How to Rebuild Your Immune System

Video Transcript

"My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a registered and licensed dietitian with the Austin Regional Clinic and I'm going to talk to you about how to rebuild your immune system. When thinking about rebuilding your immune system, you have to think of what happened that caused your immune system to become depressed. Did you have cancer? Do you have AIDS? Did you suffer some other type of virus or some type of short term illness that compromised your immune system temporarily. Now if it's a temporary item, something such as a flu or a cold, it's much easier to rebuild your immune system than if you were suffering a lifelong illness such as AIDS. So with the more short term problems, ways to build your immune system back up are to make sure that you're taking a good multi-vitamin, multi-mineral supplement. Something that has about one-hundred percent of the RDA for each of the major nutrients. You want to make sure that you're taking that on a daily basis, preferably in the morning, after you've had your first meal. You also want to make sure that you're including daily pro-biotics. That can be in the form of a pill or it can be from eating things such as yogurt, or Kiefer, or even some cheeses that are fortified with pro-biotics. You also want to make sure that you're including plenty of fruits and vegetables, a lot of whole grains, and lean sources of protein as well as healthy fats. All of these major foods have various nutrients in them that will help build up your immune system. There are several different herbs and spices that also can enhance your immune system. So you want to make sure you're including a lot of things like garlic and onions. Those tend to have a lot of immune enhancing properties. Tea, such as chamomile, also could help with your immune system, so you want to make sure that you're drinking that type of tea on a fairly regular basis. Things that you want to avoid: you want to avoid excess alcohol. Generally speaking, more than three drinks at a time can actually decrease your immunity. You also want to avoid excessive refined sugar. Sugar found in soda waters, or any type of added sugar to your things like coffee or tea, you want to avoid because that can actually depress your immune system as well. So in rebuilding in your immune system, the major things to keep in mind again are, including: pro-biotics, including a good multi-vitamin multi-mineral supplement, having your fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins on a daily basis, and avoiding things such as refined sugar and excessive amounts of alcohol."