What Weakens Your Immune System

You wash your hands, chug O.J., avoid contact with sick people, and still come down with a fever. Um, what gives? These not-so-obvious things could be weakening your immunity. But rest assured—we’ve got simple fixes to keep your body strong this cold and flu season. A strong immune system is key to fighting off bacterial, parasitic and viral infections to keep our bodies healthy. The immune system also plays a role in restricting tumors and cancerous growths inside the body. It’s important to keep your immune system strong and healthy. Here are eight things that can make your immune system weaker.

Stress-

Stress can have a major negative impact on your immune system. When you experience continued stress, the adrenal glands release extra cortisol to help your body manage the stress. Elevated cortisol levels decrease the production of healthy prostaglandins, which support healthy immune function; while slowed prostaglandin production allows for inflammation, immune suppression, and more. During a period of elevated cortisol levels, immune system cells disappear from the blood. Natural Killer Cells are the part of the immune system most sensitive to increased cortisol levels.

Lack of Sleep-

Adequate, quality sleep is essential for immune system health. A study conducted in 2012 found that sleeping fewer than seven hours each night can significantly impair the ability of the immune system to work properly. During sleep, the immune system releases proteins called cytokines. Some cytokines help promote sleep, while others need to increase when you have an infection or inflammation or when you’re under stress. Infection-fighting antibodies and cells are also reduced during periods of reduced sleep.

The researchers in the 2012 study found a dramatic difference in immune response in subjects who slept four to six hours per night compared to those who slept seven to nine hours. Time was the critical factor, over quality of sleep. School-aged children may need 10 or more hours of sleep for optimal immune system health.

Lack of Exercise-

If you are a couch potato and don’t get enough exercise, your immune system could pay for your leisure. Studies have shown that exercise boosts your immune system by strengthening the cells in your body that are assigned to attack bacteria. These cells appear to work more slowly in people who do not exercise than in those who do exercise. Your body also produces antibodies during exercise that react to antigens such as bacteria or viruses by hunting them down and destroying them.

Exercise can also potentially help our immune system serve as a “cancer surveillance” system. In one small study, exercise was found to change immune cells into a more powerful disease-fighting form in cancer survivors who had just completed chemotherapy.

Poor nutrition-

The body needs the proper amount of vitamins, minerals, calories and protein for cells to grow and work properly. Without these, the immune system can grow weak and be less able to find and destroy germs. Whether your diet is poor because of food choices, food availability or even poor digestion, your immune system suffers. Good nutrition should include lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and low fat milks. A diet that is healthy for the immune system should avoid excessive consumption of refined sugars and highly processed foods containing preservatives, pesticides and chemical additives.

Excessive alcohol-

Just like eating too much sugar, drinking too much alcohol can reduce the ability of white blood cells to kill germs. The more alcohol that you drink, the more damage that occurs to your immune system. Alcohol can impair the ability of the immune cells to function properly, increasing your risk of infectious diseases and cancer.

Smoking-

We have known for a while that smoking can increase your risk of lung cancer. Did you know that smoking, or even second hand smoke, can weaken or damage your immune system? Cigarettes contain more than 4,000 chemicals, all of which are extremely toxic to the body.

Low immune function refers to an underactive and poor performing immune system. The immune system’s prime function is to protect the body against infection and the development of cancer. Support and enhancement of the immune system is perhaps the most important step in achieving resistance to disease and reducing susceptibility to colds, flus, and cancer. Supporting the immune system involves a health-promoting lifestyle, stress management, exercise, diet, and the appropriate use of nutritional supplements and herbal medicines.