People around the world continue to use herbs to treat various aliments such as headaches, the common cold and digestive problems. Furthermore, people use herbal and spice teas, tisanes and soups infused with medicinal plants to strengthen immunity and avoid sickness.
Your body and brain rely on having a robust immune system in order to work optimally. Eating nutritious food, exercising regularly and avoiding harmful habits such as smoking and excessive drinking all help promote good immunity function. Incorporating herbs into your diet for added protection against diseases.
Use of plants and herbal tea to strengthen immunity is part of both Ayurvedic medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), but Western medicine doctors also recognize their beneficial properties in fighting off illness and preventing disease. Green Tea, Elderberry, Ganoderma Astragalus Ginseng are five effective immune boosting herbs favored by scientists; each provides active ingredients which strengthen and support your immunity system.
Immune System Function and Your Health
Your immune system plays a key role in keeping you healthy while decreasing the risk of infections, diseases, and illnesses. Comprised of organs, cells, and proteins (antibodies), its main job is protecting against bacteria, viruses, fungi, toxins and other potential threats such as T-cells (lymphocytes), neutrophils monocytes macrophages.
When our bodies come under attack, immune cells produce inflammation and antibodies to fight infections or remove toxins. But this only happens if we start out with good immunity – those with reduced or compromised immunity due to poor diet, health conditions or diseases like HIV and cancer have greater chances of contracting certain infections and illnesses; common ones include HIV and cancer.
Colds and flu, pneumonia, candidiasis and lymphoma, tuberculosis all are conditions to watch for.
Herpes At times, our immune systems can become overreactive and attack themselves, leading to overproduction of inflammation, allergies and autoimmune disease. Certain herbs mentioned here may enhance immunity by strengthening immune functions and decreasing chances of contracting opportunistic infections.
Signs of Weak Immunity
People tend to naturally possess stronger immune systems than others. But your defense can become compromised due to factors like ageing, obesity and medication such as chemotherapy drugs – including their side effects. Some common indicators of reduced immunity include:
Feeling tired and fatigued easily
Wounds take longer than normal to heal Recurring skin rashes or infections.
Chronic or frequent digestive symptoms, including bloating, constipation or diarrhea; blood disorders; autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis; organ inflammation.
Human and in vitro studies were conducted to ascertain the therapeutic value of various herbs used for immune support, and these top herbs for this are probably familiar from health food stores or personal experience – but you might not realize they’re beneficial for boosting your immunity!
1. Green tea can boost immunity
Green tea (Camellia sinensis) is an increasingly popular and beneficial beverage, widely consumed around the world and often produced and grown in areas like India, Japan, Sri Lanka and the US. Produced using leaves and buds harvested from Camellia sinensis plants, its tea has become one of the world’s most commonly consumed drinks.
Although green tea’s strong, grassy flavors with earthy undertones may take time to adapt to, don’t let that stop you from reaping its health benefits. Green tea has traditionally been used for regulating metabolism, weight loss, maintaining youthful skin health and improving brain and heart function as well as supporting immune system health.
Green tea’s active beneficial ingredients are polyphenol antioxidants known as catechins, flavonoids, proteins and fatty acids; Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is one of these catechins; multiple studies on green tea immunity found that its use strengthens immune system function by protecting against free radical damage caused by oxidative stress2.2
Research done on EGCG has demonstrated its profound effects on T cell functions, which play an integral part in the formation of autoimmune inflammatory diseases. Furthermore, EGCG was found to be an effective therapeutic agent capable of both preventing and improving such diseases linked to T cells.
