Does the cold season feel like it’s a little longer for you? Do you feel like you just can’t catch a break from the sniffles and sneezes? If so, you might want to give your immune system a little support.

Most people know about the immune system, but what you might not know is that your immune system can get bogged down, which keeps it from doing its job effectively. It’s an efficient machine, but even the best machines need some TLC from time to time. Read on to learn more about how to support your immune system and the role of gut health in immunity.

How Does the Immune System Work?

Your immune system is a collection of cells, proteins, and barriers working 24/7 to defend your body from invaders. There are two big sections of the immune system: innate immunity and adaptive immunity.

Innate immunity responds to immediate threats (like colds), while adaptive immunity protects you from pathogens you’ve already experienced (like the chicken pox). If your immune system identifies a threat, it’ll activate your defenses, and — if all goes well — destroy the invader and learn from the experience. 

6 Lifestyle Changes To Support Your Immune System

Healthy immune function depends on everything from your gut bacteria to sleep quality, stress hormones, and nutrient levels. But how do you put these principles into practice, and what do they mean for you? Let’s break it down.

1. Eat a Nutrient-Rich Diet

Supporting your immune system starts with feeding yourself well. A nutrient-rich diet full of colorful veggies, fruits, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats helps provide the vitamins and minerals your immune cells need to function. 

For instance, vitamins A, C, D, E, and zinc support everything from barrier protection to white blood cell production. Even mild deficiencies can reduce your immune response. 

If you’re not sure where to start, try adding berries to your breakfast, swapping white rice for quinoa, snacking on pumpkin seeds, and sneaking greens into soups or smoothies. Food is fuel for your immune system, and it could be the difference between whether or not you get the flu.

2. Get Some Exercise

Moderate physical activity (like brisk walking, cycling, or yoga) increases the circulation of immune cells like natural killer cells and T-cells, improving their ability to detect and destroy pathogens. In fact, people who exercise moderately most days have better immune regulation and lower inflammation markers. 

The general advice from experts is to aim for 30 minutes a day, five days a week. Mix in resistance training and stretch breaks for bonus points, but make sure you focus on building a good routine of moderate-intensity cardio. Just don’t overdo it, as intense training without rest can actually suppress immune function. 

3. Get Quality Sleep

While you snooze, your body releases cytokines, proteins that help regulate immunity and inflammation. Sleep deprivation (think: less than six hours per night) can lower your T-cell count and antibody response, making it easier to catch viruses and harder to recover from them. In fact, people who get less than seven hours of sleep were nearly three times more likely to catch a cold than those who get eight or more.

To improve your sleep hygiene, keep a consistent bedtime (yes, even on weekends), limit screens an hour before bed, and keep your room cool, quiet, and dark. You might also want to avoid drinking caffeine too late in the day. If you need to calm down, try winding down with a book, herbal tea, or even light stretching. 

4. Reduce Stress

When you’re stressed, your body pumps out cortisol, a hormone that’s helpful in short bursts but harmful in high, ongoing doses. High cortisol levels can shrink the thymus gland (where T-cells mature), reduce antibody production, and delay wound healing.

To manage stress, you don’t need a total life overhaul — just regular check-ins with your nervous system. Daily breathwork, walking in nature, journaling, and mindfulness meditation can significantly lower cortisol levels and support your emotional well-being. Even five minutes of “nothing” (yes, literally staring into space) can help. Of course, you can also take a relaxing supplement like L-theanine or lion’s mane mushroom to help move things along.

5. Don’t Bog It Down

Carrying excess weight, especially visceral fat around your belly, can disrupt immune function by increasing systemic inflammation. Obesity is linked to a higher risk of infections and complications from viruses like the flu or COVID-19. Meanwhile, toxins like cigarette smoke, heavy alcohol use, and exposure to pollutants can all suppress immune function. 

You don’t need to freak out about these things — just move your body regularly, aim for whole foods, and do what you can to minimize ultra-processed snacks. Hydration, sleep, and stress management can also support weight balance. 

6. Practice Good Hygiene

Good hygiene can help you avoid getting sick, but it also helps stop the spread of germs to others. The CDC confirms that handwashing with soap for 20 seconds is one of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of viral and bacterial infections. Clean hands can prevent everything from the common cold to norovirus.

Beyond handwashing, cover your coughs, avoid touching your face, and regularly disinfect high-touch surfaces like doorknobs and your phone. Don't go overboard, as some exposure to microbes helps train your immune system. That being said, staying mindful about hygiene is an easy (and free) way to strengthen your defenses.

Try Immune-Supporting Supplements

While “boosting” your immune system overnight isn’t a thing, supplying it with the right nutrients can give it the tools it needs to cover all its bases. Your immune system thrives on nutrients like vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, and selenium.

However, there’s an immune-supporting supplement you might not have tried before: chaga mushroom. This funky-looking fungus grows on birch trees and has been studied for its ability to promote a strong immune system. 

One study suggests that chaga can support the production of beneficial cytokines and encourage natural killer cell activity. Basically, it can help your immune cells communicate and respond quickly. 

Chaga can have amazing benefits, but it can also taste pretty bitter and is hard to find — that is, if you aren’t drinking our Mushroom Coffee+. Our mushroom coffee contains chaga mushrooms that are double-extracted to make sure all the helpful mushroom compounds are in your cup. 

Each cup also contains lion’s mane mushroom to support focus, L-theanine to help you feel relaxed, four grams of collagen protein to support your gut and skin, and coffee extract to deliver the rich coffee flavor we all know and love. Plus, each serving is designed to contain only 45 mg of caffeine, so you shouldn’t feel jittery and nauseous after your morning cuppa.

Gut Health and the Immune System: What’s the Connection?

Did you know that nearly 70% of your immune cells live in or around your gut? That’s because the gut isn’t just about digesting tacos — it’s also where your body constantly decides what’s harmful and what’s not. A diverse, well-fed gut microbiome helps your immune system do its job without overreacting or underperforming.

Prebiotic foods like oats, garlic, and bananas can feed your beneficial bacteria. Meanwhile, probiotics (found in yogurt, kefir, and kimchi) bring in helpful microbes to support digestion and immune signaling. 

The Bottom Line

Supporting your immune system isn’t about doing one thing perfectly. It’s about building small, consistent habits that give your body the tools it needs to do its job. From gut health and chaga mushrooms to stress management and sleep, the key is to treat your whole self like a system worth maintaining. 

There’s no magic pill, but there is power in daily choices. To learn more about how you can support overall health (and the amazing benefits of mushroom coffee), visit the Everyday Dose blog today.

Sources:

If you want to boost immunity, look to the gut | UCLA Health

Immunomodulatory Activity of the Water Extract from Medicinal Mushroom Inonotus obliquus | PMC

About Handwashing | Clean Hands | CDC

The Association Between Body Mass Index and the Risk of Hospitalization and Mortality due to Infection: A Prospective Cohort Study | PMC

Effects of mindfulness meditation on serum cortisol of medical students | PubMed

How Sleep Affects Your Immune System > News | Yale Medicine

Dietary Supplements for Immune Function and Infectious Diseases | Health Professional Fact Sheet