Kick-start your immunity

Smart ways to stay healthy the natural way

by Charlene Yared

It’s almost time to pull out those winter woollies from the back of your closet as the days get nippier. Not only do you have to rearrange your wardrobe, but you also need to stock up on the usual cold and flu remedies, such as echinacea, ginger and fruits, or supplements laden with vitamin C. However, starting today, you could stave off those seasonal complaints and boost your immunity with these four easy steps:

1 Sleep for up to eight hours a day

“Lack of sleep lowers your immune system response and makes you more prone to infections and diseases,” says Brian Govender, sleep services manager at the Cape Sleep Centre. “Not only that, but too little sleep has an effect on concentration, memory and mood. It is also a major cause of accidents and keeps you from being fully present and enjoying social relationships.” Govender points out that a lack of sleep can also result in gastro-intestinal distress, headaches and aching muscles. He reckons sleeping at least six to eight hours a night, in a darkened room without disruptions, is vital in our increasingly stressful lifestyles to keep us in the pink.

2 Laughter is the best medicine

A few years back, Megan Furniss, owner of Improvision, a company that has been performing TheatreSports in Cape Town for the past 16 years, attended a Laughter Yoga workshop. “Laughter oxygenates the blood, reduces stress and releases endorphins – all processes that give your immune system a lift,” she says. Research conducted by Loma Linda University in California, USA, claims that brain chemicals linked to the immune system increase when we laugh – or even when we think of something funny. With TheatreSports, the nature of the laughter is not centred on making fun of others; rather, it is wholly positive and focused on on-the-spot improvisation games. “The laughing is utterly contagious – and that is all you’ll be catching if you laugh abundantly this season,” she adds. To find out more visit www.laughsa.com or www.laughter4africa.org.za.

3  Eat and exercise

“Eating well-balanced healthy meals decreases the amount of toxins made by your body, and increases the antioxidants necessary to clean up free radicals, which helps to strengthen the immunity,” says Kim Hofmann, Adventure Bootcamp resident and registered dietician. “Eat  more fresh fruit and vegetables for vitamins; yoghurt for the gut and immune function; and honey for its anti-microbial activity.” Fitness consultant and Adventure Bootcamp trainer, Irini Simitci-Green, points out that exercise works hand-inhand with nutrition. “Exercise boosts the production of macrophages – the warriors responsible for fighting off bacteria in the system,” she says. “Always aim towards a healthy regime of combining nutrition and exercise, as this benefits your body on so many levels.”

4 Meditation every day

The founder of Buddhism, Gautama Siddharta once said: “Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.” Louis van Loon, founder of the Buddhist Retreat Centre, located in the village of Ixopo in KwaZulu-Natal, couldn’t agree more: “It has been recognised for decades in the West and millennia in the East, that your physical wellbeing is intimately linked to your psychological health,” he says. “The deep contentedness that comes from being at peace in the world of your experiences, no matter what they are, affects the whole of your being.” Van Loon encourages nurturing the self through Mindfulness Meditation practice, through which you learn to pay close attention to your most immediate ‘here-now’ reality, while staying calm, yet fully engaged. American research into Mindfulness Meditation in 2003 found that this type of meditation positively affected the brain and immune system functioning.