How to Boost Your Immune System and Reduce Stress Reactivity
I have spoken with many of you about how to boost your immune system during this time of potential exposure to covid-19, and I thought it would be helpful to review here. These lifestyle choices are in addition to practicing all of the hygiene recommendations necessary to keep everyone safe.
As you know, this is not just about protecting ourselves but also about protecting our entire population, particularly those who seem to be most vulnerable: the elderly and immunocompromised.
BOOST YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM
1) Get 8–9 hours of sleep per night. Adequate sleep is absolutely the most important thing you can do to boost your immune system. For the majority of the people I have coached who are not getting enough sleep at night, the main reason they don't is because they don't prioritize it. If you understand how important it is you will make it happen. Not only does inadequate sleep predispose you to infectious diseases, current science now indicates it can predispose us to dementia. The good news is that you can DO something about this.
2) Improve your stress management strategies. Twenty years ago, 75% of visits to primary care physicians were due either to stress itself, conditions caused by stress, or the exacerbation of pre-existing conditions caused by stress. That figure now has a range of 75–90%. Anxiety and stress are prevalent in our culture as you know—and this was before covid-19. Take steps to reduce your stress reactivity: walk in nature, take a pause within your day just to breathe, listen to guided meditations, and see #1 above.
Here is just one study that demonstrates the health benefits of stress reduction: "In a series of remarkable studies over 20 years at Carnegie Mellon University, volunteers were exposed to the cold virus (using nose drops) and then quarantined for observation. The researchers found that people who reported less stress in their lives were less likely to develop cold symptoms."
You can read the entire article here.
Here is a link to my youtube page where you will find two guided meditations that may help you reduce your experience of stress. The Letting Go Meditation is 5 minutes long, The Body Scan is about 30 minutes long.
In addition, I am a big fan of the insight Timer app, where in addition to offering a robust timing feature you will find thousands of free guided meditations organized by category and time frame. My Letting Go Meditation can be found on Insight Timer as well.
If you are interested in the neuroscience demonstrating what happens in our brain during anxiety, specific to covid-19, and suggestions for behavior change, see this excellent article by Dr. Judson Brewer.
See if you can engage in activities over the course of the next few weeks that are fun and engaging, rather than spending countless hours focused on thought and worry. This will help reduce your experience of stress reactivity, boost your mood and your immune system.
3) Eat a balanced diet. Not only will eating healthy balance your hormones which in turn reduce the stress burden on your body, but healthy foods give you the nutrients you need to stay healthy. The body is able to achieve a sense of health and well-being largely on its own if we give it what it needs.
4) Keep up with your physical activity. The healthy human body has basic requirements: adequate sleep, plenty of liquids/water, healthy food, a calm internal environment and daily physical activity. I realize that working from home can make this difficult. See if you can get your steps up to 10M/day by taking meetings while you are walking, and checking your pedometer in the evening and going for a walk if your steps are low. Walking in the rain can be a very peaceful activity! In addition, and perhaps most importantly, there is a very strong correlation between exercise and reduction in stress and anxiety. This is just one of many resources describing this link.
5) Consider taking vitamins. Vitamins C and D would be good choices right now, Vitamin D in particular with the rain forecast for the next two weeks. There is a version of Vitamin C called "Ester" that is very gentle on digestion, if you have had issues. These vitamins boost good health and our immune system. Additional options could be garlic capsules and echinacea (liquid form) which are both anti-virals.
If you need help with any of the above, or have questions, let's discuss.
LASTLY...SOME ENCOURAGEMENT
As many of you have probably already heard about and considered, these next few weeks can be used as a time of rest, reflection, spending more time with our families, cooking more at home—in short, embracing what we don't have control over and finding the blessings within it, in the interests of sustaining our own good mental and physical health and public safety. This is a very noble aspiration. There is no better time for us to show the world what good neighbors and good citizens and good friends we really are.
If we can all be present with ourselves and our loved ones, be non-reactive (by that I don't mean not feeling your feelings, but rather avoiding going overboard into drama and fear), and be flexible, this could be US at our best. My dear colleague Barbara Whiteside has described this as "spiritual sobriety," which I just love! At a time like now it’s easy to “get drunk” by consuming too much media. See if you can pace yourself between accessing “need to know” information and then putting the news aside and sharing present moment awareness with those around you, whether you’re with them physically or virtually.
Consider these words of wisdom from the revered Pema Chodron, an American Tibetan Buddhist abbess:
“Impermanence is a principle of harmony. When we don’t struggle against it,
we are in harmony with reality."
In other words, this too shall pass. In the meantime, can we be present with ourselves and others in this moment, sharing the best of us for the common good? I know we can.