The Most Important Thing You Can Do To Keep Your Immune System Strong

The most important thing you can do to make sure your immune system is strong and healthy enough to fight off any virus is to make sure you’re getting enough sleep.

Sleep is literally a miracle when it comes to health and healing the body.

It’s more powerful than any drug or herb you can take, and  …

It’s free!

Research has continually shown that if you’re not getting adequate sleep every night your body will never reach it’s full health and healing potential, no matter what other health practices or rituals you have in place.

Getting to sleep at night, and having a regular sleep pattern is so important that studies have shown that night shift work has been consistently associated with a higher risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer.

In fact 2007 the World Health Organization classified night shift work as a probable carcinogen due to circadian disruption.

In a study in one issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers found that women working rotating night shifts for five or more years appeared to have a modest increase in all-cause and CVD mortality and those working 15 or more years of rotating night shift work appeared to have a modest increase in lung cancer mortality.

These results add to prior evidence of a potentially detrimental effect of rotating night shift work on health and longevity.

Long-term lack of sleep has also been shown to increases the risk of obesity and diabetes.

It goes to show you just how important sleep is right?

Well, there’s more …

Short term studies show that people who don’t get enough quality sleep are more likely to get sick after being exposed to a virus, such as a common cold virus.

Lack of sleep can also affect how fast you recover if you do get sick.

This is because during sleep, your immune system releases proteins called cytokines, some of which help promote sleep.

Certain cytokines need to increase when you have an infection or inflammation, or when you’re under stress.

Sleep deprivation may decrease the production of these protective cytokines. In addition, infection-fighting antibodies and cells are reduced during periods when you don’t get enough sleep.

Therefore, your body needs quality sleep to fight off infectious diseases.

So the question is …

How much sleep do you need to bolster your immune system?

Well, research shows the optimal amount of sleep for most adults is seven to eight hours of sound sleep each night.

With teenagers needing nine to 10 hours of sleep, and school-aged children needing 10 or more hours of sleep for optimum function.

These are of course guidelines to follow.

As always, no one knows your body better than you.

You may need more, or you made needs less sleep than in the guidelines above to feel your best.

So, whether you’re worried about getting ill …

Or, you just want to be at your healthiest …

It’s time you made getting enough quality sleep a priority.

And, however many hours you need to make sure your body can heal and you can function at your full potential, just make sure you get them.

Health & Happiness

Ryan