How Does Your Weight Affect Your Immune Health?
Everyone wants to live a healthy and happy life. However, this is not always the case, and sometimes it's hard to control sickness. While there are many reasons why a person can get sick, many don't realize the impacts being overweight can have on the immune system. Research shows that obesity can impair immune functioning and affect cell-mediated responses and leucocyte counts.
Proper Nutrition & Immune Health
The immune system has the overall task of protecting your body against infections and diseases. Eating a proper diet and nutrients can strengthen your immune system and inhibit harmful microbes and other disease-causing invaders such as viruses and bacteria.
Proper nutrition consists of a balanced diet that incorporates protein, antioxidants, iron, zinc, selenium, and the essential minerals and vitamins – A, E, C & B-6. The nutrients that promote the growth and performance of the immune system comprise plant and animal foods.
On the flip side, consuming diets rich in sugar and fat can add to your weight and may increase your risk of infections. Highly processed foods and diets with limited nutrients can also cause disturbances in the intestinal microorganisms and ultimately weaken your immune system. Keep in mind that a diet low in vegetables, fiber, and fruits can increase your blood sugar or even trigger oxidative damage, making you prone to health complications.
Exercising
Physical activity can benefit your body in many ways. Particularly, exercising can enhance your immune function and help prevent infections. Furthermore, regular physical activity is thought to strengthen antibodies, increase blood flow, and reduce stress and inflammation, which enables your immune system to fight infections and diseases.
Subsequently, exercising can make you feel healthier, happier, and more energetic. You don't have to engage in heavy exercises like intense gym training necessarily. Instead, you can try moderate programs like cycling a few days a week, a few minutes of daily walks, or going to the gym occasionally. You can consider taking immune support supplements along with physical activity to potentially lower your chance of infections.
Losing Weight & the Immune System
Maintaining a healthy weight can help support your immune system. On the other hand, improper dieting and deficiency of certain nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and proteins can weaken your immune system. But most importantly, losing weight is critical to attaining a strong immune system. Notably, the immune system consists of different cells that help your body fight against germs and invaders.
For the immune system to function correctly, these cells must co-exist in a proper balance. However, several factors, including excess body fat and improper diet, can affect this balance, forming harmful cells rather than adequately functioning cells.
For instance, having excess fat around the abdomen can trigger cells that promote inflammation, weakening your immune performance. Chronic inflammation is often associated with severe health problems such as coronary artery disease.
When it comes to obesity and the immune system, maintaining proper weight is the real deal. Remember that even if you exercise regularly and maintain a healthy diet, your immune system is still at risk of failing if you are obese. Obesity itself can cause various health problems, including:
- Cell dysfunction
- Reduced cytokine production
- Reduced response to antigen stimulation
- Impaired lymphocyte and monocyte function
All these factors weaken the immune system of those who are obese, increasing their risk of infections and diseases.
Bottom Line
There are many ways to help support the immune system and stay healthy. The most common ones include eating a balanced diet, exercising, managing stress, and maintaining proper body weight. You should also consider using immune supplements from Quantum Health, along with the above recommendations, to achieve a robust immune system.
