In this blog I will focus on concrete actions you can take to improve your immune system and keep it as young and healthy as possible.
While there are many steps you can take to improve your immune system, I want to focus on three categories taken from this excellent article You’re Only as Young as Your Immune System plus one more.
The first category is targeted supplements that can help keep your immune system strong.
- Vitamin E – 200 IU per day is recommended for people over 65
- Vitamin D – 1000-2000 IU per day to prevent upper respiratory infections
- Zinc -10-30 mg/day is especially effective for viral infections (don’t overdose).
The second category is exercise.
You obviously know that exercise is good for you.
But did you know that exercise actually strengthens your immune system, and may even make you younger?
When it comes to immune age some focus on the thymus. (to read more about the thymus and immune age click here.) Consistent exercise can slow the deterioration of the thymus and keep it (and you) youthful.
In addition, active skeletal muscle is a potent immune booster – and it is also anti-inflammatory. The recommendation is for at least 10,000 steps per day to keep you young.
The third category is food.
First of all – ensuring that you have healthy gut bacteria and a diverse microbiome is super important. Make sure to eat prebiotics (like seeds and food with fiber) to feed the gut flora. Include fermented foods or probiotics to create a more robust microbiome.
Finally researchers are finding that calorie restriction or fasting is a great way to boost the immune system. There are various regimes including the 16:8 diet, which involves completely eschewing calories for 16 hours and only eating in an 8-hour window. Even done once a week, this is an effective way to slow aging and strengthen the immune system.
If fasting isn’t your cup of tea – just aim to keep your weight within healthy limits since adipose tissue can negatively impact the immune system.
And the final category is – your emotions.
The field of psychoneuroimmunology has been reporting for decades about the connection between your emotions and your immune system.
Negative emotions like loneliness can actually create a pro-inflammatory state in the body while positive emotions like social connection can strengthen the immune system and help it fight off disease.
Similarly, researchers found that engaging in stress management activities reduced inflammation and boosted the body’s ability to fight viruses and tumors.
Finally researchers tried evaluating how happiness affects the immune system. They experimented with two different types of happiness.
They evaluated gene expression from eudaimonic well-being (deeper satisfaction from activities with a greater meaning or purpose, such as intellectual pursuits, social relationships or charity work) and gene expression from hedonic joy (based on bodily pleasures like food and wine).
The researchers were surprised to find that the two types of happiness influenced gene expression in different ways. People with a meaning-based or purpose-based outlook had favorable gene-expression profiles, whereas hedonic well-being, when it occurred on its own, was associated with profiles similar to those seen in individuals facing adversity (to read more about this study and the connections between your immune system and your emotions click here)
So find ways to reduce stress and loneliness and cultivate eudaimonic well-being. Focus on activities that reinforce social connection, charity, and deeper meaning – and boost your immune system at the same time!
