rush – Created by nature, derived from organically grown or wildcrafted plants. These natural sources are blended to create an ideal raw super supplement. A whole food vitamin/mineral complex with trace minerals and fulvic acid to help absorb these vital nutrients. Includes vegan vitamin D3, B12. No Synthetics!

5 Ways To Wake up Feeling Energized in the Morning

Follow these 5 steps to help and if we will wake up the following day fully energized and ready to conquer the day or not.

Are you an individual who wakes up fully alert and energized, jumping out of bed when the alarm goes off? Some may say yes-- many will say no. Many people don’t realize that our personal routine the night before determines the quality of our sleep. If you are someone who wakes up feeling less than enthusiastic, below are a few tips and tricks to tweak your nightly routine in order to make for a productive morning.

5 Tips To Wake Up Feeling Energized In The Morning

1. Meditate/Quiet Time
2. Relax
3. Don’t Eat Right Before Bed
4. Have A Set Bedtime Every Night
5. Put The Phone Down

How Does Your Nightly Routine Affect Your Morning?

It’s normal to rationalize that our morning routines are the key to a day full of life and energy, however, the opposite remains true--your night routine determines if you will wake up lifeless and tired or energized and productive. Don’t be quick to determine your morning will be useful without a good night’s “beauty rest”. I am sure we can all agree that our day doesn’t go so smoothly when we haven’t slept well. Have you often heard the phrase, “someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed” directed at you too often? Well, then it’s time to make a change for the better.

Your entire day can be predicated by the night prior. Experiment with different routines to see what works for you, your body, personality and your individual work schedule.

Do These 5 Things At Night To Have A Better Morning

1. Meditate/Quiet Time

The stresses of work, family, circumstances, and simply all the things we have to get done in the day can cause our minds to go into overdrive. In order to become well rested and actually have a goodnight’s sleep, it’s important to release the anxieties and stresses of the day, that way it doesn’t carry on to the following day, or better yet, disrupt your precious beauty sleep.

Several tips would be to listen to uplifting podcasts or nature sounds, practice deep breathing, write down thoughts in a journal or talk to a friend or spouse about your day. The key is to find something you personally enjoy in order to escape negative thoughts and concentrate on positive intentions to change your mind, mood and overall well being.

2. Relax

Relaxation is such an important thing we must do daily in order to sleep well. We must put not only our minds at ease to rest, furthermore, we must allow our physical bodies to relax and “heal”. We don’t even come close to realizing the tension and stresses we put on our physical bodies throughout the day. Take a load off, and simply chill. Calm your mind, calm your body and calm your heart until you feel at peace. Find that activity that allows you to feel balanced. Allow yourself personal downtime-- stretch, do yoga, diffuse essential oils, take an epsom bath, close your eyes and rest.

3. Don’t Eat Right Before Bed

Allow your body ample time to rest. Allow your food to settle, drink water, and let the body’s natural digestion process take place before bed--not during. When you fall asleep your body is in a “restorative mode”. This is the time when the body repairs and rejuvenates itself. When one eats late at night, the effects of late night eating alters this restorative mode, and causes the energy rejuvenation process to be affected.

Drinking some decaffeinated tea like this ginger turmeric tea or taking a magnesium supplement, will help soothe nerves and help your body to relax.

Magnesium is a vital mineral that enhances your natural cellular and electrical impulses to help you sleep better, sooth your muscles, and improve heart and brain health.

4. Have A Set Bedtime Every Night

Everyone can benefit from a strict bedtime. Referring to the circadian (Sur-KAY-dee-un) rhythm concept, having a set bedtime supports your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle.

In other words, if adults make a habit of going to bed around the same time each night, their body will begin to recognize when it should start winding down for sleep.

Let’s say you have to wake up for work at 7 a.m. to get to work by nine, you should set your bedtime to about 11:00. That way, when 10:00 p.m. comes around, you’ll start feeling sleepy and the thought of bed begins to sound really nice.

5. Put the phone down

Avoiding the blue light at night has a tremendous effect on the quality of our sleep. Cell phones, computers and TVs emit blue light. Exposure to this blue light during the two hours before bed can keep us from getting a good night’s sleep.

It cuts down the number of minutes people sleep and it also leaves people feeling groggy in the morning.

This blue light can disrupt the body’s circadian rhythms. Data show that this blue light tends to make us more alert at night. That makes it harder to fall asleep so we don’t get the rest we need.

These 5 tips are just the start of a lifetime of well rested sleep, and you’ll wake up feeling full of life and energized in no time. What are your bedtime routines that help you feel energized in the morning? Let us know in the comments.