The cold seasons are just around the corner and the cold season is starting again. So that you can survive them as well as possible, we have twelve tips for you on how you can strengthen your immune system.
In autumn and winter, the constant change from warm to cold and the dry heating air ensure that our immune system becomes vulnerable.
The journey in public transport often gives our struggling defense system the rest – after all, between coughing and snooting fellow travelers, you have hardly any chance to protect yourself from flying germs.
And apparently it is not enough to counter the viral threat with the much praised hot lemon.
This means that when viruses and bacteria lurk on victims, especially in autumn and winter, they have an easy game.
With these twelve tips, you can stand up to nasty pathogens – best of all, combine them with each other.
1. Good mood strengthens your immune system
Permanent stress makes you sick. So: Be good to yourself, give yourself breaks, laugh a lot – a good mood keeps you fit. Sounds too simple to be true? But it is.
2. Strengthen the immune system with foot baths
Boosting blood circulation and the immune system through alternating showers has proven itself, but is not for the soft-teared.
The equally efficient light version goes like this: fill a bucket with cold water at the height of the seal with cold, one with a warm 35 degrees.
Now sit on a chair and warm your feet alternately for three minutes or 15 seconds cold bath.
Repeat three times and always finish the foot bath in cold water.
3. Hats and scarves protect from the cold
Out of the gym when it’s cold with wet hair? Not a good idea: The head cools down quickly and with it the blood vessels of the respiratory tract also contract – this makes it easier for viruses to penetrate.
So, first blow-dry and then hat on! And: Biking and jogging in the cold with a cloth in front of your mouth.
4. Strengthen the immune system: Don’t touch it in the face!
Cold viruses are not, as long suspected, mainly through coughing and sneezing, but through hands.
On door handles, at the ATM, when shaking hands – everywhere we come into contact with pathogens.
And since we are on average every four minutes with our fingers in the face when talking on the phone, thinking, adjusting glasses, we offer you the best chances of attack. Therefore: hands off! And wash more often.
5. Stay home if you have a cold
You don’t want to leave your colleagues hanging at work and therefore drag yourself to the office with a sore throat, runny nose and co.?
You better let it be. Because those who go to work sick not only risk infecting colleagues – especially in the open-plan office, the viruses spread quickly – but also that their own healing is delayed.
So you’d better try to keep your feet still and cure yourself at home, because neither your boss nor your colleagues get anything out of it if you appear sick in the office, but then lie flat for two weeks.
By the way, there is already a name for the urge to go to work even sick:
7. Strengthen the immune system with exercise in the fresh air
When it comes to mobilizing killer cells and other helpers of the immune system, moderate endurance is ideal. Running, swimming, walking, – whatever you feel like.
Studies have shown that even 20 minutes of moderate exercise (a small workout, climbing stairs, jogging and co.) can have an anti-inflammatory effect.
Too extreme training, on the other hand, stresses the body: If you are already a bit shaky on your feet, a crisp unit in the Crossfit Box can now give you the rest.
Important: If it has caught you, you should not do any sport at all – not even a soften. Because this puts an additional burden on the body, which now needs rest.
8. Heating air weakens the immune system
Heating air dries out the mucous membranes – this makes it easier for viruses to attack our health.
Therefore, it is best to ventilate three times a day for ten minutes each time with the window wide open. This way you keep the air moist.
But don’t cool down too much, not even the bedroom. Temperatures below 18 degrees mean (immune) stress for the body.
9. Sage tea for a strong immune system
Sage is not only considered the ultimate medicinal herb for coughs and runny noses. The essential oils contained also soothe the mucous membranes and promote their natural function – and repel pathogens directly.
Scientific studies show that sage also dilates the bronchi and makes breathing and coughing easier.
10. Does vitamin C really strengthen the immune system?
Ask ten friends or acquaintances, and ten times you will get the same answer: “For the immune system you absolutely need vitamin C!” Everyone knows this – and is thus, at least in part, actually wrong.
Contrary to the apparently inextillable health myth, at least an extra dose of the vitamin C abundantly contained in oranges, lemons, peppers or kiwi does not provide more efficient protection against cold viruses for most of us.
Because: Only those who are exposed to extraordinary stress actually benefit from precautionary administration of vitamin C – for example, marathon runners or skiers in winter. Various international studies have now confirmed this.
In plain language: Vitamin C basically strengthens the immune system, catches free radicals and can relieve symptoms – but if we are guaranteed not to suffer from a lack of any vitamin, it is this one. The daily slurped hot lemon brings no additional benefit.
Also dispensable: cold preparations with vitamin C. If you still don’t want to do without vitamin C, take sea buckthorn: it contains ten times more vitamins than the same amount of citrus fruits.
By the way: Vitamin A (for example in carrots or dried apricots) “cares” mucous membranes, such as in the nose and throat. Vitamin B6 (salmon, walnuts) stimulates the formation of immune messengers. And vitamin E (wheat germ oil, egg yolk) promotes the maturation of defense cells.
11. How useful are immune preparations?
These three common, over-the-counter medications are often recommended for colds and flu infections.
Orthomol Immun: The dietary supplement contains high-dose vitamins, trace elements, etc. However, if you do not have a pronounced deficiency, you cannot expect a protective effect.
12. Strengthen the immune system with the right diet
A few little tricks are enough to sustainably strengthen the immune system.
Various studies show that if you serve your body enough cell-protecting minerals (above all zinc and selenium) as well as secondary plant substances, you can strengthen your immune system and better ward off the attack of annoying cold viruses.