Amid pandemic, people have tried various ways to build immunity — whether it is eating clean, maintaining a strict workout routine or trying various homemade kadha concoctions. But did you know that some common habits can, in fact, take away from all the hard work put it? Dietitian Mansi Padechia recently shared a post on Instagram talking about the important things one should keep in mind to not let the body’s immunity drop.

“Our body shows signs of a strong immune system pretty often. One example is when you get a mosquito bite. The red, bumpy itch is a sign of your immune system at work. The flu or a cold is a typical example of your body failing to stop the germs/bacteria before they get in,” she mentioned.

Describing how one can know whether the immune system is working or not, she said, “When you recover from the cold or flu, it’s proof that your immune system was able to eliminate the invader after learning about it and reacting to its defense. If your immune system did nothing, you would never get over the cold, or anything else for that matter. When you are sick, your body isn’t able to perform at its full potential.”

As such, we went on to list some “toxic habits” that impact our immune system.

Lack of sleep

The body releases cytokines, a type of protein that helps the immune function. But it is only produced during sleep. So lack of sleep impairs immunity.

Lack of sleep impairs immunity (Source: Getty images)

Anxiety and stress

Stress hormone corticosteroid reduces the effectiveness of the immune system by lowering the number of lymphocytes.

Low intake of fruits and vegetables

Nuts and seeds pack a lot of zinc, beta-carotene, vitamins A, C, E, and other nutrients which help in the creation of white blood cells or WBCs.

Low vitamin D

Vitamin D receptors are present on many types of immune cells and function actively to keep infections at bay.

Lack of exercise

Aerobic exercises help blood get around your body more efficiently, which means germ-fighting substances get where they need to go.

What are you doing to up your immunity?

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