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Writer's pictureGosia Sojka

How to strengthen immune system and fight against viruses

Updated: Apr 6, 2020

Recently there is a lot of information about coronavirus in media and people start to be afraid of it. In this difficult period of time it is worth to know how to protect from viruses in order to keep away from them. Antoine Bechamp, a French scientist living in the same century as Ludwig Pasteur had a theory saying that we need to keep the territory (in this case our bodies) as strong as possible in order to protect before invaders - our immune system is responsible for it. Béchamp essentially understood the balance of and the importance of the environments we create with foods and other external environment that our internal systems either support or don’t support disease.

So what can we do to strengthen our territory and immune system: 80% of the immune system is present in our gut - it is so called GALT (Gut-associated lymphoid tissue) GALT is preventing us from pathogens which might like to enter our bloodstream and cause further harm - it is very important to take care of our gut. For the start we can: - remove sugar from our diet in order to stop pathogenic bacteria, yeast growing in our gut - eat probiotic food like kefir, sourkrout, kimchi, fermented cucumbers and other vegetables, yogurts - eat prebiotic food which feeds good gut bacteria: onion, leek, garlic, bananas, asparagus, chicory, Jerusalem artichoke, dandelion leaves, apples (with peel), oats, barley - introduce bone broth and chicken stock which contains collagen helping to keep the gut lining healthy (your skin will also be thankful for that :)) 2) eat food which has a potential to kills viruses like: onion, garlic, lemon, turmeric 3) remember about vitamin D, especially now in the winter time when it is not produced in our latitude, ask your GP to test and if it is not possible do it on your own at available labs: https://thriva.co is one of the lab with reasonable rates and remember if you were tested in the past and the low level came out you are also most probably low in this season so supplement at least 1000 IU per day 4) remember of omega -3 which are highly anti-inflammatory and support our immune system - best if you eat oily fish three times a week(makrel, sardines, trout, wild salmon, anchovies, cod livers are all good examples), if you do not like fish try with good quality liver oil 5) assure adequate level of Zinc - a very good test for zinc for home use is available at from the brand Lamberts Zincatest- zinc is essential in white blood cells production 6) assure adequate vitamin A level which is very important for immune system to unction properly, best are animals sources (liver, liver oil, butter) but also carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes spinach as sources of beta-carotene are good 7) drink teas made of elderflower and echinacea which strengthen the immune system, recently medicine mushrooms based coffees (Reishi is very strong immune system stimulator) started to be available and they are also great to fight with viruses, drink turmeric latte

8) vitamin C has been proved to support our immune system while fighting the infection, start with natural sources of vitamin C like citrus fruits, bell peppers, sauerkraut, kiwi and other fruits and vegetables 9) reduce stress - it is hard to say to myself as well especially recently - but yes, stress and high level of cortisol are weakening our immune system, once the stress goes away and cortisol level goes down the weakened immune system is more prone to pick up any infection 😎 get good sleep and let the body restore on its own Have a healthy season and good luck fighting with viruses!



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