Immunity boost

There is no immune buff that can be obtained quickly in one week, and there is no formula for improving immunity that is suitable for everyone. The essence of reliable immunity improvement is to make low-burden micro-adjustments for 3-6 months based on your existing living habits. The four anchor points of food, sleep, exercise, and emotion are enough. Indiscriminate supplementation of health products and sudden extreme exercise will most likely bring down the immune level.

In the past two years, I helped community health service centers conduct more than 30 immune-related follow-up visits on residents’ lives, and I saw too many mistakes. Aunt Zhang, who lives in Building No. 3, heard that Ganoderma spore powder could boost immunity. She stocked up on RMB 8,000 worth of Ganoderma spore powder and ate it three times a day. However, within three months, her mouth ulcers recurred and she became constipated at every turn. After going to the hospital for a checkup, she found out that she has a damp-heat constitution. This kind of warming supplement is equivalent to "stuffing the immune system" and disrupts its original balance.

When it comes to supplements, there is actually no unified conclusion in the industry. Most doctors in the clinical nutrition department will say that as long as you have no underlying diseases of digestion and absorption, you can eat 25 different kinds of food every week, including meat, eggs, milk, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and there is no need to supplement with vitamins, probiotics and other messy things. ； But friends who practice functional medicine will tell you that nowadays people eat takeout every day, and the nutrient density of the ingredients is much lower than that of thirty or forty years ago. Coupled with staying up late and being stressed, proper supplementation of vitamin D and B complex can really help reduce the burden on immune cells. Both statements are supported by clinical data. There is no right or wrong. If you cook for yourself every time and eat a balanced diet, it will be fine if you save money to buy milk tea. If you eat takeout every day and you often get ulcers at the corners of your mouth, there is no harm in getting some supplements.

Oh, by the way, the easiest pitfall is actually exercise. At the end of last year, during the epidemic, a friend who worked as an operator in an Internet company was afraid of secondary infection and wanted to quickly boost his immunity. He forced himself to run five kilometers every day after get off work. After running for half a month, he was hospitalized for a week with pneumonia. You say exercise is useless? Uncle Li, who lives in the same community, would always catch a cold when the seasons change, and would get a fever even if he blew the slightest breeze. He would walk around the community for 20 minutes after eating every day, and occasionally do Tai Chi with the old men. He persisted for more than three months, and he didn't even sneeze a few times last winter. There is a lot of noise on the Internet right now. Fitness bloggers say that you must do 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise every week until you sweat. People who practice traditional Chinese medicine say that people who are physically weak will consume energy and blood by moving too much, so walking and standing are enough. In fact, there is no standard. If you feel comfortable and don't feel tired after exercising, then the intensity is suitable for you. If you practice hard, it will confuse your immune system.

Many people say that you must sleep for 8 hours to maintain your immunity. A girl I know who works in cross-border e-commerce was the first to refuse. She has to deal with European and American customers all year round, and her days and nights are reversed. She gets off work at 2 a.m. every day and starts at 10 a.m. She only needs 8 hours of sleep. Her annual physical examination and immune indicators are all normal, and she rarely even gets the flu. On the contrary, another friend of mine forced himself to go to bed at 11 a.m. and wake up from 7 a.m. every day, tossing and turning until one or two in the morning before he could fall asleep. His sleep was as broken as a QR code. Within half a year, his immunity was so weak that he caught colds at every turn. To put it bluntly, sleep time is a reference value for ordinary people. The core is whether you have enough deep sleep and whether your schedule is regular enough. You are born with short sleep. If you sleep for 5 hours a day, you will still be energetic. There is no need to lie down for 8 hours and become anxious.

Finally, let’s talk about the most easily overlooked point: emotions. I once met a senior class teacher from a key middle school. When I was leading the graduating class last year, I was so stressed that my hair fell out for the whole semester. I had to catch a cold once a week. I took a lot of medicines but it was no use. After I took half a month off after the college entrance examination, I went to the park to pet the cat at home every day. I didn’t take any supplements. The cold healed itself. Nowadays, research in psychosomatic medicine has long confirmed that long-term chronic stress will keep cortisol at a high level for a long time, directly suppressing the activity of immune cells. It is rare for traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine to reach a consensus on this matter: Western medicine says to reduce chronic stress and don’t be tense every day. Traditional Chinese medicine says to “sooth the liver and regulate qi” and don’t hold back anger. They are essentially the same thing.

You really don’t need to regard “improving immunity” as a KPI that must be completed. You don’t need to clock in every day to eat enough grams of vegetables or run enough kilometers. If you have nothing to do, touch your body more. Eat whatever feels comfortable, move whatever feels comfortable, and sleep however you feel comfortable. Less fussing, it’s better than anything else. Oh, by the way, if you have been prone to fatigue for a long time and get sick frequently, go to the hospital to check your immune indicators first and rule out underlying diseases. Don’t delay things by making random adjustments on your own.