Is it really possible to "build up your immune system"

garlic pearls are great for stopping colds etc ,you have to take them every day though ,not just when you feel run down

I did buy some high strength cod liver oil...spent most of the bext day on the loo hmmm....may have been coincidence. not tried garlic.

Biker I know this won't work for you, but I have a friend who is well in his 80s, and he swims every morning summer and winter. He claims that the cold water shock makes his immune system strong. I do believe that cold water aids circulation, which in turn perhaps has other good effects.

I do think you can build your strength up. Whether by vitamins, I'm not sure...

To build up your immune system in a natural general way ie. not artifically by injections or living in a bubble:

Rest and exercise in the proper amounts.

Good general diet including enough water.

Feel good enough about yourself . Freedom from guilt and excessive remorse.

I have found since i started taking vitamin d. I have got rid of colds quicker. I have a cold at the minute but it has not yet turned into a chest infecton as usual in the winter.

GrannyKnot I totally agree with you...I have friends who are in their 80s and late 80s they go swimming at least 3/4 times a week , one has never had a car therefore walks miles and miles each week, goes Linedancing twice a week and they are wonderful.

Alex natural way sounds good..........but would find the last sentence difficult to achieve but can see where your coming from

biker, my (good) GP recommended I take a combined vitamin c and zinc tablet to support my challenged immune system. It may be luck but I've avoided awful bugs this past couple of years. I've had the colds and 48 hour bugs people get but non of those debilitating illnesses that go on and on.

so maybe there is some truth that yes we can help ourselves... I suppose its taking action through the year rather than a small window in winter...food for thought.

I agree with ethel. There is evidence that Vitamin D boosts the immune system & as it's very difficult to make enough in the winter months, taking a supplement seems a good idea.
Hope you’re better soon biker.

I don’t have a car and I don’t have central heating I do think we coddle up too much and rush to take too many tablets (I don’t mean people with real illnesses who need script drugs) so far I haven’t had any colds this year and usually throw them off quickly if I do get one

Totally agree BlueBelle. Too many folk live in houses far too warm, go out and jump in the car and use even paracetamol like sweets. If I take even one my family know I must be feeling really ill! I walk to and from work in all winds and weather. I haven't had a cold for a couple of years, this time despite my OH having a continual one since he had the flu jab.

Poor you Bikergran I’m not going to pretend I know the answer but when I worked in a G.P surgery I was always coming down with somthing or other. The minute we moved things improved. I was still with the public in clinics so although things had improved I would still ‘catch’ more than my fair share. I’ve now retired and only get the occasional bug from grandchildren. So I think that if your immune system is a bit low and your in contact with the germ riddle public you’ll catch everything going. hope you feel better soon. Ps I’m asthmatic so I think that in my case that was why I caught everything I came into contact with

Apart from eating well, lots of fruit and veg, I do nothing extra, but I rarely get a cold. My mother lived a very long and very healthy life, she never spent a night in hospital.
It must be partly in the genes. I now go out seldom so don't mix but I have always been the same.

Blueberries, live yogurt, cold showers, plenty of sleep, exercise in the fresh air, laughing at a joke. Surely people have done research on this? Will look it up.

Loopy it never ceases to amaze me now much we seem to have lost touch with the basics.

Biker in answer to your OP - I read an article (I think it is in the latest Waitrose magazine) last night (backed up by scientific references) about gut health and the immune system, how we are only as strong as our microbes are hearlthy - so the advice from Loopy re live yoghurt is good. There's lots been written about this, including on Gransnet in a webchat by Michael Mosley. So every now and again I swig kefir when I can find it (around here I find it occasionally in a supermarket but most Polish shops stock it).

I keep reading we have a "second brain" in our gut and I think the importance of gut health is very much being recognised at last.
A healthy mind and a healthy body used to be a mantra.
I was advised many years ago by our practice nurse to have Actimel every day, it has been poopoohed since but it works for me.

Is it always wise to ‘boost your immune system’?

Garlic capsules-have taken one every day for years and they prevent colds,also good for heart and circulation.

Vit C with Zinc is supposed to help the immune system.

I always eat raw onions wrapped in a piece of wafer thin ham several times a day at the first sign of a cold/sore throat. Also read in paper this morning about putting raw onion in a dish to draw in the infections from the air. Apparently a very old remedy for illness’ before antibiotics.

There are only so many cold viruses and by the time you are in your fifties you have had most of them and have built up immunity towards them which is why older people don't get so many colds.

However, it is still useful to take some vitamin supplements to give you a boost through the winter. I took a daily multivitamin until a nusre friend of mine looked at the bottle and said that they provided only half of the recommended dose of vitamin D which is the one we don't get naturally through sunlight in the winter and also the one that fights colds. So now I take two. I get them from Tesco's under their 'Value' label (now on a 342 offer) so they are as cheap as chips.

Had constant colds and bugs for years until my GP did some blood tests. Turned out I had low vitamin D. That was just over a year ago. Since taking vitamin D tablets I have only had one cold which lasted half the time than usual and the tiredness has reduced dramatically. Certainly helped me.

I swear by Vit C. It's always worked briliently for me, but you have to take 1000mg sustained release ones. I left it off in the run up to last winter and got deluged with cold after cold and coughs. Looking after Grandchildren doesn't help, but this year thankfully remembered to start taking it again and have avoided them all so far! I also found that having the flu jab helps too, not sure why!

It's really easy to make your own kefir Grannyknot, takes just a couple of minutes every morning. I swear by it - message me if you would like me to send you some kefir starter grains and simple instructions. It's not a business by the way - just feel very positive about it and would like to help anyone else who is interested make a start with it!