Tips for improving immunity

If you want to really improve your immunity, the core is not to stock up on sky-high price supplements or follow the bloggers to do magical exercises, but to do the four small daily things of eating, sleeping, moving, and emotions in a solid manner. This is the most cost-effective and practical conclusion that I have come to after doing health management for more than three years and accompanying dozens of sub-healthy clients to adjust their status.

To put it bluntly, I have seen too many people take detours in improving their immunity. Last month, a client came to me with half a drawer of unfinished imported vitamins and lactoferrin. He said that he spent less than 2,000 yuan a month on supplements, but he still caught colds when the seasons changed. When asked, he ate takeout every day, drank three times a week and stayed up four nights. The supplements were not enough to fill the hole. The current attitude of the nutrition community towards supplements is actually divided into two groups. One group believes that as long as the daily diet is balanced, there is no need for additional supplements. The other group believes that most office workers today have a rough diet, and there is no harm in taking appropriate basic supplements. My own experience is that there is no need to follow the trend, as long as you can ensure that you eat it every day There is enough for a pound of vegetables and half a pound of fruits, eggs, milk and lean meats, so there is no need to waste this money. If you often travel for business or take out food, take the time to do a trace element test and make up for whatever is missing. I keep a multivitamin and D3 all year round. I take it when I am on a business trip and have a messy schedule. I have never used other supplements.

Compared with taking supplements, a good night's sleep has a much greater impact on immunity. There used to be a girl who worked in Internet operations. She stayed up until two or three o'clock all year round, and slept until two or three o'clock in the afternoon on weekends. She suffered from urticaria three times in six months, and she was bound to get it during the flu season. Later, I didn't let her eat anything else, and asked her to stay up no matter how late she slept the day before. She must get up at eight o'clock the next morning and put her mobile phone in the living room before twelve o'clock in the evening. Do not touch her mobile phone even if she lies down and cannot fall asleep. She persisted like this for three weeks. She came to me specifically and said that this week, half of the people in the office had colds and she was not infected, and she did not suffer from urticaria again. Of course, there are many studies that say that as long as the sleep rhythm is stable, even if you only sleep for 6 hours a day, your immunity will not be affected. You don’t have to be stuck in the 7-8 hours standard. I think it depends on your own state. If you feel relaxed after waking up, you have slept enough. The most feared thing is that day and night are reversed. If you sleep for 3 hours today and 12 hours the next, it will be useless.

It seems like a cliché to talk about exercise, but you really don’t have to force yourself to get a fitness card and run five kilometers every day. In the past two years, I was crazy and applied for more than 3,000 annual passes. I went there less than five times in total. Later, I found that even if I get off work two stops early and walk for 20 minutes, or dance to Pamela videos at home for 10 minutes, the effect is better than going to the gym for two hours. There are two opinions in the sports circle. One is that high-intensity exercise can quickly improve immunity, and the other is that high-intensity exercise can cause short-term immune suppression. In fact, both of these are correct. If you have not exercised all year round and suddenly run a half-marathon, your immunity will definitely decrease and you will easily get sick. disease, but you should take it step by step and maintain 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise three times a week, such as brisk walking, jogging, or yoga. The long-term improvement in immunity is real. Those friends around me who have persisted for more than half a year will basically not catch more than two colds throughout the year.

Many people have overlooked that emotions are actually the invisible killer that affects immunity. At the end of last year, I had a friend who was a designer. She was busy working on a project for a month. She was so anxious that she couldn't sleep at two or three in the morning. First, she developed herpes on the corner of her mouth, and then she got herpes zoster. When she went to the hospital, the doctor directly said that it was caused by a weakened immunity due to too much stress. After the project ended, she went to Dali for a week, and when she came back, she didn't take any more medicine, and all the symptoms disappeared. Nowadays, research in psychosomatic medicine has long confirmed that long-term anxiety and stress will cause long-term high cortisol levels, which will slowly slow down the work of the immune system. I really don’t need to learn any complicated methods of emotional regulation. I usually take 5 minutes every afternoon to stand by the window in a daze. On weekends, I go to the park to sit in the sun for half an hour. I don’t think about anything and just watch the grandparents walking and the children running. It is more effective than any psychology class.

Actually speaking, there is really no mysterious and exclusive secret to improving immunity. I have seen too many people want to take shortcuts. Today they buy several thousand yuan of immunoglobulin oral solution, and tomorrow they follow the 10-minute exercise to improve immunity. Then they turn around and stay up late drinking iced milk tea. All their efforts are really in vain. As far as my own experience is concerned, I carry a vitamin D in my bag now, take one when I think of it, put my mobile phone in the living room to charge at 10:30 in the evening, and go for a walk in the park on weekends when I have nothing to do. When the A- and B-A epidemics were fierce this spring, I went out to meet customers every day and didn't get caught. You see, there is no magic secret, it's just doing the most basic things well.