The holiday season can be one of the happiest and busiest of the year. One thing you don’t need in December is a cold or the flu. It’s time to tune up your immune system. Here’s how to do it:
1. Get serious about sleep. Doctors at the University of Pittsburgh say poor sleep or lack of sleep is associated with decreased immune system function. Go to bed at your regular time, even if it means placing gifts in bags instead of wrapping them.
2. Don’t skip recreation. Spending time with friends can boost your defenses. A study from Carnegie Mellon University shows that people with a variety of social relationships had 20 percent greater immune function than those who did not.
3. Laugh. Hear and tell funny stories, watch funny videos and laugh out loud. Laughter decreases stress and activates immune cells.
4. Get going. Go to a basketball game, visit a museum, or attend a concert. Studies published in the British Medical Journal show that those who frequent cultural events live longer and are less likely to be sick.
5. Write it down. Researchers at the University of Texas in Austin found that people who wrote about traumatic events for 20 minutes three times a week made half as many visits to doctors than those who did not.
6. Pray. Faith can improve your health, say researchers at Duke University who found that churchgoers were healthier.
7. Get a massage. It makes natural immune cells more numerous and efficient.
8. Take vitamin D. It’s easy to become deficient during the winter, when you might not be out in the sun as much. Insufficient vitamin D can weaken your immune system.
9. Skip that second drink. More than one drink a day can suppress immune response and leave you more prone to infection.
10. Consider E. Vitamin E is especially important for aging immune systems, according to the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center at Tufts University.