The best way to get over being sick is to continuously prevent bacteria, viruses, and pathogens from breaking through your body’s defense system in the first place. Here are our top strategies to prevent illness and boost your immune system. 

Reduce Acute and Chronic Stress: Setting the mood, so to speak, can help. Sometimes just lighting an aromatic candle, or adding a few drops of lavender essential oil to an essential oils diffuser can help make you feel more balanced and de-escalate your anxiousness. Also, be mindful that high does of caffeine, a stimulant, can increase anxiety.  To relieve tension and promote relaxation, pour a cup of Stress Ease (caffeine free) Tea. 

There are many unhealthy means of dealing with stress, such as drinking too much alcohol, or other ways to “numb out” with food, social media, or endless hours of watching TV. Poor time management along with bad eating and drinking habits can lead you to feeling overwhelmed and make your body function at a less-than optimal level. 

One way to address this is to look at your routine, consider your schedule, and see where you can reasonably fit something positive and healthy in. For instance, do you spend three hours watching TV each night and then head to bed to scroll through your phone for another hour? Now if you want to watch a show, go for it! You could try adjusting habits that don’t serve you as well by decreasing to maybe one hour of TV and one hour of exercise.  

Ensure Adequate Sleep: Aim for 7-8 hours of sleep every night. In a study of 164 healthy adults, those who slept fewer than 6 hours each night were more likely to catch a cold than those who slept 6 hours or more each night. 

The hour before bedtime, avoid watching TV or looking at your phone. Try reading a book or magazine or doing another non-screen activity to help your body prepare to rest. 

Hydrate: Dehydration can cause headaches and hinder your physical performance, focus, mood, digestion, and heart and kidney function. These complications can increase your susceptibility to illness. Aim for 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids a day for men and about 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) of fluids a day for women. 

Engage in Regular Exercise: Studies show even moderate exercise reduces inflammation and helps your immune system regenerate. Think walking, jogging, yoga, biking, or skiing. 

Eat nutrient dense foods rich in Vitamin C: Fruits and vegetables are rich in nutrients like vitamin C, which may reduce the duration of the common cold. High vitamin C foods include guavas, bell peppers, kiwifruit, strawberries, oranges, papayas, broccoli, tomatoes, kale, and snow peas. 

Additionally, try cooking with garlic, onions, ginger, oregano and turmeric. These ingredients have been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties, and garlic and onions offer wide spectrum antimicrobial properties. Add them to soups and vegetable dishes, as well as bean dips and sauces for a flavorful boost.

Add Fermented Foods or Take a Probiotic Supplement: Foods helping balance gut bacteria include yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, and natto. Your gut is an integral part of your immune system, and a healthy GI tract provides a strong barrier against pathogens. Research suggests that a flourishing network of gut bacteria can help your immune cells differentiate between normal, healthy cells and harmful invader organisms. 

Bridge any other nutrition gaps with supplements: With food as your baseline, many of your nutritional bases will be covered so to speak, but vitamins and supplements can help address any deficiencies and provide powerful, additional support. 

Bringing it all together

In addition to washing your hands thoroughly and avoiding people who may be sick, follow the above tips to protect yourself against viruses and support a strong immune system.