Maintaining your body immune in the rainy season

24 October 2022

As we are nearing end of the year, Indonesia is experiencing the monsoon.

Rainy seasons and floods are often associated with increased susceptibility to disease. Some of the common diseases are flu and colds. These are caused by viral infections, and you are prone to have it when your immunity or immune system is weak.

Here are some tips on how to stay healthy in the rainy season:

1. Maintain a healthy diet

In order for the immune system to remain optimal, you need to maintain a healthy diet. This is because lack of nutrients may decrease the immune system. To meet the nutritional needs of the body, you need to eat regularly at least three times a day without skipping breakfast and paying attention to the food that enters your body. For example, you can add foods that contain probiotics, such as yogurt, tofu, or tempeh in your daily menu. Probiotics are good bacteria that can help the digestive system and boost the body's immune system.

2. Take additional multivitamins

Taking additional vitamins can help maintain and increase the body's immunity. There are many kinds of vitamins available in the market that you can consume, from single supplement such as vitamin C or multivitamins that includes 9 vitamins and 7 minerals.

3. Choose the sport you like

Lack of physical activity or exercise can also affect your body’s immune. Therefore, in order to maintain optimal immunity, you need to do light exercise that you like, such as walking, jogging, cycling, and others for 15–30 minutes. Exercise not only keeps the body fit, but also activates white blood cells that act as the body's defense against bacteria and viruses that cause illness.

4. Implement “Gerakan 4M plus”

During the rainy season, puddles of water and garbage will accumulate, triggering the breeding of the Aedes aegypti mosquito which spread dengue fever. Please implement the “Gerakan 4M plus” as follow:

• Drain and cover water containers tightly.

• Bury used items that can hold water (for example: tin can, bucket, broken containers).

• Monitor water containers that can become mosquito breeding grounds.

• Avoid mosquito bites by using mosquito repellent, keeping larvae-eating fish, installing mosquito repellent nets, sprinkling larvicide powder into water containers, etc.

5. Manage Stress

The monsoon may affect you and you become more easily stressed. Thinking about laundries that are not drying, being late to office due to traffic jams, or flooding in your home area may heighten the feeling of anxiety and cause stress.

Therefore, you need to be able to manage your stress. You can do relaxing or meditative activities such as practicing yoga on the weekends, listening to soothing music, etc. Ensure that you are getting enough sleep every night, so you don't get stressed easily.

Those are some ways that you may do to maintain your immune system in the rainy season. For those who are prone to catching cold, you may want to wear water-resistant parachute jacket so that your body is protected from the rain. Don't forget to have an umbrella handy before the rain!

Reference

https://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/30635-tips-stay-healthy-rainy-season/

https://www.verywellhealth.com/ways-to-boost-your-immune-system-naturally-89283

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