With the season of colds and sniffles fast approaching natural ways to boost your immunity are especially relevant. Last month we took a look at how the food you eat can boost your immunity and this month we’ll take a look at some ways to boost your immunity with good sleep and exercise choices.

Douse the night light

 

Keep your bedroom as dark as possible when you are sleeping. Too much brightness during the night depresses your immune system. This is because only when it’s really dark does your body produce melatonin, a hormone that not only helps you drift off to sleep but also helps prevent colds, flu, infection and certain diseases. Not sleeping enough, or being exposed to light during the night, decreases melatonin production and boosts oestrogen levels, and higher than normal levels of oestrogen are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. Recent studies have found a massive 60 per cent increased risk of cancer among women who work night shifts, and an even greater increase among women with bedrooms that are brighter than they should be. Not surprisingly, women with limited vision or blindness have an approximate 20–50 per cent reduction in breast-cancer risk.

 

Even a dim source like a bedside clock or a night light may switch melatonin production off, so keep your bedroom as dark as possible. And if light from street lamps shines into your bedroom, invest in some black-out curtains.

 

Get a full night’s sleep

 

Everybody’s different: your body may need anywhere from 6–8 hours of sleep each night. Whatever your personal sleep requirement is, make sure you get it!

 

Sleeping better may help you fight off illness. People who are sleep deprived often have raised levels of stress hormones, as well as running the risk of persistent inflammation in the blood and a decrease in immune function. Millions of chronically deprived people are putting their health, quality of life and even length of life in jeopardy by not getting enough quality sleep. There is a clear connection between sleep and health, and therefore sleep deprivation and disease, and the evidence is getting stronger.

 

Quality sleep has been linked to balanced hormone levels (including human growth hormone and the stress hormone, cortisol); these keep weight down, lead to clear thinking and reasoning, improve mood, and engender vibrant, healthy skin. Blood pressure and heart rate are typically at their lowest levels during sleep; people who tend to sleep less have higher blood pressure. New research from a Warwick study of the sleep patterns of some 10,000 Britains links cutting sleep to five hours or fewer to a doubled risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. Shortage of sleep is also linked to increased risk of weight gain and diabetes.

 

Put simply, people who sleep well live longer. So if you want good health and to live to a ripe old age, do your immune system and yourself a favour and say ‘good night’ sooner.

 

Pick up the pace

 

Walking at a brisk pace every day for 20–30 minutes stimulates the production of a variety of immune cells and enhances the overall function of the immune system.

 

Researchers from the University of South Carolina and the University of Massachusetts recently studied 550 adults. Those who simply walked at a brisk pace had about 25 per cent fewer colds than those who seldom or never exercised. Results of at least three clinical trials tend to confirm this finding. In all three trials, women who were told to walk briskly most days over a three-month period developed colds only about half as often as those who did no exercise at all.

 

The research shows that during moderate exercise, several positive changes occur in the immune system. Various immune cells circulate through the body more quickly and are better able to kill bacteria and viruses. Once the exercise session is over, the immune system returns to normal. The preliminary conclusions are that moderate exercise, such as a brisk walk, will give your immune system a boost, and this in turn should increase your chances of fighting off cold viruses in the long term.

 

Exercise that increases your heart rate and moves large muscles (such as those in your legs and arms) is what you should aim for. Choose an activity that you enjoy and can start slowly; gradually increasing, as you get fitter. Aim to work out for 20–30 minutes four to six times a week. Walking briskly is very popular and does not require any special equipment or training. Other good exercises if you feel more energetic include swimming, cycling, gentle jogging and trampoline. Even if you are pushed for time, benefits can be gained simply by walking upstairs rather than taking the lift, or by walking or cycling on shorter journeys rather than taking the car.

 

Pick a fight

 

Sign up for a martial arts class, or some basic instruction in self defence, and see your immunity and your health and fitness improve.

 

One study put 11 healthy boys aged between 14 and 18 through a 1.5-hour wrestling practice session, sampling their blood before and after the session. The study found that levels of all groups of white blood cells, particularly the natural killer cells, rose significantly. The natural killer cells fight cancer and viruses by searching out the equivalent of a flag carried by normal cells. Those without such a flag are attacked by a cocktail of chemicals.

 

Another study, this time on martial arts, compared the fitness levels of nine people aged between 40 and 60 who practised Soo Bahk Do (a martial art similar to karate) with those of nine sedentary people. Those who did the martial art were found to have better levels of body fat, balance, flexibility, muscle strength, endurance and aerobic capacity.

 

Martial arts – even mild forms like Tai Chi – have long been known to confer tremendous immune boosting anti-ageing health benefits to their followers. Throughout Asia, it’s not uncommon to see large groups of elderly (people in their 70’s and 80’s) practicing Tai Chi at sunrise in the community parks. Despite their age, these people have better aerobic conditioning, balance, strength, flexibility and coordination than many typical Americans in their 30’s. Any form of martial arts will produce similar benefits. In addition to tai chi, kick boxing and Tai Kwnon Do are also excellent, but do make sure you sign up for a beginner’s class and get the okay from your GP if you are on medication or suffering from a medical condition. 

 

Work out, but don’t overdo it

 

If you aren’t an athlete or professional dancer, and are exercising for over an hour a day several times a week, give yourself and your immune cells a break and cut down on your workout time.

