The immune system is a host defense system comprising many biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease. To function properly, an immune system must detect a wide variety of agents, known as pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, and distinguish them from the organism's own healthy tissue. In many species, the immune system can be classified into subsystems, such as the innate immune system versus the adaptive immune system, or humoral immunity versus cell-mediated immunity. In humans, the blood–brain barrier,blood–cerebrospinal fluid barrier, and similar fluid–brain barriers separate the peripheral immune system from the neuroimmune system, which protects the brain.
Here are the 10 daily habits that harm your immune systems
1. Being around Secondhand Smoke
Everyone knows that smoking is injurious to health, but exposure to secondhand smoke is also bad for your health and immune system.
You must try to avoid secondhand smoke as much as you can. Avoid spending time with people who smoke. Avoid public places that permit smoking, and stay at smoke-free hotels when traveling to avoid residual smoke from previous patrons.
Encourage anyone in your everyday life to quit smoking
2. Neglecting Personal Hygiene
When it comes to a good immune system, proper hygiene is a must. If you neglect your personal hygiene, your immune system will surely suffer.
Unhygienic habits increase the risk of being exposed to harmful germs, which in turn makes you susceptible to more infections and diseases.
Practice good hygiene by brushing your teeth twice daily, washing your hands before eating and after using the bathroom, keeping your nails clean, taking a shower daily, cooking food in a hygienic manner, wearing clean clothes and more. It can go a long way in boosting your immunity.
3. Using Public Objects
You may try your best to keep your home clean and hygienic. But what happens when you go out?
Some of the dirtiest public places and items are restaurant menus, condiment dispensers, restroom door handles, soap dispensers, grocery carts, communal pens like at the bank, airplane bathrooms and so on. They can all be intermediaries, transmitting viruses and bacteria from person to person.
4. Forgetting to Drink Water
When you are busy working, you may be like many people who forget to drink water.
The human body is mostly made of water, and if you don’t drink enough to replenish what your body needs, it will surely affect your immune system. Proper hydration is essential for a strong immunity.
A healthy person should drink about 8 to 10 glasses of water daily. However, the amount of water you need to drink may depend upon the climate in which you live, how physically active you are, and your overall health
5. Consuming Too Much Caffeine
Drinking too much coffee and other caffeinated beverages is also not good for your immunity. Excessive caffeine stimulates your nervous system by increasing the stress level in the body. A high stress level causes the release of stress hormones like cortisol.
When taken in moderation, coffee provides many benefits. So, limit yourself to just 1 to 2 cups of coffee a day.
6. Eating Junk Food
Junk food tastes good and is readily available. But eating junk food in excess can be bad for your immunity.
Junk food is often high in fat and eating excess fat is one of the key reasons behind obesity. A diet high in saturated fat can harm the immune system even before the weight gain begins to show.
7. Being a Night Owl
If you work nights or like watching television or doing projects late into the night, you may have a weak immunity.
Poor sleep habits lower the immune system’s functioning and reduce your level of killer cells that fight germs
Sleep deprivation also reduces the production of protective cytokines. While you sleep, your immune system releases different types of cytokines that help protect your body against infections and diseases
8. Drinking Alcoholic Beverages Daily
If you like to have a few drinks at the end of each day, it’s a habit that is harming your immune system.
Drinking too much alcohol actually weakens or kills some of the antibody cells needed to destroy virus-infected cells. Excess alcohol consumption also impedes the production of white and red blood cells, which weakens your immune system over time.
Alcoholic drinks have a lot of negative health effects, since alcohol inhibits your body’s ability to absorb essential nutrients, which can lead to deficiencies.
9. Not Using Sunscreen
A little bit of sun exposure helps your body produce vitamin D, which in turn strengthens your immunity. But when you spend a long time out in the sun without sunscreen protection, you are harming your immune system.
In fact, unprotected sun exposure can aggravate annoying problems like herpes or yeast infections. This happens as ultraviolet light causes immunological changes in the body. It can even damage or kill certain cells near the skin’s surface, which are the first line of defense against infectious agents and chemical toxins.
10. Overdosing on Sugar
If you often eat or drink something sweet to satisfy your sweet tooth, you can suffer from a weak immunity
Refined sugar can reduce the ability of the white blood cells to kill germs. Sugar prevents vitamin C from getting into the white blood cells, resulting in weakened immunity.
