3 natural things you can do to immediately boost your immunity

Engaging in healthy habits to boost your immunity, is a great idea during the best of times, let alone during a pandemic. Microbes are ubiquitous, and the human body has been engaged in a fight with them, since the beginning of time. They are going nowhere, and will still continue to threaten you, even if coronavirus disappears off the face of the earth. No matter what your age, there are always things that you can do to help make your immune system as strong as possible. Here are 3 particular health habits that you should be focusing on:

1. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, especially those high in anti-oxidants and vitamin C
I cannot over-emphasize the mantra of “5-a-day” enough when it comes to vegetables and fruits. If you have that in your head all the time and do it consistently, the benefits to your health are enormous. Focus on some superstars including blueberries (or any type of berry), citrus fruits, peppers, and dark green leafy vegetables.

An idea: start your morning of with a handful of blueberries and a banana, which will already give you almost half of your daily quota!

2. Get outdoors and exercise
Exercise serves a massive boost to your body, and it's an extra benefit if you can do this outdoors (also think Vitamin D, which is further linked to immunity). Minimum recommendations are for 75 minutes of vigorous intensity a week and/or 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, but feel free to do much more than just the bare minimum. This, along with diet, is obviously linked with maintaining a healthy weight. Obesity, aside from age and having pre-existing medical conditions, is one of the worst risk factors for getting extremely sick from infections.

3. Get enough sleep every night
Research suggests that almost half of adults do not get enough sleep every night. We have all probably had it drummed into us from a young age that when we sleep, our bodies heal and regenerate. It's true. If you don't get enough continuous restful sleep every night, it will serve as a huge drag on your body. Ever developed a viral illness when you are tired and sleep deprived? Probably. How much should you get? Studies suggest the optimal amount is between 6 to 8 hours for most adults every night. You probably know your own sweet spot (mine is about 6.5 hours).

If you want to give yourself a natural immunity boost and have your best chance of fighting off any infection, these three natural things done consistently will help you in more ways than you can imagine.

Suneel Dhand is an internal medicine physician, author and speaker. He is the founder of DocSpeak Communications and co-founder at DocsDox. He blogs at his self-titled site, where this post first appeared.