Immunity

In today's day and age, a healthy immune system is perhaps the most important thing that one can ask for. With a rapidly growing population in an ever-changing environment, it has become increasingly challenging to maintain good health, particularly develop a strong immune system, through every stage of our lives.

Here we discuss what is the immune system, how to increase immunity, what immunity boosters are, their features and benefits, and why you should buy them among other things; the purpose being to help you identify the right kind of supplements or foods that you may be in need of. Are you ready to dive in? Let’s go.

What is an Immunity Booster?

Your immune system is the barricade made of a complex network of organs, cells, proteins, tissues, and chemicals that protect your body from different pathogens, viruses, and bacteria. The primary components of the immune system include antibodies, white blood cells, lymphatic system, gut, complement system, thymus, and the bone marrow. All of these together ensure you remain healthy and running at optimal functioning, as we all know that without good immunity, infectious germs will create havoc in your body, making you susceptible to falling sick all the time. This is where immunity boosters come into the picture. They help to strengthen your body's defenses against harmful infections and ailments and keep you fit.

But before we get to immunity boosters, we ought to understand, 'what is immunity?'. Immunity refers to the body's potential to avert the invasion of pathogens and infections. There are different types of immunity such as :

• Innate immunity: The body has its own immunity to fight against infection-causing pathogens. This innate immunity also involves the exterior barriers of the body, which act as the first line of defense such as skin.
• Adaptive immunity: If the pathogen manages to dodge the innate immune system, that's when the adaptive immunity gets activated. This form of immunity protects the body from pathogens as we progress through life. This means that as we fall sick and get exposed to diseases or get vaccinated, we automatically build up a reservoir of antibodies for different pathogens. This is also referred to as immunological memory as our immune system tends to remember our previous invading pathogens.
• Passive immunity: Passive immunity is also referred to as 'borrowed' immunity, given that iit is obtained from another source and does not last forever.The best way to explain this is with an example. When a baby is born, it receives certain antibodies from the mother through the placenta and the breast milk. This form of immunity doesn't last indefinitely, but for the initial years of its life, it receives protection from various infections.
• Immunization: Immunization is a process of protecting oneself against a disease or strengthening one's immunity by getting vaccinated. This term is often also known as vaccination or inoculation. There are different types of immunization or vaccination such as live virus vaccines, killed (inactivated) vaccines, toxoid vaccines, and biosynthetic vaccines.
  • Live virus vaccines: These are vaccines that use a weakened form of the virus. A few examples of these vaccines include the measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox vaccines.
  • Killed (inactivated) vaccines: This type of immunization contains protein or other small pieces procured from a virus or bacteria, Examples of this include the whooping cough vaccine.
  • Biosynthetic vaccines: This type of vaccine contains man-made substances, which are very similar to pieces of the virus or bacteria. Example of this vaccine isthe Hepatitis B vaccine.
  • Toxoid vaccines: This type of immunization contains a toxin or chemicals, which are made by the bacteria or virus itself. They may not make you immune to the infection itself, but will surely make you immune to the harmful effects of the infection. Examples are the COVID-19 vaccine, diphtheria and tetanus vaccines.

So, if you are wondering how to improve the immune system, then the answer is through immunity boosters. Immunity boosters are anything that can help bolster the immune system in a natural way. You can do this by changing your diet, improving your sleep quality, exercising regularly, managing stress, drinking more water, and so on. However, the best way to get healthy is by including more and more foods to increase immunity in your diet. These foods contain essential nutrients that are beneficial for strengthening your body's immunity response. There are immunity booster fruits and vegetables like pomelo, oranges and other citrus fruits, cruciferous and green leafy vegetables, probiotics, seafood, poultry, seeds and nuts, legumes and pulses, herbs and spices. Some others that improve immunity include, Vitamin C, D, A, E, K, B-complex, magnesium, zinc, iron, potassium, and antioxidants.

If the fresh food you eat lacks nutrients necessary for good health, you can easily opt for immunity boosting supplements to boost immune system. Including immunity foods and supplements to your diet is one of the most effective tips to improve immunity. Having said that, it is always advisable to consult a doctor before adding any kind of supplement to your daily routine.

How do Immunity Boosters Work?

Immunity boosters work by strengthening your body's immune system against disease-causing pathogens. This they achieve by either providing your body with the nutrition that it may lack, or by helping it release certain chemicals and hormones that may reduce your stress levels and help you detoxify. A few examples of immunity boosters include exercising regularly, getting good quality sleep, consuming nutritive food and multivitamin supplements, and quitting bad habits like smoking and excessive drinking, among other things.

Features, Benefits and Advantages of Immunity Boosters

When one talks about immunity boosters, what exactly do they talk about? The features, advantages and benefits of immunity boosters are aplenty, however, not all of them are widely known.

