Thursday, November 15, 2007

How to strenghten your immune system

Many people know when it starts to get cold that they need to stock up on cold and flu medications for the winter. But what many people don't know is that eating healthy can strengthen your immune system as well.

According to the article, "Follow this eat-right plan to fortify your immune system," there are a number of ways that eating healthy can not only make you feel better but actually keep you from getting sick.

Some tips the article recommends are: drink green tea and consume the right amount of calories for you.

Green tea contains an anti-oxidant called "EGCG" that when up against viruses or influenza, it inhibits them from replicating and therefore is easier to fight off.

Making sure that you are not eating too many or too little calories is important as well. Too little calories can increase the susceptibility of getting sick. Consuming too many calories can "lead to increased production of compounds called prostaglandins, which have a suppressive effect on T-lymphocyte cell production. Fewer T-cells patrolling the body increases the chances of an antigen taking hold," states the article.

To find how the best amount of calories for you, check out www.mypyramid.gov which recommends the right amount based on a number of different things.

1 comment:

Jeff Browne said...

You're really doing a great job with this, Sarah. Congrats on the good information and the consistency of presentation.