EAT MORE GREENS and how to boost your immune system

In paid collaboration with Elexir Pharma For me personally in this moment, I think it’s a big focus on trying to frighten people to stay at home, follow the restrictions, washing our hands, social distancing and endless front-pages on the newsmagazines how the virus is spreading and how many deaths. Yes, it’s good to be aware and to be cautious, I am as well, but I feel there is way too few articles and recommendations on how to stay healthy during these times.  I feel it's just as vital to give recommendations of how to live a healthy lifestyle and strengthen our immune system.The immune systems main job is to protect your body from foreign invaders, including pathogens like the coronavirus. If pathogens enter your body, the immune system will dispatch white blood cells to fight it off and will not stop until the threat is gone. But if your immunity is weak or compromised in some way, the immune system has a tough time doing its job – and you’re susceptible to catching the coronavirus, the flu, a cold, or other infection. The healthier we are and the stronger immunity system we have - the harder it is for us to actually catch a virus. And even if we would catch it - the experience could be milder if we are in tune with our bodies. So this post I would like to dedicate on how to REALLY take care of our body, mind & soul during these strange times!And I am doing this together in a collaboration with Elixir Pharma who I have been collaborating with for more than a year now. Cause there is some certain vitamins which is important to eat, especially for us nordic living people where the cold and dark is surrounding us! Some basic go-to's for our well being:  ✯Eat healthy, eat a varied & balanced diet✯Eat more greens, veggies and fruits - natural foods!✯Add on with some extra important vitamins which is harder to get through food✯Try to focus on a more alkaline diet✯Work out, meditate, do yoga, stay in tune with your body✯Make sure to sleep enough✯Try minimize your stress✯Don’t drink too much alcohol & coffee✯Avoid sugar in high doses✯Stop smoking or as little as possible✯Take care of your well being, do things that you enjoy✯Make sure to still have contact with your loved ones so you are not spending to much time in front of a screen alone, it you want to social distance and not meet people, use the phone and make calls.✯Be present and try to live fully with what you got, even if it's very strange times right now After rain, it comes sunshine :) For me the 4 most important vitamins right now, and to boost my immune system is: (if you click on them you go straight to Apotea's webpage where you find Elexir Pharma's products)Also most health shops in Sweden has their products :)D3ZinkC-VitaminOmega-3 Zinc and the immune systemZinc is a substance that must be present in the body at all times for vital processes to work. It is usually called a trace element. It is included as a building block in hundreds of important enzymes that determine how well the body metabolizes proteins, carbohydrates, fats and certain vitamins, including vitamin A. Nuclear Factor Kappa B (NF-κB) is a substance that causes inflammation in the body and zinc is an important regulator of this substance. Research has shown that chronic inflammation caused by rampant levels of NF-κB can be counteracted by ingesting sufficient amounts of zinc. A combined study1 established that zinc can also shorten the time we have a cold. People taking zinc supplements had, on average, fewer symptoms after one week compared with control groups receiving placebo. Vitamin D and the immune systemVitamin D is usually called the "sun vitamin" because it is naturally formed in the skin when we are out in the sun. Unfortunately, we in the Nordic countries have few months of sunshine and many suffer from vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to osteomalacia (bone softening) in adults and English disease (soft or deformed skeleton) in children. This is because vitamin D regulates the balance of calcium in the body's teeth and bones. In case of severe vitamin D deficiency, the risk of seizures also increases. A new study from the University of Copenhagen2 shows that vitamin D awakens the immune system's so-called "killer cells", or T lymphocytes (T cells), ie the type of white blood cells that attack and fight viruses and bacteria in the body. In the absence of vitamin D, these white blood cells become less effective in their work and thus you run a greater risk of contracting infections. Vitamin C is an essential micronutrient for humans, with pleiotropic functions related to its ability to donate electrons. It is a potent antioxidant and a cofactor for a family of biosynthetic and gene regulatory enzymes. Vitamin C contributes to immune defense by supporting various cellular functions of both the innate and adaptive immune system.Vitamin C supports epithelial barrier function against pathogens and promotes the oxidant scavenging activity of the skin, thereby potentially protecting against environmental oxidative stress. Omega 3We all need fat for our bodies to function properly. There are certain fatty acids that are more important than others and that the body cannot produce itself, essential fatty acids. Two of these are eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and they are found in high concentrations in, among other things, fatty fish from cold water and also in krill. Vegan Omega-3 is made from algae instead of fish, more specifically from Schizochytrium sp algae which is naturally rich in Omega-3. Another really great way to support our immune system is to eat an akalined dietIn simple terms, an alkaline diet is a way of eating that emphasizes non-acidifying foods over acidifying ones. You base your food choices around those that lower the acid levels in your body and increase its alkalinity. The goal of an alkaline diet is to balance the body’s pH levels. ph stands for the power of hydrogen or the total hydrogen ion concentration in a solution. pH levels are expressed on a scale from 1 to 14 to specify how acidic or alkaline a water-based solution is. Higher pH numbers are alkaline (also referred to as base) and lower numbers are acidic (acid). A pH of 7 is generally considered neutral. You can test your pH daily by using special strips that you can get in the pharmacy If you eat enough alkaline-forming foods, your body has better access to access to immune-boosting nutrients. Also, many nutrition and medical experts believe that disease cannot develop in an alkaline environment. The opposite to alkaline foods, you have for example alcohol and coffee - very delicious sometimes - but too much of it really makes our bodies sour. I don’t believe in a all or nothing idea, so just be aware and don’t over do it ;-). Foods on the alkaline end of the scale include vegetables (particularly greens), fermented vegetables (like sauerkraut and kimchi), low-glycemic, low-sugar fruits, and various healthy fats such as avocados, nuts, and seeds. Cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts. All are packed with antioxidant vitamins that boost the immune system. They also contain an array of special plant chemicals that detoxify your body of health-damaging environmental toxins. Among the most alkalinizing foods you can eat are greens such as kale, spinach, collard greens, and Swiss chard. These veggies are super-high in vitamin C, which is not only a powerful antioxidant, it also wards off infections and regenerates other antioxidants in the body, including vitamin E. Greens are also rich in folate, another immune booster and a detoxifier.  A good way to start your day is a glas of hot water with lemon in it! Makes wonders for the gut flora :) Regards to Elexir Pharma, it's one of my family friends that have started this company many years ago, and I have been eating them for years. And I really like what they do :) If you want to read more about all of their products CLICK HERE, there you also have it all in Swedish. Sources1 Zinc for the treatment of the common cold: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trialsMichelle Science, Jennie Johnstone, Daniel E. Roth, Gordon Guyatt, Mark LoebCMAJ Jul 2012, 184 (10) E551-E561; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.111990 2 von Essen MR, Kongsbak M, Schjerling P, Olgaard K, Odum N, Geisler C. Vitamin D controls T cell antigen receptor signaling and activation of human T cells. Nat Immunol. 2010 Apr;11(4):344-9. doi: 10.1038/ni.1851. Epub 2010 Mar 7. PMID: 2020853