Staying strong and healthy is on everyone’s mind right now, and it should be always! Taking vitamins and supplements is important but making a few things priority, as well as eating and drinking the right stuff can make a HUGE impact in your overall health, and therefore natural immunity!

1. Stay Hydrated 

Hydration doesn’t necessarily protect you from germs and viruses, but preventing dehydration is important to your overall health. Dehydration can cause headaches and hinder your physical performance, focus, mood, digestion, and heart and kidney function. These complications can increase your susceptibility to illness.

2. Get enough sleep

Sleep and immunity are closely tied. In fact, inadequate or poor-quality sleep is linked to a higher susceptibility to sickness. In a study in 164 healthy adults, those who slept fewer than 6 hours each night were more likely to catch a cold than those who slept 6 hours or more each night.

3. Eat more whole foods

Whole plant foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and legumes are rich in nutrients and antioxidants that may give you an upper hand against harmful pathogens.

Almost all citrus fruits are high in vitamin C. With such a variety to choose from, it’s easy to add a squeeze of this vitamin to any meal. Broccoli is supercharged with vitamins and minerals. If you think citrus fruits have the most vitamin C of any fruit or vegetable, think again. Ounce for ounce, red bell peppers contain almost 3 times as much vitamin C as a Florida orange. They’re also a rich source of beta carotene.

4. Eat more healthy fats

Healthy fats, like those found in olive oil and salmon, may boost your body’s immune response to pathogens by decreasing inflammation. Although low-level inflammation is a normal response to stress or injury, chronic inflammation can suppress your immune system.

5. Take some probiotics 

The main job of probiotics, or good bacteria, is to maintain a healthy balance in your body. Think of it as keeping your body in neutral. When you are sick, bad bacteria enters your body and increases in number. This knocks your body out of balance. Good bacteria works to fight off the bad bacteria and restore the balance within your body, making you feel better. Good bacteria keeps you healthy by supporting your immune function and controlling inflammation. 

6. Limit your sugar intake

Emerging research suggests that added sugars and refined carbs may contribute disproportionately to overweight and obesity. According to an observational study in around 1,000 people, people with obesity who were administered the flu vaccine were twice as likely to still get the flu than individuals without obesity who received the vaccine.

7. Keep moving

Studies indicate that even a single session of moderate exercise can boost the effectiveness of vaccines in people with compromised immune system. Examples of moderate exercise include walking, steady bicycling, jogging, swimming, and light hiking. Most people should aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week.

8. Drink more organic herbal tea

Tea can contain beneficial properties that can help strengthen your immune system and ward off illness. Whether you’re worried about flu season, or just want to improve your overall health, many people turn to tea for its medicinal effects. Tea is great for your immune system, high in antioxidants, and a great source of hydration. Many types of tea also have antiviral and antibacterial properties.

9. Relieving stress and anxiety is key to immune health

After years of being in and out of doctors and hospitals I can personally vouch for this. Nothing is worth your health, so never let a work/people/worry get you to a point of stress that ends you up in hospital. Life is about balance, make time for all the things that you love in your life and focus on them.

Activities that may help you manage your stress include meditation, exercise, journaling, yoga, and other mindfulness practices. You may also benefit from seeing a licensed counsellor or therapist, whether virtually or in person.

Above all, be KIND to yourself and others. It is free, absolutely lovely and feels dam good too! Kindness has been shown to increase self-esteem, empathy and compassion, and improve mood. It can decrease blood pressure and cortisol, a stress hormone, which directly impacts stress levels. People who give of themselves in a balanced way also tend to be healthier and live longer.

How about a kindness gift to the one you love? Magic Tea gift pack perhaps?