Positive Habits to Help Boost Your Immune System All Year Long

To build resilience from getting a cold or the flu, improve positive habits to boost your immune system. Doing these things can keep you healthy all year long.

Wash your hands before you touch your face. It’s important to have clean hands before your hands have direct contact with your eyes, ears, nose and mouth

Sleep is Essential  

Getting enough sleep is essential for a multitude of health benefits especially when resisting from catching the cold or flu.  People who slept less than seven hours a night were three times more likely to catch a bug than those who put in 8 plus hours of shut-eyes at night. Source: Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburg

Have Good Hygiene

Avoiding germs that threaten your health can be washed away by washing your hands and under your finger nails with soap.  It will lower your risk from illness. Source: University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor

Here are other ways to practice good hygiene:

~ Shower daily.

~ Wash your hands before eating or preparing food.

~ Wash your hands before you touch your face. It’s important to have clean hands before your hands have direct contact with your eyes, ears, nose and mouth.

~ The CDC recommends scrubbing your hands for 20 seconds and scrub under your fingernails. Source: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

~ Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing.

~ Make it a habit to carry hand sanitizer especially when you can not access a sink with soap.

~ While traveling, pack alcohol based wipes to disinfect shared surfaces such as the telephones, doorknobs, light switches and remote controls.

Have Good Hygiene: Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing.

Healthy Vitamin D Levels

It is important to apply sunscreen every day (rain or shine) and using other sun protection measures to protect your skin from harmful UVA and UVB sun rays such as avoiding the sun during peak hours.  While doing so, it is crucial to make sure you keep your Vitamin D levels at healthy levels to avoid the possible health implications including a weak immune system.  Thankfully, maintaining a healthy Vitamin D level is easy by the foods you eat and/or Vitamin D3 supplements.  You can buy vitamin D supplements at your local pharmacy or health store. Choose supplements that contain D3 (cholecalciferol), since it’s better at raising your blood levels of vitamin D.

Sun Warrior Sunscreen

Try our light-weight & non-greasy Sun Warrior Sunscreen

Free of harmful chemicals that 80% of other brands use

LEARN MORE

Positive Vibes

By living life with a positive attitude, you can lower stress hormones such as cortisol that make you more prone to illness. By practicing self-care with a positive mindset, you will boost your immune system to avoid colds and flu.  Carnegie Mellon researchers found that people who were content and relaxed were three times more likely to avoid a cold than those who were depressed, anxious, or angry.

Laugh Out Loud (LOL)

NK cells is a fundamental part of your immune system to fight off infections. When laughing, studies show that there is an increase NK cell activity. It makes sense as you often store negative emotions, such as anger, sadness and fear, rather than expressing them.  Laughter provides a way for these emotions to be harmlessly released.

Keep Calm by Meditating

Meditation and practicing yoga help relieve stress levels.

It is commonly known that there is a connection between chronic mental stress that lowers cortisol level and physical illness.  For this very reason, meditation and practicing yoga is highly recommended to relieve stress levels.

Cortisol helps the body fight inflammation and disease. The constant release of the hormone in people who are chronically stressed lessens its overall effectiveness. This can result in increased inflammation and disease, as well as a less effective immune system. Source: National Academy of Sciences