Holistic Intent: Tips To Strengthen Your Immunity

As we enter the cold and flu season, at least here in North America, I thought we would go over some tips on boosting your Immune System.

Protect your cells with antioxidants. Vitamins C and E stimulate immunity and protect against cancer by neutralizing free radicals. Vitamin A also helps strengthen immune cells. The minimum daily requirement is 1,000 RE (found in 1 carrot) for vitamin A, 60 mg. (1 orange) for vitamin C and 8-10 mg. (2 tbsp. vegetable oil) for vitamin E.

Gain energy with oxygen. Get plenty of exercise to ensure you are getting adequate fresh air. This allows more oxygen to be exchanged between your blood and the air in your lungs and speeds metabolism, so that you gain more energy from the nutrients you eat. Feeding your body properly is important all the time, but especially now when it will be attacked by the flu virus and various other bacteria. Try to eat organic fruits and vegetables when possible.

Strengthen your thymus gland. The thymus gland, located in the upper chest behind the breast bone, produces the immune-system cells that help fight infection. Unfortunately, this organ shrinks as we age, and its effectiveness gradually diminishes. Here’s a quick and easy way to stimulate the thymus gland and boost your immune system: Every morning, tap on the middle of the breast bone with your fingers for about five minutes. This is an Acupressure exercise.

Hot and cold showers. Begin your morning with a warm shower. After a few minutes, step aside and change the water temperature to lukewarm or cold. Place your right leg back in the shower first, then slowly place your whole body under the flow of invigorating water. This is a form of Hydrotherapy, a holistic method that uses water to stimulate the body to heal.

Stress reduction. We’ve all heard this one before. Scientific studies show that stress weakens your immunity. Try relaxation techniques such as yoga or meditation to help you cope with stress. Drinking chamomile or valerian herbal tea and aromatherapy also help reduce stress.

Try this immune system cocktail. Put three carrots, one orange, one apple and half a beet through a juicer and drink. Make a fresh batch of this drink every day.

A healing inhalation for sinuses. Enjoy a hot steam bath with mint oil, which kills bacteria on the mucous membranes and stimulates the formation of antibodies. Or boil a pot of water with a few drops of essential oil of peppermint or use eucalyptus if you have a stuffy nose. Then make a tent with a towel over the pot (not while it's still on the stove, you don't want to burn the house down) and place the towel over your head. This is good for your skin, too.

Extra tip. Keep the indoor humidity level between 30 and 50 percent so that the mucous membranes in the nose don’t dry out. This will help protect the cilia, the fine hairs that line the nose and act as a barrier to keep germs from penetrating the body. If you have a wood-burning stove, keep a pot of water on top of it with essential oil of tea tree in it. Tea tree oil is great at killing germs in the air.

Echinacea. One of the most effective and popular herbal remedies for strengthening the immune system is Echinacea. Recently there has been a US government funded study discounting the effectiveness of this herb. However thirteen high-quality European studies found quite the opposite. According to one, “Echinacea (when taken at the first sign of a cold for 8 to 10 days) reduced cold symptoms or shortened their duration.”