The fastest way to improve immunity

The fastest way to improve immunity is actually Without breaking through the body's tolerance threshold, the linkage state of the three core dimensions of "sleep-inflammation-nutrition" can be adjusted in a short period of time. . You don’t have to stick to it for three months and a half. If you follow the right method, you can feel obvious changes in a week.

Last winter, I was working on a client's bidding plan. I didn't go to bed until 2 o'clock every day for three consecutive weeks. When I went out for two minutes and the cold wind blew, my fever reached 38 degrees. After I recovered, I kept catching colds for half a month, and I couldn't even get out of breath even after climbing to the third floor. I originally thought it would take me half a year to recover, so I asked a friend who does clinical nutrition for a week to adjust my condition. Later, half of the people in the company got influenza A, and I didn’t get infected. I didn’t even suffer from allergic rhinitis, which I always suffered every time the seasons changed.

Many people on the Internet say that you need to exercise every day to improve your immunity. In fact, this statement is quite controversial. Friends in the fitness circle always tell me that if I do aerobics and strength three times a week, I will basically not get sick in half a year. However, when I asked the immunology doctor at the time, they directly told me that I was in a fatigued state at the time. If I ran another five kilometers, the cortisol surge would suppress the activity of immune cells, which would be a complete disservice to the body. During that time, I only walked for 20 minutes every day after meals. I didn’t dare to do high-intensity exercise at all, and it didn’t delay my immune system.

The first step I made at that time was to fix my sleep schedule. It wasn’t the 12 hours on weekends that everyone said, but it was to go to bed at 23:00 every day for a week. I woke up at 6 a.m. for 7 hours. No more sleep, no less sleep. I used to think that getting enough sleep for 8 hours is considered healthy, but then I checked the 2023 survey data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It was found that people who slept steadily for 6-8 hours a day for a week had a 37% higher activity of virus-killing lymphocytes in their bodies than people who stayed up late and slept for 10 hours on weekends. Of course, some friends who are good at time management recommended to me the segmented sleep method, which divides sleep into 4 hours of core sleep and 2 hours of nap. They said it is more suitable for people with high metabolism. I tried it myself and was drowsy for two days. Maybe I am not that kind of person. Only what suits me will work.

Just getting enough sleep wasn't enough. During the first three days of my adjustment, I woke up every morning with a tight throat and retched while brushing my teeth. My friend said this was due to the chronic inflammation caused by staying up late before, which was dragging down my immunity. There are also two completely different conditioning ideas here: Western medicine recommends supplementing 1000IU of vitamin D and 10mg of zinc every day, which can quickly suppress mild chronic inflammation. ； The old Chinese medicine doctor my mother consulted said that I had a lot of moisture and told me to soak my feet with Wendan Decoction every day to suppress the moisture in my body. I tried both. I took the supplement according to the dose and soaked my feet for 20 minutes at night. Within three days, the tightness in my throat disappeared.

When it comes to food, I didn’t go out of my way to make any fancy nutritious meals. I just replaced the iced American that I had been drinking for three years in the morning with hot sugar-free soy milk, added a spoonful of whey protein isolate, and specially added a palm-sized piece of steamed lean meat for lunch. In the past, I was always afraid of getting fat and would not eat red meat. Later, I learned that whether there is enough heme iron and high-quality protein directly affects the production speed of immune cells. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you have to eat meat. I have a friend who has been a vegetarian for five years. By supplementing with iron and B12, his immunity is much better than that of ordinary people. There is no need to force yourself to accept a diet you don’t like. The best way is to stick to it.

Oh, by the way, there is another pitfall that many people fall into, that is, they love to be clean too much. I used to keep disinfectant spray at my workstation all year round, and I would spray it on my keyboard and mouse every hour, and I would even wipe the takeout bags for half a day. Later, a friend from the Department of Infectious Diseases told me that proper contact with common flora in the environment can stimulate the response ability of immune cells. If the surrounding environment is too clean, the immune cells will be "inactive" for a long time, and if they encounter unfamiliar viruses and bacteria, they will easily overreact and cause various allergic problems. I later put away the disinfectant spray and at most washed my hands before eating, but it made rhinitis less likely.

In fact, when I say "fastest", it only takes a week. There is no mysterious method, and there is no need to buy a lot of expensive health products. Of course, don’t think that once you adjust it, it will last forever. Immunity is like the battery of your mobile phone. If you open too many apps or use it for a long time, it will be drained. Don’t wait until there is only 1% red alarm left before you remember to recharge. Replenish it when you have time. Your body will naturally not cause trouble for you.