How to Boost your Immune System

Increase Immunity from the inside

For the past 100 years, medicine has focused on drugs designed to destroy the invader, like antibiotics, which can sometimes harm the body.

Only recently, with seemingly endless onslaught of new infectious agents, attention has turned towards strengthening the body, rather than conquering the invading organism.

Immune System Questionnaire

o Do you get more than three colds a year?

o Do you usually get a stomach bug each year?

o Do you find it hard to shift an infection (cold or otherwise)?

o Are you prone to thrush or cystitis?

o Do you generally take at least one course of antibiotics each year?

o Has more than one member of your immediate family had cancer?

o Do the glands in your neck, armpits or groin feel tender?

o Do you suffer from allergy problems?

o Do you have an inflammatory disease such as eczema, asthma or arthritis?

o Do you often have a stuffy or runny nose, or suffer with hay fever?

o Do you have an auto-immune disease such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus?

o Have you been diagnosed with cancer or pre-cancerous growths?

Answers

Increase Immunity from the inside

For the past 100 years, medicine has focused on drugs designed to destroy the invader, like antibiotics, which can sometimes harm the body.

Only recently, with seemingly endless onslaught of new infectious agents, attention has turned towards strengthening the body, rather than conquering the invading organism.

The immune system is one of the most remarkable and complex systems within the human body. When you realize that it has the ability to produce a million antibodies within a minute and to recognise and disarm a billion different invaders, the strategy of boosting immune power makes a lot of sense. The ability to react rapidly to a new invader makes all the difference between a minor 24-hour cold and a week in bed with the flu. It may also be the difference between a non-malignant lump and breast cancer, or a minor or major infection.

Exercise, your state of mind and your diet all play a part. Over-training actually suppresses the immune system, while calming exercise such as yoga can stimulate it. Stress and grief also depress the immune system, so learning how to cope with stress, dealing with psychological issues and relaxing regularly is an important part of boosting the immune system.

Immune Superfoods

Watermelon: The flesh is rich in Vitamins A and C and the seeds are a good source of zinc, selenium, Vitamin E and essential fats. Blend together the flesh and seeds to make a delicious juice and drink a glass for breakfast and another during the day.

Carrots: Provide a rich source of betacarotene. Other orange vegetables also provide this immune-boosting nutrient, such as sweet potatoes, apricots and butternut squash.

Seed vegetables: These contain antioxidant nutrient plus protein. Make a large salad with broad beans, broccoli, grated carrot, beetroot, watercress, lettuce, tomatoes and avocados, adding seeds. Serve with a dressing of cold-pressed oil containing some crushed garlic.

Berries: Strawberries have more Vitamin C than oranges, and blueberries have the highest antioxidant power score of all. Raspberries and strawberries are also excellent and, like all berries, contain many phytonutrients that boost your immune system. So, when you are under attack, snack on berries – the more the merrier.

Supplementation

Always remember that food comes first. A supplement can never replace the important nutrients you get from food – that is why it is called a ‘supplement’. Supplementation definitely assists with reaching our Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA). To reach optimum immune boosting levels, supplement with:

• A high-strength multivitamin and mineral supplement, plus an extra 1-2g of Vitamin C.
• Take an antioxidant formula that provides at least 1500mcg of Vitamin A, 200mg of Vitamin E, 10mg of Zinc and 50mcg of Selenium.
• Probiotics – nature’s antibiotics

Infectious agents are all around us. Whether or not you succumb to them is determined not only by your exposure, but also by the balance of beneficial bacteria in your body. You have lots of bacteria in your digestive tract – as long as the balance is correct, these help to inhibit bad bacteria from causing infections, like a sore throat or Candida Albicans thrush.

You can boost your level of beneficial bacteria by taking a probiotic supplement and eating probiotic-rich foods, like certain kinds of yoghurt. These are nature’s antibiotics and apart from helping you inhibit the bad bacteria that cause illness, research has found that they also improve the fighting power of your immune system. Probiotics are proven in helpful treating thrush, recurrent bladder infections, sinusitis and tonsillitis.

Immune boosting herbs

Herbs can be a useful addition to the natural medicine cupboard:

Cat’s claw: A powerful anti-viral, antioxidant and immune-boosting agent. Cat’s claw is available in supplements or as a tea. Dose when fighting an infection: 2 - 6 grams per day, or 2 - 6 cups of tea.

Echinacea: Has anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties. It comes in capsules or as tincture. Dose when fighting an infection: 2 – 3 grams per day, or 15 drops three times a day.

Black elderberry extract: Reduces the duration of colds and flu by preventing the virus from taking hold. Dose when fighting an infection: 1 dessert spoon three times a day.

Garlic: Anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. Include a clove a day in your daily diet. Dose when fighting an infection: Increase to 2 – 6 cloves a day (or take it in supplementary form).

Ginger: Particularly good for sore throats and stomach upsets. Put six slices of fresh root ginger in a thermos with a stick of cinnamon and fill up with boiling water – five minutes later you have a delicious, throat-soothing ginger and cinnamon tea. You can add a little lemon and honey for taste.

Grapefruit seed extract: A powerful natural antibiotic, anti-fungal and anti-viral agent. Dose when fighting an infection: 20 -30 drops per day.

How to kill a cold

Vitamin C is one of the immune system’s most powerful weapons – you just need to ensure the dose is high enough. Based on scientific evidence, the optimum daily dose for cold prevention appears to be 1–2 grams a day. But once you have a cold, much higher levels are needed. This is because you want to ‘saturate’ your body tissues, which ensures a cold virus isn’t able to survive.

To do this you need to take 1 gram an hour. Fortunately, Vitamin C is one of the least toxic substances known to man. The only side effect you may experience is loose bowels – if this happens, just reduce the dose 1 gram every two hours until the cold had gone.

Immune Power Soup

This recipe includes seven anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting foods. The quantities aren’t exact – in fact, you can play around with them to suit your taste.

1. Chop up two red onions and crush four garlic cloves and sauté in a little coconut oil, but don’t brown.
2. Chop up six carrots and three sweet potatoes or a butternut squash into pieces. Add to the onions and garlic and pour in enough boiling water to just cover.
3. Add loads of fresh chopped ginger, a teaspoon of turmeric and about a quarter teaspoon of cayenne. These are powerful infection fighters.
4. Bring the soup to the boil and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the carrots and sweet potato/squash are soft.

Add a diced red pepper, high in Vitamin C, and half a cup of coconut milk and puree to a thick soup consistency.  Serve with pumpernickel.