Protect Yourself and Boost Your Immunity against COVID-19

As we are in an unprecedented time with the spread of the coronavirus In Belize and across the globe, we need to do as much prevention as we can to naturally boost our immunity, practice good hygiene, and to reduce our risk when around people.

In your daily routine, practicing good healthy habits can make a difference in helping you protect yourself against getting the COVID-19 virus. When we improve our health, we boost our immunity – the ability to fight off infection. If our health is poor or depressed, our bodies ability is limited in fighting off the attacking viruses.

The following are actions you can do in your daily life to clean your environment and practice prevention to reduce the risk of obtaining and transmitting germs and viruses to others especially the older adults and those with health conditions in and around your life:

1. Wash your hands and triple hand wash making sure to clean your finger nails.
2. Use a barrier (gloves, towel, etc.) when using hands on common areas such as door handles, tables, etc.
3. Avoid touching your face, eyes, and mouths
4. Cover your cough into your bent elbow, a tissue, or handkerchiefs or wear a protective mask
5. Clean and disinfect your common areas, your home, autos, and workstation
6. Avoid crowded places, social distancing works to reduce transmission by staying 6 feet away from others and avoid groups of ten or more.
7. Stay at home if you feel ill, have a fever, or cough. Try to work from home if allowable by your employer.
8. Seek medical attention if you feel ill and call first or use a tele-health service
9. Stock up with two weeks of healthy foods and supplies as well as over the counter medications and prescription medications.
10. Get a humidifier if you live in a dry environment. Viruses like dry air.
11. Keep up with the latest information by following RF&G Life, The Health Ministry of Belize, and the World Health Organization (WHO).

What about lifestyle factors to fit into you day to reduce your risk and improve your immune system. The following are some common strategies to accomplish these goals:

1. Get plenty of sleep where greater than 6 hours are recommended and if possible 7 or greater is ideal. The body heals and improves with adequate sleep and is more susceptible with inadequate sleep
2. Engage in moderate physical activity which has immune boosting affects whereas extreme exercise can reduce our immunity temporarily increasing our risk
3. Eat plenty of whole foods including vegetables and fruits and lean meats
4. Reduce or eliminate processed foods, fast foods, refined carbohydrates, and sugar which have low nutrient density
5. Supplement with – Vitamin D & C, Zinc, Echinacea, garlic, and probiotics
6. Eat foods high in polyphenols such as berries, dark chocolate, beans, nuts, elderberry, black and green tea, and red wine.
7. Manage stress in your life by reducing stressors and practicing positive copying mechanisms such as prayer, meditation, deep breathing and avoiding over consumption of alcohol and abstain from any other drugs and chemicals

We hope these ideas help you in your attempt to boost your immune system during our current pandemic. Take precautions to reduce your risk, reduce transmission, and feed the body the items to protect and heal effectively. It is up to you to add these actions into your routine and encourage others to do so. We can all get through this difficult time and it will take both individual and family actions to do so.