Today, in these strange times, more than ever we can see how our health is so fragile and precious.

We tend to take for granted how hard our bodies have to work every single day to keep us in good physical and mental shape. Equipped with incredible machinery, our body knows how to provide resistance to infection and toxins as long we don’t became a source of pollution to ourselves.

To keep healthy it’s absolutely vital to support our immunity through diet and regular exercises.

At this strange time, however, when most of us are locked up in homes because of the coronavirus (COVID-19), it is easy to fall into the traps that reduce the strength of the immune system.

Below are the most tempting ones that we face everyday at home

Sugar – Sugar – it’s easy to sit in front of the TV now and eat chocolates to improve your mood. Listening to negative news messages increases our sense of anxiety, and sweets have this treacherous power of bringing temporary relief of sadness. Sugar, as I wrote earlier, is white death. Consumption of even small amounts greatly reduces your white blood cell count which are responsible for killing off many pathogens in the body.

Processed Foods

Tomatoes, soups and corn will probably be found in every home. For many of us who rely on home delivery to avoid large clusters of people in supermarkets, canned food has become the only alternative.

It is so much easier to find canned tomatoes in delivery than fresh. However, there is a high price to pay for this convenience. Eating excessive canned food can be very harmful in the long run. The cans containing the food are lined with Bisphenol A, ubiquitous environmental toxicant with endocrine-disrupting properties that may weaken immune system.

Dehydration

Are you one of these people who cannot imagine start of the day without having a cup of coffee? Do you continue to have a few of them during the day or perhaps enjoying tea breaks? These daily habits don’t harm you as long as you remember to drink plenty of water in addition to drinking coffee and tea. In order for our immune system to function properly, it must have sufficient amount of water. Human body remains above 50 percent of water for most or all of your life, and that is why water is absolutely critical for our organs to function properly.

Table below shows how much water contain there is in some of the body parts:

In Excessive Alcohol Consumption

It may feel innocent to have a glass of wine with dinner, perhaps another one later on while watching TV. Everything in moderation. According to the UK Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) low risk drinking guidelines advise it is safest for men and women not to drink more than 14 units a week on a regular basis. (3 units in a pint of beer, 2 units in a glass of wine)

Multiple studies shows that one glass or two glasses of alcohol per week certainly will not harm, but excessive consumption definitely will.

First, alcohol deprives your body of nutrition, including nutrients that support your immune system. Excessive drinking reduces the number of white blood cells counts in the body and weakens the ones that already exist. In addition, excessive consumption of alcohol suppresses the ability of these blood cells to multiply.

To get more information about alcohol and heath it’s good to visit Drinkaware, an independent charity working to reduce alcohol consumption and harm in the UK.

Stress

For many of us COVID-19 became a real stress, not only due to danger of infection but also fear about future, job security. Chronic stress is a real concern to our health as it greatly reduces the number of disease-fighting antibodies in our system and makes us very vulnerable to became ill easier. It raises cortisol levels, which decreases production of prostaglandins, hormone-like messengers that support our immune system.

We have to protect ourselves and try to enjoy this lock-down time. It’s great to try some of the meditation apps and calm our mind, exercise, there are many great Pilates videos or yoga on Youtube. Below I listed some of my favourites workouts and some good old fashioned daily belly laughs.

Pilates:

Boho Beautiful – series of Pilates and yoga videos recorded in different part of the world

Skalpel Ewa Chodakowska – an amazing whole body workout with one of the best Polish fitness trainers.

The Head-space  meditation app– fee apply