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11 Natural Ways to Boost Your Immune System
A healthy body is dependent on a strong immune system. Rather than just strengthening our immune system we want to train our immune system to do it’s job correctly. Today I am sharing just some of my favorite natural tips for supporting and building a strong immune system that have worked for me. Here are 11 Natural Ways to Boost Your Immune System…
11 Natural Tips to Boost Your Immune System
Simple, holistic tips to fight illness and strengthen your immunity PLUS what you can do if you do get sick, to fight it quickly.
Go With Your Gut
I can tell you from personal experience that the very best way to ward off chronic illness, colds, flus, infections, allergies, food sensitivities and controlling / avoiding autoimmune disease is to heal and strengthen the gut! With 70-80% of our immune system’s cells occupying our gut, this is home base for our vitality and wellness. Our gut bacteria helps the immune system’s T cells develop—teaching them the difference between a foreign substance and the body’s own tissues. Without these important immune soldiers doing their job to protect us, the nasties get in, they slip by the troops, invade, wage war, take over and it’s not fun!
With years of comprised digestion, intestinal bacterial overgrowth and finally being diagnosed with a parasite, I personally spent a solid decade to 15 years, getting terrible sinus infections, several times a year, every year, most times it then eventually evolved into bronchitis and upper respiratory infections. I got every single strain of every cold, flu and stomach bug that passed through town – I even battled the Swine Flu when that was a thing. On top of all of that, I suffered for many, many years with a variety of environmental allergies – ALL of this stopped when I finally healed my gut and prioritized proper digestion. It’s magical really. But, it’s not. It’s simple.
As you’ll hear echoed many times throughout this article, and if you spend more than about 5 minutes chatting with me at any given time, our gut is vital to our immune health and it’s the control center for our bodies to decide what is friend and what is foe. I highly encourage you to prioritize optimizing your gut, both for the cold and flu season ahead, as well as the future of your overall health and wellness. If you want to learn more about how to heal your gut – GRAB THE FREE GUT HEALTH 101 GUIDE BOOK
Along with tips for strengthening and healing your gut, here are some tips to Naturally Boost Your Immune System:
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How-to Make All Purpose Cleaner
It’s easy to walk down the aisles at the market and get sucked into the varying claims of cleaning products. Afterall, we want to protect ourselves and our families from all the nasty stuff, the dirt, germs and bacteria. When you see this simple recipe for making your own all purpose cleaner you may think ‘is this enough to disinfect? What about those store bought version with tons of ingredients and chemicals, don’t we need those to make sure we are killing off bad bacteria?’
To be honest with you, the long list of toxic chemicals filling the cleaning products at the store, are likely causing us far more harm then good. Just click into this list and peruse the posts on any of these disinfecting all-purpose cleaners and read the long lists of health and safety concerns on each. It’s alarming at best. Skin irritants, carcinogens, eye irritants, poison if swallowed, some if just inhaled. YIKES! We use this stuff day in and day out around our house, near our children and our pets. This is scary stuff.
Much like making your own food from scratch, the wonderful thing about making your own household cleaning products is the opportunity to know exactly what’s in it. We use most all purpose spray cleaners throughout our houses, several times a week, if not per day. It comes in contact with our skin, it’s in the air that we breath and it’s around our food, why shouldn’t you know exactly what it contains?
The beauty of this simple homemade all-purpose clearer is how we use all-natural, high quality 100% therapeutic grade essential oils for their natural disinfecting properties. All essential oils have varying natural antibacterial, antifungal & antiviral qualities, some stronger than others.
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Homemade Honey Lemon Lavender Face Scrub
As I mentioned in my recent post, I have switched to a brand new skin care regimen with Peacock Apothecary that is all natural, handmade to order, all of their products are free of any chemicals and preservatives and locally sourced when possible, etc. Additionally, as part of my routine I am still using my homemade apple cider ginger toner every time I wash and I added in a homemade exfoliant that I use twice a week, at the recommendation of the girls at Peacock Apothecary.
This recipe is something I can put together very quickly and simply. I make up this small batch and keep it in the shower for the week. I have been loving how my skin feels after this gentle scrub, it is smoother than ever and I feel like my skin is as clean as it ever could be. It is super gentle and the scent is so soothing and calming.
Here is my current skin care routine:
Daily in the morning:
Wash with Coconut Milk cleanser from PA,
Tone with homemade apple cider vinegar toner
Moisturize with citrus serum from PADaily in the evening: Wash, toner, serum (same products as above)
Twice a week I use this scrub in the evening (or morning if that works better with my schedule) and at least once a week, more if needed, I make a probiotic mask.
Also, when using my face cleanser, twice a week, in the evening, on opposite days of when I use this face scrub, I use my Clarisonic Mia.
[print_this]Homemade Honey Lemon Lavender Face Scrub
- Juice from 1/2 organic lemon
- 1 tablespoon honey (I used local raw honey, in its liquid state)
- 1/4 cup sea salt (I used pink Himalayan sea salt)
- 2 teaspoons dried lavender
- 15 drops lavender essential oil
Add all of the ingredients to a small bowl, mix well to combine. To use: Mix the ingredients until well blended and massage on a damp face. Rinse well with warm water and finish with a splash of cold. Though the scrub’s nicest when used fresh, you can keep leftovers for up to a week or so.
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