First wave, second wave — as COVID-19 pulsates across the country, you’ve had to wave your normal routines goodbye. No matter how fit you were before this all began, when summer arrives, chances are you’ll be looking at … well, let’s think positively … an opportunity to reclaim or restore your good health and fitness, and have fun doing it.
We’ve put together a three-month plan that may surprise you, because while it contains the familiar benefits of increased physical activity and improved nutrition, it also brings in a few lesser known techniques to help you strengthen your immune response. They all add up to a younger RealAge and a greater ability to defend yourself against invaders, whether a virus or cancer.
STEP ONE: CULTIVATE RESILIENCE
Study after study shows that physical and emotional adaptability, the building blocks of resilience, let you deal more effectively with both health-damaging stress and infection. Luckily, resilience is a skill you can learn. It’s built by empowering you to take control of your wellbeing and reduce your stress response (negative, chronic stress blocks resilience, weakens the immune system and ages you inside and out).
Try meditation, in the form of deep breathing, guided imagery, mindfulness or some forms of yoga. It lowers blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, oxygen consumption and stress hormones. We suggest 10 minutes morning and night to start. Get info and instruction videos at Sharecare.com; search for “meditation techniques.”
If you’re struggling to use meditation to reduce stress and improve your immune response, get help. A study in BMJ Open found that cognitive behavioral therapy combined with mindfulness can boost your efforts to become resilient and cope with high-stress-response situations.
Become more positive by consciously trying to see the upside in situations, and cultivate optimistic thinking. Each day, focus on three things that are going well, or three things for which you’re grateful. Write them down if that helps you keep them in mind.
STEP TWO: BUILD NETWORKS AND RELATIONSHIPS
Even in times of restricted social interaction, it’s both possible and essential to get the physical and emotional health benefits of love, purpose, generosity, friendship and family. And it matters. Over 20 years, the Pittsburg Common Cold Study found that solid social relationships reduce the risk for respiratory illness, like the common cold, some of which are caused by other coronaviruses.
How to do it these days: Online volunteer programs abound; check out “9 places to volunteer online (and make a real impact)” at www.DoSomething.org. As for staying in touch with friends and family, we love a combo of video chats, texts, emails and phone calls. Plan every day to reach out to someone you care about and see how they’re doing, and express how you are too.
STEP THREE: UPGRADE YOUR LIFESTYLE HABITS
If you increase your resilience and social interactions, you will greatly amplify the immune-strengthening benefits of improved nutrition and exercise.
A plant-based diet boosts infection-fighting white blood cells. So ditch all red and processed meats, added sugars and processed carbs. Eat seven to nine servings of fresh produce daily and only 100 per cent whole grains.
Physical activity may help clear lungs and airways, and reduce your risk of colds and flu. It also helps white blood cells detect infections earlier and causes a temperature rise that battles infection. So, make sure to get at least 30 minutes of physical activity daily — but aim for 10,000 steps or the equivalent a day, along with two days a week of strength-building for 20 to 30 minutes. It’s not so difficult if you tune into the many free online workouts that are now available on YouTube and Sharecare.com.
If you adopt these three steps at the start of summer — and stick with them — by the fall, when flu season hits and another wave of COVID-19 may sweep across the country, your body will be ready to offer you the best defense against illness.
-Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Mike Roizen