What Weakens Your Immune System: 11 Surprising Things

Do you know what weakens your immune system? There are certain things that weaken your immune that you do not know about or pay attention to.

Imagine your body to be a nation, and your immune system the Defense or Military of the nation

Your immune system plays a major role in keeping you alive. If your immune system is down or weak, that means your defense system is down. This means that enemies, foreign bodies, terrorists, and other ‘bad guys’ can gain access to your body and dominate.

Imagine your body to be a nation, and your immune system the Defense or Military of the nation. It’s like the Military arm of the body; it wages war when needful, maintains serenity within the body and helps other systems carry out their functions well.

You need to know what weakens the defense of your nation, that’s why you need to know what weakens your immune system. Get to know what weakens your nation and stop them, get to know what weakens your immune system, and stop them.

What weakens your nation’s Military body, what weakens your immune system? Here they are!

What Weakens Your Immune System

Now you can get to know what weakens your immune system. Let’s know them:

1. Inadequate Sleep

This means you do not get to have enough sleep. Sleep does your body a lot of good when you have just enough of it; not too much, not too little.

When you get enough sleep, your immune system gets the chance to rebuild, and when you don’t, the immune system doesn’t get the opportunity to rebuild, and so it gets weakened.

Inadequate sleep is often associated with reduced number of T-cells, these are the white blood cells that help the body fight diseases.

From studies, it’s said that people who do not get enough sleep at night or do not get enough sleep; less than 7 hours a night, stand a greater chance of getting sick after they get exposed to a virus like the common cold.

Now you know one of what weakens your immune system, do something about it. Get more sleep if you need to.

2. Poor Hygiene

Poor hygiene is a gateway to let germs into your body that can break your body’s immune system.

When you do not practice proper hygiene you expose your body to more germs that in turn weaken your immune system.

Ignoring little things like brushing your teeth twice daily, washing your hands very well before eating, and ensuring that your nails are neat and tidy can go a long way keeping infections at bay.

What weakens your immune system? Poor hygiene does! Ensure you implement the little things you need to, like washing your hands properly.

3. Stress

Yes! Stress. “But, I need more working hours to be able to get more money,” that’s okay if you can do that without weakening your immune system.

So many people like to ignore it but stress influences your immune system a great deal. When you get really stressed, your immune system’s ability to fight off antigens reduces. This, in turn, makes you more susceptible to infections.

Chronic stress, that is stress caused by stressful situations or events that last over a long period of time raises cortisol levels of the body. This affects the production of prostaglandins, it decreases.

Prostaglandins are localized hormones. They are like cellular messengers that give support to the immune function. They help dilate blood vessels, and play anti-inflammatory functions as well.

Chronic stress is not good for you. It can make you more susceptible to colds and the flu, more serious health problems like heart disease, diabetes, which you wouldn’t want for yourself.

You can practice activities that boost your immune system like yoga, meditation, and laughter.

Now you know another of what weakens your immune system, do everything that you can to relieve yourself of unnecessary stress.

4. Obesity

Obesity is never really good for you, it does you no good.

It has a way of weakening your immune system. It can also affect the ability of your white blood cells to multiply, produce antibodies, and help prevent inflammation.

A study conducted by New University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine on a laboratory mouse showed that obesity reduces the body’s ability to turn on certain elements of its immune systems that are needed for controlling influenza infection.

What weakens your immune system again…? Obesity does. Ensure you do not exceed your ideal body weight.

 5. Lack Of Exercise

One of the ways to avoid getting obese is by exercising. By so doing, you boost your immune system and also keep off being obese.

While exercising moderately, your blood flow increases, and this promotes the process of removing toxic waste out of your body.

The improved blood circulation also helps the circulation of antibodies and white blood cells that are vital for fighting off infections.

Do you know that if you walk 20 minutes every day for a week,  you can help your immune system perform at its best?