If you need to eat something sweet, opt for fruits like oranges, apples, mangos, kiwis, watermelon, strawberries and others that contain natural sugars to satisfy your craving. The vitamin C in these fruits also will help your immune system work properly.
Here are the 10 daily habits that harm your immune systems
1. Being around Secondhand Smoke
Everyone knows that smoking is injurious to health, but exposure to secondhand smoke is also bad for your health and immune system.
You must try to avoid secondhand smoke as much as you can. Avoid spending time with people who smoke. Avoid public places that permit smoking, and stay at smoke-free hotels when traveling to avoid residual smoke from previous patrons.
Encourage anyone in your everyday life to quit smoking
2. Neglecting Personal Hygiene
When it comes to a good immune system, proper hygiene is a must. If you neglect your personal hygiene, your immune system will surely suffer.
Unhygienic habits increase the risk of being exposed to harmful germs, which in turn makes you susceptible to more infections and diseases.
Practice good hygiene by brushing your teeth twice daily, washing your hands before eating and after using the bathroom, keeping your nails clean, taking a shower daily, cooking food in a hygienic manner, wearing clean clothes and more. It can go a long way in boosting your immunity.
3. Using Public Objects
You may try your best to keep your home clean and hygienic. But what happens when you go out?
Some of the dirtiest public places and items are restaurant menus, condiment dispensers, restroom door handles, soap dispensers, grocery carts, communal pens like at the bank, airplane bathrooms and so on. They can all be intermediaries, transmitting viruses and bacteria from person to person.
4. Forgetting to Drink Water
When you are busy working, you may be like many people who forget to drink water.
The human body is mostly made of water, and if you don’t drink enough to replenish what your body needs, it will surely affect your immune system. Proper hydration is essential for a strong immunity.
A healthy person should drink about 8 to 10 glasses of water daily. However, the amount of water you need to drink may depend upon the climate in which you live, how physically active you are, and your overall health
5. Consuming Too Much Caffeine
Drinking too much coffee and other caffeinated beverages is also not good for your immunity. Excessive caffeine stimulates your nervous system by increasing the stress level in the body. A high stress level causes the release of stress hormones like cortisol.
When taken in moderation, coffee provides many benefits. So, limit yourself to just 1 to 2 cups of coffee a day.
Junk food tastes good and is readily available. But eating junk food in excess can be bad for your immunity.
Junk food is often high in fat and eating excess fat is one of the key reasons behind obesity. A diet high in saturated fat can harm the immune system even before the weight gain begins to show.
If you work nights or like watching television or doing projects late into the night, you may have a weak immunity.
Poor sleep habits lower the immune system’s functioning and reduce your level of killer cells that fight germs
Sleep deprivation also reduces the production of protective cytokines. While you sleep, your immune system releases different types of cytokines that help protect your body against infections and diseases
If you like to have a few drinks at the end of each day, it’s a habit that is harming your immune system.
Drinking too much alcohol actually weakens or kills some of the antibody cells needed to destroy virus-infected cells. Excess alcohol consumption also impedes the production of white and red blood cells, which weakens your immune system over time.
Alcoholic drinks have a lot of negative health effects, since alcohol inhibits your body’s ability to absorb essential nutrients, which can lead to deficiencies.
A little bit of sun exposure helps your body produce vitamin D, which in turn strengthens your immunity. But when you spend a long time out in the sun without sunscreen protection, you are harming your immune system.
In fact, unprotected sun exposure can aggravate annoying problems like herpes or yeast infections. This happens as ultraviolet light causes immunological changes in the body. It can even damage or kill certain cells near the skin’s surface, which are the first line of defense against infectious agents and chemical toxins.
10. Overdosing on Sugar
If you often eat or drink something sweet to satisfy your sweet tooth, you can suffer from a weak immunity
Refined sugar can reduce the ability of the white blood cells to kill germs. Sugar prevents vitamin C from getting into the white blood cells, resulting in weakened immunity.
If you need to eat something sweet, opt for fruits like oranges, apples, mangos, kiwis, watermelon, strawberries and others that contain natural sugars to satisfy your craving. The vitamin C in these fruits also will help your immune system work properly.
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