Ways to boost immunity

Eat enough nutrition, sleep regularly, exercise moderately, and don't bother yourself. The rest of the supplements are basically the icing on the cake, and many of them are even IQ taxes. Don't waste your money.

Let’s first talk about the supplements where it is easiest for everyone to pay the IQ tax. Nowadays, there has been a fierce debate in the academic circles about whether supplements can improve immunity: one group insists that as long as you have a balanced diet every day, there is no need to take any additional supplements. The excess nutrients will either be excreted or put a burden on the liver and kidneys. ； The other group considers that most office workers now eat takeout every day, heavy in oil and salt every meal, and rely on two vegetable leaves in Malatang for vegetables. It is difficult to fully meet the standard, so you can supplement the basics appropriately, but the upper limit is very strict - for example, the maximum daily intake of VC cannot exceed 2000mg, which is equivalent to up to 1 ordinary effervescent tablet. If you supplement too much, you may suffer from diarrhea and oral ulcers, and in severe cases, it may cause stones. Last year, I met a young girl who works in Internet operations. I heard that VC supplementation can prevent colds. She took one effervescent tablet every morning and evening. After taking it for half a month, she failed to prevent the cold. She first developed oral ulcers all over her mouth. She went to the hospital to check that the uric acid level was high. It took half a month to stop taking it and it came down. The last time I went to a community hospital for a free clinic, I met an aunt who spent more than 8,000 yuan to buy the so-called "imported immune factor oral liquid" and drank it for three months. She still caught the flu last time. The doctor settled the account for her. The 8,000 yuan was enough for her to buy three years of fresh fruit and pure milk. The aunt was so distressed that she slapped her thighs on the spot. Really, if you can eat an orange and half a catty of green leafy vegetables every day, you really don’t need to spend that money.

When it comes to eating, many people think of eating salads and sea cucumbers and abalone when they think of improving their immunity. It is really unnecessary. There is data in the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents" that as long as you can eat 12 different kinds of food every day and 25 kinds every week, the activity of immune cells will be about 30% higher than that of people who eat the same food every day. For ordinary office workers, when ordering takeout, don’t just order braised chicken with rice, add blanched vegetables, and occasionally a braised egg. Order steamed fish two days a week, and cook multi-grain porridge and boiled corn at home on weekends. You can easily meet the standard. My mother used to be superstitious that eating sea cucumbers can enhance immunity, and she would spend thousands to buy sea cucumbers every winter. Later, I adjusted her diet by adding half a pound of green leafy vegetables every day and eating deep-sea fish twice a week.

Don’t think that everything will be fine if you eat right. I have seen too many people who eat fitness meals and take multivitamins in pills every day. They stay up until two or three o’clock every day to catch up on updates and play games. They are still the first to have a fever when the seasons change. Regarding how much sleep is enough every day, different studies have different conclusions: tracking data from the Stanford Sleep Laboratory shows that young people need to sleep for 7 hours before their immune globulin levels can reach the standard to resist viruses. However, there are also studies that say that for a small number of people with genetic mutations, 4-5 hours of sleep a day is completely enough. However, such people account for less than 3%. Don’t bet on yourself as the chosen one. When I was working on a project, I stayed up for a week and only slept an average of 5 hours a day. Last week, someone in the office caught a cold and I caught it on the spot. Then I adjusted it for a week and went to sleep at 11:30 and 7:00 every day, which is exactly 7.5 hours. This week, my colleague had two positive symptoms. I held an afternoon meeting with him and it was fine. I personally tested it and it worked.

When it comes to exercise, the controversy is even greater. People in the fitness circle always say that you need to practice HIIT and exercise to build muscles to improve your immunity. Health-preserving parties also say that you need to do gentle exercises such as Tai Chi and Baduanjin to avoid harming the body. In fact, both statements are correct, but it depends on your own situation: people who insist on regular high-intensity exercise for a long time will indeed have better immune function than those who are sedentary, but the premise is that you don’t overdo it. Many novices spend two or three hours in the gym and can’t even climb stairs the next day after training. At that time, the body will enter a short "immune window period", and it will be more susceptible to infection than usual. ； If you have no exercise habit at all, you really don’t have to force yourself to apply for a fitness card worth thousands of dollars. Just get off the train two stops before get off work and walk briskly for 20 minutes, or dance to Pamela videos for 10 minutes at home. If you persist for a month, the activity of neutrophils can increase by more than 15%. This is a research result just released by the Department of Sports Nutrition of Beijing Sport University last year. It is very reliable.

Many people ignore the impact of emotions on immunity. I had a client who worked as an auditor last year. She ate as required and slept as much as possible for 7 hours. Even though she worked overtime until early in the morning every day, her boss kept praising her every day. She had a cold every month for 3 consecutive months. Then she quit her job and took a month off to find a job without working overtime. It has been more than half a year now, and she has not even suffered from allergic rhinitis, which she always suffered every spring. The current academic consensus is that long-term stress will keep cortisol levels in the body high. High cortisol will inhibit the function of immune cells. As for how to reduce stress, there is no standard answer. Some people think that mindfulness meditation is effective, and some people think that climbing a mountain and singing K on the weekend is better than anything else. Just choose something that is comfortable for you. Don't force yourself to become more anxious just to reduce stress.

Oh, by the way, one last thing that everyone often forgets: Don’t be lazy when it comes to vaccinations. Influenza vaccines, HPV vaccines, and shingles vaccines for middle-aged and elderly people are equivalent to sending the enemy's portrait to the immune cells in your body in advance. When you actually encounter a virus, the reaction speed is several times faster, and it is more effective than any number of supplements you take. In fact, after all, immunity is your body's own guard. If you give it enough food, enough rest, don't torment it with nothing, and don't burden it with a bunch of useless "supplements", it will naturally do a good job for you. Those "magic immunity pills" that are so popular and sell for thousands of dollars are really not as practical as going to bed early today and adding extra hot vegetables when ordering takeout tomorrow.