Back to school time is exciting and fun! Though it can also bring feelings of stress and anxiety for everyone involved: students, parents, educators, and school staff. While the typical back to school checklist may include new clothes, books, and other essentials, don't forget to focus on ways to help support your kids health and strengthen their immune systems to make them more resilient toward illnesses of all kinds. Below are a few ways to support your immune system and overall health.
1. Improve Your Lifestyle
Your lifestyle is usually the biggest factor that determines your overall health. What do you eat everyday? How much sleep do you get every night? How much exercise did you get last week? How much do you sit on average throughout the day? How you answer these questions is an important clue in whether you are supporting or depressing your body's ability to fight off infection and properly heal. So much can be said about each and every one of these elements. Pick one of them and make an improvement this week. Even better, get your kids and family involved as well! It's a great opportunity to learn healthy, lifelong habits. For more resources, here are a few holistic practitioners who I personally follow for tons of healthy ideas.
2. Regular Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic care removes vertebral subluxations which causes stress to your body and interferes with proper nerve function. Subluxations can cause dysfunction including weakened immune health. Chiropractic care is safe and appropriate for people of all ages including infants, kids, young adults, adults, and older people. Research has found that there are immediate immune system changes after a chiropractic adjustment! For more info: https://www.poweroflifehealth.com/post/why-i-get-adjusted-every-week
3. Supplement Nutritional Deficiencies
Most people (including kids) are nutrient lacking as a result of poor diet, increased toxicity, and environmental degradation. Nutrients are important factors in cellular function and biochemical processes. A deficiency can lead to immune system problems as well as other health problems. The most common supplements I recommend for immune system support include Vitamin D, Fish oil, probiotics, Vitamin A, and Vitamin C. Ideally we should get these in our diet or with whole-food supplements. As with any supplement, quality is key... taking a poor quality supplement with artificial derivatives or fillers can be harmful. I always recommend you speak with your holistic practitioner before you start taking a supplement.
4. Meditate/ Manage Stress
Long-term stress depresses your immune response and makes you more susceptible to infection. Research has found that meditation is a great way to manage stress as well as restore immune system function. As little as 5-minutes a day can make a difference in how you feel! Check out this quick meditation video as an example. For those that struggle with meditation, try Emotional Freedom Tapping (EFT) (see more here). It's never too early to learn these stress handling techniques!
5. Consider Herbal Support
Herbs can be an awesome way to support your body's natural immune response. Again, quality is essential as many herbal supplements on the market don't contain the necessary concentration of ingredients to be effective. In my opinion, the best immune system herb for most people is echinacea. You can learn more about echinacea here. I always recommend you speak with your holistic practitioner before you start taking a supplement.
The Bottom Line
There are simple things that you can do to support your immune system and make you and your family more resilient to disease. In our clinic, we specialize in holistic chiropractic care and nutritional response testing and we would love the opportunity to meet with you and your family and learn about your health goals. Give us a call at 952-443-9000 or email us at frontdesk@poweroflifehealth.com to schedule an appointment.
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