How to Boost Your Immune System Naturally (7 Tips)

7 Ways to Boost Your Immune System Naturally

Whether you’re someone who seems to get sick all the time or you just get a cold once or twice a year, you’d probably rather never get sick at all. Unfortunately, getting sick is pretty inevitable.

However, there are some things you can do to boost your immune system naturally to decrease your likeliness of getting sick as often. For starters, one of the easiest things you can do is simply to wash your hands more. That’s quite obvious though. To really build and strengthen your immune system, follow the tips below!

1. Drink More Water

The human body is made up of 60% water, so it makes sense that we should be drinking quite a bit of it throughout the day! In the case of our immune system, water can help strengthen it by increasing the amount of oxygen being delivered to our cells and by flushing unwanted toxins out of our bodies.

If you’re finding it hard to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day, try following these tips on how to drink more water. I’ve also found having a good water bottle helps a lot.

2. Exercise

Although it’s not exactly proven that exercising boosts the immune system, there are some theories that suggest it does. One of the theories is that exercising can help flush bacteria from the lungs and airways. Another is that it helps the antibodies and white blood cells circulate your body more rapidly, allowing them to detect illness more quickly.

While these theories may not be proven, it’s still not going to hurt to get some fitness in when you can. Even if it’s just a 20-minute walk every day or a quick 10-minute at-home workout. I personally love body pump for a good workout.

3. Eat Healthily

If you’re not getting enough nutrients throughout the day, your immune system will not be able to perform at it’s best. Also, if you’re consuming a lot of sugar you could actually be weakening your immune system unknowingly.

To build up a healthy immune system, just make sure you’re eating healthy and getting all the proper nutrients from your meals. For an extra boost, make sure to include these 15 foods in your diet!

If you can’t afford healthier foods and it’s affecting your wellbeing, check out our post on how to eat healthy on a budget.

4. Take an Epsom Salt Detox Bath

This is one of my FAVORITE ways to boost the immune system because it’s just SO relaxing. This DIY Epsom Salt Bath Mix will help kill bacteria, promote circulation, improve your immune function, and more! All while you sit in the tub and unwind. 🙂

5. Get a Good Nights Sleep

Getting enough sleep each night is important for a lot of reasons, including immune support. Without the right amount of sleep, your body makes fewer cytokines, which are small proteins that play a big part in your immune function.

That all might sound a bit scientific and complicated, but don’t worry too much about the technical details. Just make sure you’re getting at least 7-8 hours of quality shut-eye each night. I find that using a sleep mask really helps me sleep better.

6. Reduce Your Stress

Stress doesn’t just affect how you feel mentally, it can also have a direct effect on your immune system. See, when you’re stressed, the immune system can’t fight off threats as effectively which increases your chance of getting an infection.

On top of that, stress can also cause you to lose sleep, eat worse, or push yourself too hard, which can also have an impact on your immune system. To keep your stress levels in check, use these 10 stress relief tips.

7. Take Cold Showers

Ok, we just talked about reducing stress, and now I’m mentioning cold showers. You might be feeling stressed just by thinking about taking a cold shower!! I mean, that sounds like voluntary torture, right?

While yes, a nice hot shower may be more comfortable and great for relieving anxiety, cold showers have their benefits too. In fact, taking cold showers has been proven to reduce stress (by teaching you how to handle it better), and they’ve also (among other benefits) been proven to increase the white blood cells in your body which help protect your body from illness.

So, next time you take a shower, start it off warm but towards the end try turning it down a bit to a colder setting. Focus on your breathing to calm yourself down during the cold. As you get more used to it, try ending your showers with the coldest water available, and try staying under the water for three to five minutes. Eventually, it won’t even phase you and you’ll be strengthing your immune system in the process!

Final Thoughts

Being sick can really throw a wrench in your life plans for a little bit but if you follow the tips above, your immune system will be more robust than ever. Flu season won’t stand a chance! That means more time to spend with the family and less sore throats and sniffly noses!

What do you do to stay healthy throughout the year? Have any of your own tips on how to boost the immune system? Share them below!

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