 

As with diet, moderation is crucial; too much exercise, or exercising to the point of exhaustion, can boost the body’s production of adrenaline and cortisol – two hormones that temporarily suppress immune function. Olympians and other highly trained athletes often report that after intense competition and training they are more susceptible to colds. The exercise slogan of the 1980s, ‘no pain, no gain’, has fortunately given way to a more realistic notion that moderate exercise confers more health benefits than strenuous exercise. Moderate exercisers have the added benefit of suffering fewer injuries as well.

 

Exercising too hard and for too long isn’t good for your immune system, so you need to aim for moderate exercise. One way to ensure that you are exercising at the right pace is to see if you can carry on a conversation while you are exercising. You should be slightly out of breath but not panting and unable to speak. So if you find yourself panting, huffing and puffing STOP! You’re exercising too hard.

 

While intensive training is what some prefer, rest assured that something as simple as a 30-minute daily walk will provide your body with all the health and immune benefits it needs. The key is, no matter how you get your exercise, to do it regularly and make sure it’s fun!

 

Work up a sweat

 

Work up a sweat, even if the barometer drops. Perspiration is a great way to remove toxins and other infection-friendly waste material from your body.

 

Have you noticed how, when you get an infection, you can also get a fever or the one area becomes hot? An increase in body temperature is your immune system’s way of actively fighting infection and disease. Sweating promotes the release of stored toxins through your skin, easing the toxic load on your body.

 

You can work up a sweat through exercise or when you do everyday tasks, such as gardening or housework. Using a sauna can also provide benefits, but – if you do have a medical condition – check with your doctor first before exposing yourself to high temperatures. You don’t need to be saturated with perspiration. Remember that overdoing exercise is not immune-system friendly – a gentle sweat will do your immune system a power of good, bringing a rosy glow to your cheeks at the same time.

 

But what if it’s too late and you haven’t managed to avoid that cold? Should you rest or try to sweat it out? Much depends on your symptoms. In general, if your symptoms are above your neck and you have no fever, gentle exercise or building up a light sweat is probably safe. Intensive exercise should be postponed until after the symptoms have gone away. However, if there are symptoms and signs of flu, such as fever or swollen glands, at least 10 days should be set aside before you resume ordinary training.

 

Next month: Boosting immunity with lifestyle choices

Q: My PMS always gets worse in the winter and I find it really hard to get up in the mornings. Why is this? What can I do about it?

A: Many women find that their symptoms of PMS get worse when the nights are longer and darker. This lack of warmth and light seems to make things worse because when you are exposed to plenty of bright light your body starts to produce serotonin which wakes you up and makes you feel more energetic and alert. Without enough serotonin you can end up feeling depressed and irritable, with food cravings and problems sleeping. Sounds a lot like PMS, doesn’t it?

It’s clear that too little serotonin and not enough light can play a part in PMS or make symptoms worse. Change in appetite, insomnia, reduced energy, weight gain, problems concentrating and fatigue are symptoms of both PMS and low serotonin levels so if you are suffering from any of these symptoms you need to light up your life. This is crucial if your PMS gets worse in the winter or if you suffer from depression. By boosting your serotonin levels, your mood will be boosted and you will have more energy in the morning to leap out of bed.

To increase your serotonin production make sure you are exposed to either full-spectrum light from the sun or a bright white light for at least 15 minutes during the morning. Light has a direct effect on your brain, helping to set your body clock for sleep and waking. The incandescent lights you may have in your lamps are not good enough and you should try to walk outdoors – even if the sun isn’t out. Don’t wear sunglasses as your eyes need to be exposed to natural light. If you think you need something more you could buy an alarm clock that is also a bedside lamp so when you set it to wake up at 6.30 am it gradually turns up the light intensity starting about 20 minutes before you need to get up – simulating what dawn does. If this doesn’t wake you first the alarm goes off at your wake up time. You may also want to consider getting a special light box that can provide full-spectrum.  The light is measured in units called lux, and a typical light box provides 10,000 lux. Daylight is around 5,000 lux and it takes around 2,500 lux to have a therapeutic effect on your internal clock. You can do light therapy yourself as long as you don’t over do it and follow the instructions on the box to the letter – but it is always best to check with your doctor first for advice.

According to new research presented recently at FENS, the Forum of European Neuroscience meeting in Geneva, Switzerland ‘Sleep on it’ really is good advice.

Sleep experts have confirmed what many of us already probably know that a good night’s sleep can have a dramatic impact on the way the brain functions the next day and that memory in particular is boosted by sleep. It seems that sleep strengthens the connections between communicating nerve cells in the brain – a process thought to form the basis of learning and memory.

 

Scientists in Switzerland studied a group of volunteers who were taught a new skill or shown images they would later have to remember. The skill tasks included trying to follow a moving dot on a computer screen using a joy stick. One group of participants was then allowed to sleep normally for eight hours, while others were deprived of sleep or only permitted a nap. The next day they were asked to repeat the tasks or recall the images while their brains were scanned using a technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Those who had slept properly performed better, and this was reflected in their brain activity.

 

The results of this study prove that a period of sleep following a new experience can consolidate and improve subsequent effects of learning from the experience the next day.