The immunity system is the body’s number one defense mechanism that protects you from various types of bacteria, viruses, and other disease-causing pathogens (germs).
Your immune system and your health are directly related. The stronger your immune system the more protection you will have against colds, viruses, and other illnesses that can attack your body.
On the other hand, weak immunity can make you more vulnerable to frequent colds, sinus infections, and sloven healing, as well as causing anemia, fatigue, and lethargy.
Various factors can make your immune system weaker and render you susceptible to diseases, and you may be surprised to learn that many common daily habits actually harm your immune system.
In fact, most of your habits directly impact your immune system especially as you age. To keep your immune system strong is important to adopt healthy habits and quit the bad ones, let’s look at the top 9 everyday habits that directly harm your immunity.
1 – Too Much Coffee
Drinking too much coffee and other caffeinated beverages is also not good for your immunity. Excessive caffeine stimulates your nervous system by increasing the stress level in the body. A high-stress level causes the release of stress hormones like cortisol.
Cortisol is also known to suppress the immune system and make you more prone to infections and other health problems. Elevated cortisol is also linked to health issues related to the heart blood sugar and high cholesterol when taken in moderation. Coffee provides many health benefits like increased alertness, mood, and energy. so limit yourself to just 1to 2 cups of coffee per day.
2- Eating Junk Food
Eating junk food in excess can be bad for your immunity, junk food is often high in fat, and eating excess fat is one of the key reasons behind obesity. And a diet high in saturated fat can harm the immune system even before the weight gain begins to show.
Obesity can affect the ability of the white blood cells to multiply and produce antibodies, thus making you more prone to infections.
A 2014 study published in nutritional journal reports that the Western diet is characterized by overconsumption of refined sugars salt and saturated fat which has a negative impact on immunity it can lead to increase inflammation reduce control of infection increased rates of cancer and increased risk of allergic and autoimmune diseases Cut down on fast food and choose a healthy diet instead.
3 – Consuming Too Much Sugar.
If you often eat or drink something sweet to satisfy your cravings, this can lead to weak immunity. Refined sugar can reduce the ability of white blood cells to kill germs. Sugar actually prevents vitamin C from getting into the white blood cells resulting in a weaken immunity.
Interestingly the immune-suppressing effects of sugar start within 30 minutes after ingestion and may last for many hours.If you need to eat something sweet to go for fruits like oranges, apples, mango, watermelons, and others that contain natural sugars to satisfy your cravings. The vitamin C in these fruits will also help your immune system to work in a more efficient manner.
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4 – Stay Up All Night
If you work late nights or like watching TV or doing projects late into the night you may have weak immunity. Poor sleep habits lower the immune systems functioning and reduce your level of killer white blood cells that fight germs.
Sleep deprivation also reduces the production of protective cytokines while you sleep. Your immune system releases different types of cytokines and helps to protect your body against infections and diseases whose production can significantly decrease if you are sleep deprived.
in 2017, a study published in Journal of Sleep researchers took blood samples from 11 pairs of identical twins but different sleep patterns and found that the twin with the shorter sleep duration had a depressed immune system and with reduced activity of lymphocytes in the blood compared with his or her sibling avoid skipping on sleep.
Develop proper sleep hygiene, be in the bed at a fixed time every night and try to wake up at the same time every morning, be sure to get seven to nine hours of quality sleep every night.
5- Insufficient Amount of Water
The human body is mostly made of water, in every cell of our, body H2O performs numerous functions. if you don’t drink enough water to replenish what your body needs it will surely affect your immune system. Proper hydration is essential for building stronger immunity.
Water is more important for immune system to function than food.
A healthy person should drink about 8-10 glasses of water per day, however, the amount of water you drink may depend upon the climate in which you live, how physically active you are, and your overall health. (8-10 glasses per day).
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6- Sedentary Lifestyle
Lack of regular physical activity is harmful in every way for the body the sedentary lifestyle literally makes the immune system sleep. Engaging in any sport or some form of physical exercise activates it to fight viral and bacterial infections and decreases the likelihood of suffering from chronic diseases such as osteoporosis arthritis or heart disease.
Exercise reduces stress and increases the production of antibodies and white blood cells, on the other hand, when we work out, our body temperature rises, and elevation of body temperature reduces the possibility of bacterial growth on your body. Physical activity is essential for building a stronger immunity and there is no doubt about it but that brings us to our next point.
7- Excessive Exercise
Your body has a limit and when you try to push it beyond its physical limits it stops functioning correctly, your immune system also stops responding efficiently and you fall prey to infections easily.
Researchers showed that more than 90 minutes of high-intensity exercise can make you more susceptible to illness for up to 72 hours after the exercise session. Intense exercise seems to cause a temporary decrease in immune function.
Researchers have found that during these intense physical exertion periods, the body produces certain hormones that temporarily lower the immunity.
Cortisol and adrenaline are stress hormones that perform numerous important functions in our body but they also raise blood pressure and cholesterol levels and they also suppress the immune system this effect has been linked to increased susceptibility to infections in endurance athletes after extreme exercises.
Always ensure that you take proper rest and do not overwork yourself. heavy long-term exercise such as marathon running and intense gym training has been proven to lower your immunity and decrease its ability to fight viral infections.
8- Poor Social Relations
Believe it or not, avoiding people or human connections can also affect your immunity. social relationships both the quantity and quality affect our mental health which affects our health behavior and indirectly affects our immunity as well.
People who have poor relations usually run at least twice the risk of serious illnesses and premature death compared to the people who have good social relations.
If you want to be healthier you cannot avoid other people, like it or not the human body is built to be a part of society, and putting time and effort into positively interacting with others will inevitably bring you many health benefits, If nothing else.
9- Smoking
Cigarettes contain more than 250 highly harmful substances some of which are even considered poisonous such as ammonia, arsenic, nicotine, and toluene. The human body is not made to process chemicals as potent and devastating as those contained in the cigarettes slowly smoking affects all systems of the human body and the immune system is no exception.
A good diet is essential to build a healthy immune system and fight off infections
