There are five easy tips that we can all follow to improve our immunity.
1. Cigarette Smoking
There are of course many reasons not to smoke cigarettes. They are linked to cancer, heart disease, and even diabetes. But if those problems seem too far off to worry about in your 20’s and 30’s , let me point out that cigarettes paralyze the cilia in the airways, alter mucus production and damage a phagocyte’s ability to eat up bacteria. As a result, mucus builds up in the airway and offers bugs a wonderful breeding ground to multiply. Not only are respiratory infections more frequent in smokers, they tend to be more severe and last longer.
2. Exercise
We’ve all heard about the benefits of exercise – weight control, cholesterol decrease, better diabetes control, and improvement of both depression and high blood pressure. To these benefits we can now add improved immunity. Studies have shown that moderate regular exercise can improve antibody response to flu vaccination, especially in older adults. Other research has shown that people who engage in moderate levels of exercise have improved T cell numbers as well as function - a good measure of how well a body can defend itself.
Interestingly, too much exercise can actually have the opposite effect. Adults who exercised more than 90 minutes a day, several times a week actually had depressed immune profiles. Elite athletes and marathoners were found to have reductions both T cells and Natural Killer cells.
3. Weight Control
Doctors have found that excess weight is also a factor that effects immunity. Clinically we know that obese people have a higher incidence of bacterial infections and slower wound healing. Research studies have found that people who meet the definition of obese have lowered levels of lymphocytes and natural killer cells. But the good news is that when obese individuals lose weight, their lymphocyte levels and function improves.
4. Alcohol Consumption
Excess alcohol, like cigarette smoke, paralyzes the cilia and increases mucus production. Too much alcohol also dampens the senses and makes swallowing more difficult and inefficient, so that food and microbes can easily find their way into the respiratory system. This accounts for why many people who abuse alcohol are so prone to pneumonia.
However, a daily glass of wine, rich in anti-oxidants, has actually been linked to improved resistance to infectious disease. Keep your intake to a maximum of five servings a week and you will give your immune system a boost. In fact people who abstain from alcohol altogether have a lower immune profile than those who drink in moderation.
5. Emotional Health
For the past twenty years we have been accumulating research evidence that links mood and immunity. Studies on stress have shown that life events such as marital discord, divorce, and job loss can depress levels of both NK and T cells, thus lowering immunity. Even routine daily stresses such as deadlines, traffic jams and long lines at Starbucks can cause changes in immunity. It is very easy to tell people not to get upset or take it easy—but not very effective. We cannot always control our lives but we can help our body cope with it. Just taking a break, at least once a day, will break the cycle of stress and help your immune system regain equilibrium. Try to carve out a 30 minute slot each day for you to do something you enjoy. It can be reading a book, taking a walk or meeting a few friends to talk.
Chronic depression can have an even more profound impact on our immune function. Research has shown that major depression is linked to an increase in severe health problems including heart disease, hypertension and even cancer. Immunology studies have shown that depression can lead to immune dysregulation.
We are just beginning to explore if anti-depressant therapy can reverse the changes in the immune system and it is certainly an area that we will certainly be hearing much more about.
Better immunity does not come from a pill or a vitamin supplement. The ability to resist infection depends in great part on basic lifestyle choices. We have all heard about the benefits of exercise and weight control, but its impact on immunity is an important reason to listen to good health care advice. I feel it is particularly relevant to adults in their 20’s and 30’s for whom health care issues such as high blood pressure and diabetes seem decades away. But when we know that smoking, excess alcohol and stress can impact on our day to day immunity from all to common infections, it might give new motivation to make beneficial lifestyle choices.
