Health & Medical Nutrition

Your Immune System - Take Care of it With Proper Nutrition!

The health of your immune system will affect many things during your life.
You might save yourself the tiredness of having a cold or who knows what other sickness by having a healthy immune system! There are many important factors that matter in keeping your bodies immune system healthy such as if you sleep adequate hours per night or if you do physical activity.
Of course, another very important one is to make sure you have adequate nutrition! Here's a sample of some immune system vitamins that you shouldn't forget to take every day.
Vitamin A According to a paper published in Nature Reviews Immunology last September 2008, vitamins A and D are the main players for the body's immune system.
Both vitamins help in immune response, particularly for lymphocytes (white blood cells that works like defense soldiers).
Lymphocytes are responsible for anti-body activation.
Vitamin A in particular, has all-trans retinol that is essential in regulating B-cell (makers of anti-bodies) production and separation.
With adequate supply of retinoic acid, our body's are assured that there is enough amount of B-cells and anti-bodies that are ready to protect every tissue or system.
To ensure good supply of vitamin A, include liver, milk, cheese, carrots, spinach, and kale in your vegetable list.
For fruits, apricots, mangoes and peaches are good sources of vitamin A and carotenoids.
Vitamin D Vitamin D on the other hand, handles T-cells, which are the types that detect foreign organisms or foreign objects within our system.
When a person has vitamin D deficiency, the T-cells remain stagnant, unable to detect harmful viruses or other pathogens.
When that happens, viruses continue to proliferate, increasing the effects of an illness.
Some of the other vitamin D sources are salmon, mushrooms, mackerel or tuna.
Cheese and eggs also have good trace amount of vitamin D.
You can also get a good dose of vitamin D through sunlight exposure, a short walk early morning at sunrise or at sunset will do the job.
(Reminder: Sun exposure at later times of the day when the sun is at a higher angle from the horizon, has excessive UVB and UVA rays that can cause skin damage and cancer.
Apply generous amount of sunscreen if you go out during these times.


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