Boosting Your Immune System Naturally When You’re HIV+

Posted on June 3, 2020By bernard

With cold and flu season (not to mention certain other viruses) blowing in on a chilled breeze, you’re probably thinking about how you can give your immune system the boost it needs. If you’re HIV-positive, you need to be especially careful. This season usually requires a little more than your general dedication to your antiretroviral treatment. Give your body a boost with our top 5 tips to strengthen your immune system naturally.

NOTE: If you’re looking to these tips to protect you from contracting COVID-19, please note that no supplement, diet or change in lifestyle (aside from social distancing and regular handwashing) do that. These tips can only help to boost your immune defences, but they cannot protect you specifically against this coronavirus.

1. Get Plenty Of Sleep

Surprisingly, one of the easiest tricks to giving your immune system a boost is just getting in a good forty winks.

This is also why you tend to sleep more when sick – to allow your body to better fight off the illness. So, catch as much of those Z’s as possible.

Adults ought to try get in at least 7 hours of sleep every night. Meanwhile, teens should be sleeping between 8-10 hours, and younger children and infants about 14 hours.

2. Eat More Fibre In Whole Plant Foods

Next to your 40 winks, the most important factor in protecting your body’s defence system is whole plant foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds. These are rich in nutrients and antioxidants to give you the upper hand against invading infections.

Antioxidants in foods help to reduce inflammation. Inflammation is linked to many health conditions, including heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and certain cancers. So, a high-fibre diet, built on a foundation of plant foods, can have far-reaching positive effects in any season of your life.

Another thing fibre is good for is feeding your gut biome, better known as the community of healthy bacteria maintaining your digestive tract. A varied gut biome can go a long way in building up your immune system. But we’ll give you more details on that in a bit.

3. Eat More (Healthy) Fats

Although we’re going into winter and hot, greasy foods suddenly take on a new allure (especially with hot food delivery back on the menu), you must resist the urge to order in.

What your body really needs right now in order to fight infections are the right kinds of fats. When we talk about “healthy fats”, we’re talking about monosaturated fats:

Vegetable oils (including olive, canola, sunflower, and soy)
Omega-3 fatty acids (i.e. fatty fish like salmon, trout, or mackerel)
Avocados
Nuts
Seeds

4. Listen To Your Gut And Up Your

What your stomach (and your immune system) really needs right now is the right kind of bacteria: probiotics. These good bacteria live throughout your digestive tract and contribute a great deal to your overall health.

Eat more fermented foods or take a probiotic supplement to keep your gut bacteria varied and flourishing. This will help your body differentiate between normal, healthy cells and invading infections.

So, either find a probiotic supplement or consider incorporating the following fermented foods into your diet:

Yogurt
Sauerkraut
Kefir (fermented milk)
Natto (fermented soybeans)

5. Limit Your Sugar Intake

Increasing research suggests that added sugars and refined carbs can increase inflammation in the body. Curbing your sugar intake can go a long way in, not only keeping your immune system strong, but also reducing your risk of contracting chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

You should try to limit your sugar intake to less than 5% of your daily calories. In other words, avoid eating more than 2 tablespoons (or 25g) of sugar, if your regular diet consists of 2,000 calories overall.

Of course, as we go into winter, and colds and viruses become more prevalent, you should stick to the usual advice. Drink plenty of water, while keeping warm, relaxed and rested.

Please be aware that, if you are HIV-positive, these tips are also not a replacement for either your ARV treatment or the precautions outlined by the World Health Organisation. However, they can be useful in supporting the effectiveness of that medication, giving you more time to give your all to your family. And while you’re taking care to live life to the fullest, we’ll help you take care of your life cover. With Specialised Life Cover, you can find quotes that suit your budget in no time flat.