Typically, the immune system works to detect an infection in your body. This automatically results in an immune response whose sole purpose is to restore the body's normal functioning. How well your body responds to a pathogen causing havoc in your body depends on what steps you're taking to boost your immune system. That is where these immunity boosters come into play. Immunity boosters have certain distinct features and benefits, which are as follows:

• Strengthen the body: Immunity boosters help to strengthen the body's defense against harmful, disease-causing pathogens, viruses and bacteria.
• Slow down aging: Immunity boosters slow down the aging process and prevent the onset of age-related chronic diseases as well, such as diabetes, blood pressure, and cardiovascular diseases, among others.
• Meet the body's nutrition requirements: Immunity boosters help to address your body's nutrition requirements. Consuming immunity boosters can replenish the essential micronutrients that your body needs from time to time, especially right after you have fallen sick, or when your body has been drained of them.
• Speed-up healing: Additionally, immunity boosters help to speed up the healing process of the body. If you have an injury, wound, or have just fallen sick, your immunity is the deciding factor in how long your body is going to take to heal itself. With a sufficient supply of immunity boosters in your body, you can ensure a faster healing period.
• Boost energy: Immunity boosters also boost your body's energy levels, which eventually enhances your productivity. This means you can get more work done, without constantly feeling tired or lethargic. Do you know that even exercising improves your immunity? This is to say that the more you exercise, the better you are going to feel in terms of health.
• Overall health management: Immunity boosters also aid in managing your body weight, digestion, blood pressure, cholesterol, enzymes, nutrient absorption, and the like, which all contribute to your overall well-being. This means a good immune system can take you a long way, quite literally.
• Fight autoimmune diseases: Autoimmune and immunodeficiency ailments attack and potentially weaken the immune cells in your body. Immunity boosters help prevent these auto-immune diseases by helping your body recognise between foreign cells and the body's own cells and prevent them from killing the latter.

This is not all, immunity boosters also indirectly impact your hair health, skin health, and even mental health. Suffice it to say, what is good for one part of your body is definitely also good for another, as our whole body is a mechanism dependent on each other. If something in the body is off, it is liable to impact the rest of your body, and with that we can easily establish the importance of immunity boosters, especially with respect to the kind of hectic lives that we live these days.

Who Should Buy Immunity Boosters?

Consuming sufficient nutrients as part of a varied and balanced diet is necessary for the proper health and functioning of all cells, including the immune cells in our body.Certain specific dietary patterns and habits are likely to better prepare your body for microbial attacks and excess inflammation. Every stage of your body's immune response is dependent upon the presence of sufficient micronutrients in your body. Vitamin C, D, E, zinc, iron, protein (including amino acid glutamine) are a few examples of nutrients that are critical for the growth and function of immune cells. You can get them from a variety of plant and animal foods or immunity booster supplements.

Ideally, everyone should include immunity-booster foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains in their diet to meet their daily nutritional requirements. However, it is particularly important for you to take immunity boosters if you say yes to any of the following.

• If you have a weak immune system
• Find yourself falling sick too often
• Have any vitamin deficiencies
• Live a fast-paced lifestyle with too much work and little self care
• Are aging, or
• Do not follow a proper dietary schedule

In all of the cases above, you may be in need of a good immunity boosting supplement.

In the light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the need to develop a robust immune system has perhaps become even more pertinent than before. While no foods or dietary supplements can prevent or cure COVID-19 infection, healthy diets are essential and imperative for supporting immune systems. So if you are looking for immunity boosting foods for COVID, let us tell you that they are no different from fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains or dietary supplements that will help improve your immunity response to the infection, thereby helping your body best fight the virus.

Reasons To Buy Immunity Boosters

Many reasons contribute to a weakened immune system such as age, poor nutrition, stress, lack of exercise, erratic and imbalanced lifestyle, and disturbed sleep patterns among other things, as already mentioned above. But what exactly are the reasons that should be your driving factor to buy a particular immunity boosting product? Well, the simple answer is - All these factors are good enough reasons to buy immunity boosting foods and supplements that will eventually help you develop a healthy body and mind.

But with so many options available in the market, it sometimes becomes difficult to choose the most suitable product for you. So here is a simple guide.

Wellbeing Nutrition offers a wide range of immunity boosting products that cater to the body's specific needs. These supplements include Daily Greens, Grandma's Kadha, Probiotics + Prebiotics, and Apple Cider Vinegar, with 2x the mother.

• Daily Greens: If hectic schedules, long-days at work and eating on-the-go makes it challenging to keep up with your daily dose of nutrition, try out Well Being Nutrition's Daily Greens, a tube of 15 effervescent multivitamin tablets, each made of 39 farm-fresh greens, veggies, fruits and antioxidant-rich superfoods.
• Grandma's Kadha: If you are someone who gets a cold, cough or flu too often, then Grandma's Kadha is what you need. Kadha, the age-old Ayurvedic drink, is one of the most long-lasting medicinal concoctions that has survived through time. It is an Ayurvedic immunity booster. This product is made of 13 medicinal herbs that all contribute towards strengthening your immune system.
• Probiotics & ACV: Similarly, if you have a weakened immune system owing to poor gut health, give Well Being Nutrition's Probiotics + Prebiotics a try. You can also try out our raw, unfiltered and unpasteurised Apple Cider Vinegar with 2X more live cultures (Mother) for extra potency to boost digestive health and immunity.

On the other hand, if you are looking for something specifically for your skin or another specific ailment or deficiency, then you can look at Wellbeing Nutrition's Skin Fuel or their most recent series of Melts, that will supply you with thin oral strips for throat, D3, B12, sleep, and hair. In other words, you don't have to look any further from Wellbeing Nutrition, as we have you covered here.