Simple tips to improve your immunity

A balanced diet with proper protein, carbs, fat, minerals and seasonal nutrition can help maintain good immunity, says Mohammad Yusuf N Shaikh, founder, Kudrati Ayurved Health Centre.

Photograph*: Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff.com

As per the ancient Ayurvedic texts, strong immunity (or ojas) is the one of the most essential elements for a healthy living.

It protects and sustains the body from all the harmful medical conditions but maintaining ideal levels of ojas or immunity is not that easy and comes from a consistent and balanced healthy lifestyle.

Here is a list of five key ayurvedic practices that help in boosting up and maintaining good immunity levels in the human body all year round.

1. Choose your food wisely

There can be some ingredients that remain similar in every season's balanced diet but none of the edibles suit the conditions of every season.

While cooling crudites and fluids are perfect for the summer; warming, protein-rich elements are the must-have for vata (winter) season.

Freshly cooked vegetables are easier for the body to digest and assimilate than the junk foods.

Minimise the stress and support easy digestion by consuming lightly cooked food instead of the high-calorie diets.

Even replace the habit of munching on snack junks with healthier options like sprouts, fruits salads or soups.

Five meals a day with two small ones and three heavy but healthy ones will power you up with the immunity to bear the heavy brunt of the everyday schedules without many struggles.

A balanced diet with proper protein, carbs, fat, minerals and seasonal nutrition can help maintain good immunity.

2. Maintaining regular workout routines

Urbanisation has gifted us a new disease -- stress.

This leads to uncontrolled eating and sleep habits, also maybe smoking and drinking to distress themselves.

One of the fruitful habits to avoid stress is regular exercise or yoga and meditation.

Physical workout stimulates chemicals in the brain that helps you to relax and improves your moral.

Exercise doesn't mean you have to buy a gym membership and you can only workout in a gym.

You may walk, jog or exercise or do any physical activity at the home for at least 30 minutes every day.

3. Managing stress with meditation therapies

Increasing stress issue among urbanites has directly or indirectly pushed the people to get into the bad habits of smoking and drinking to distress themselves.

But instead of relieving the stress they further push them in the trench of severe health problems.

On the other side, meditation therapies heal the aching stress pain in a healthy way.

Several research works across the world have suggested mindfulness meditation as the best therapy to reduce stress thereby enhancing immune as well as cognitive functions of the body.

The key areas that are benefitted the most with meditation include attention regulation, body awareness, emotion regulation, and sense of self.

Schedule your sleep time. Have a healthy diet. Manage your sitting time at the computer.

Together, these help us to deal with the effects of stress.

4. Distancing oneself from the toxins

The heavy pollutants in the environment has already led to a serious pile-up of many toxic bodies inside our system.

Piling it up with toxins (from drinking alcohol and smoking) and toxic anti-nutrients (in grains, beans, peanuts, soy and too much of vegetable oils) can lead to immense destruction of the intestinal lining.

Instead try going on an alkaline diet with lots of fruits, nuts, legumes and vegetables in it.

This will power up the body's ability to detoxify the preoccupied toxins from the environmental chaos.

5. Prioritising balanced sleep

Working all day with limited rest routines won’t let the body synthesise the nutrients well even with the best of food getting into it and this would severely hamper the immune.

With a hampered immune system you won’t achieve much success in your life.

According to Ayurveda, ideal sleep routine is going to bed early in the night and waking up in the early morning hours before sunrise.

This routine would not only keep your mind and body healthy but will also help in stimulating your body's cleansing systems.

Simple body movements before sunrise like a small walk or pranayam would keep you active all through the day.

It is advisable that you take control of your life and work on your health before it is too late.

 Lead image published only for representational purposes.