It has been proven that inactive people or people who do not exercise often fall sick more often than those who do.

So, what can weaken your immune system like the lack of exercise? As you have seen, just 20 minutes of walking can do you a lot of good.

Exercise some more.

6. Excessive Alcohol Intake

Taking a lot of alcohol doesn’t do you any good, it is bad for you.

Alcohol has the same effect as when you consume excess sugar. It tends to reduce the ability of white blood cells to kill germs. The more quantity of alcohol you consume, the more damage you cause to your immune system.

In the short term, too much intake of alcohol will increase the number of colds you will experience.

In the long term, too much intake of alcohol can impede the proper functioning of immune cells, making you get ill more often, and makes you susceptible to cancer. Excessive intake of alcohol is among what weakens your immune system.

Moderate your intake of alcohol.

7. Medications

The type of medications you take is very important.

Some medications and non-prescription drugs are major toxins that many let into their bodies. When you use antibiotics excessively to fight cold and fever, you weaken your immune system.

Research has shown that certain people taking antibiotics have reduced levels of cytokines, the hormone messengers of the immune system.

This, in turn, can make you more likely to develop resistant bacteria or become sick in time to come when your immune system is suppressed.

8. Poor Diet

What you eat affects your immune system a lot. Poor diet, poor immune system. The same with when you eat healthily, your immune system will be healthy too.

Consuming an excess of refined sugars and highly processed foods containing chemical preservatives and additives can weaken the immune system and make you vulnerable to developing chronic conditions.

A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that your white blood cell’s ability to kill bacteria is significantly hampered for up to 5 hours after consuming 100 g of sugar which is equivalent to three cans of sweetened soft drink.

There are foods that boost your immune system. You should incorporate these foods more into your diet.

Now, you know another of what weakens your immune system; poor diet does. Enrich your meals with fruits and vegetables.

9. Smoking

This has a lot of negative effects on the body (immune system included). It’s no little wonder why it’s on the packet of cigarettes “Smokers are liable to die young.”

Containing over 4,000 chemicals that are extremely toxic, cigarettes are toxic to the body. And the way it works, the more toxic substances in your body, the weaker your immune system is.

Secondhand smoking (the exposure and inhaling of smoke from a smoker, also known as passive smoking) can affect your immune system. Also, smoking has the ability to trigger an asthma attack and aggravate symptoms in people that have allergies.

So, we’d encourage you to quit smoking yourself, if you smoke, but also encourage your friends and family members to stop smoking as well.

Smoking plays a role in what weakens your immune system. Quit smoking and watch your immune system get better.

10. Dehydration

There’s a saying that “Water is life.” Water plays a lot of roles in ensuring you have a healthy life.

Maintaining a good level of hydration is very vital to assist in eliminating byproducts. This, in turn, helps the immune system fight off infection.

Dehydration has the ability to affect your energy and your sleep, and also the ability to get toxins/waste material out of the body.

Taking a lot of water to stay hydrated can boost your immune systems.

11. Exposure To Radiation 

Radiation is the emission of energy as electromagnetic waves or as moving subatomic particles, especially high-energy particles which cause ionization. That’s the way the dictionary defines it.

Radiation has certain effects on the immune system. It is more likely to weaken your immune system if it’s directed at the bones, especially the bones located in your pelvis. This is because it is where the marrow functions as a blood cell factory.

Therefore chemical exposure, UV(Ultra-Violet) waves, and radiation exposure are unhealthy to the immune system.

You can read more on radiation here.

What weakens your immune system? Radiation does. Try as much as you can to protect yourself from it.

Conclusion

Now, you have gotten to know what weakens your immune system, it’s necessary you make the lifestyle changes you need to make to boost your immune system.

Remember, your immune system is your body’s defense system. What weakens your immune system weakens your body.

Also, what weakens your immune system is not outside of your control. Do what you can to get a healthy life.

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Regards,

Just Health Care Tips.