What should I do if I'm sick? And is it worth exercising when I'm sick?

As long as a person is healthy, they have a variety of options to support their immune system. In addition to a healthy and balanced diet, you can spend time in the fresh air, sleep properly, avoidavoid stress, or apply many of the other tips we discussed in our article on tips for better immunity. But what to do if you're already sick? Is there any way to stop it? And is it worth going for exercise when you're sick? That's what we'll look at in this article.

What is the immune system?

First of all, for completeness we should look at what the immune system actually is and how it works. Most often it is compared to an invisible shield that protects our body fromfrom the effects of unwanted bacteria, viruses and other substances that are quite common in our environment. One of the most important components of the immune system are the so-called "immune cells". Leukocytes, also known as white blood cells, are one of the most important components of the immune system, without which we would not be able to function properly. The quality of the immune system itself can be influenced by, among other things, whether we are mentally well, whether we get enough exercise, whether we are optimally hydrated or whether we get enough sleep, which we have addressed in particular in our comprehensive article entitled 21 tips to improve your sleep.

What to do if something is crawling on me?

Of course, the immune system needs to be working all the time. And although the aforementioned white blood cells perform a number of fascinating tasks, it is of course sometimes the case that a pathogen gets into our bodies. In practice, for example, common illnesses such as flu, tonsillitis or the common cold make themselves known byyou feel tired, you get cold, you need to cough more or you get a cold. But what should you ideally do in such a situation? Let's take a look:

Cancel the current program

The first piece of advice you'll probably come across most often is, of course, to take a break. Ideally, the first thing you should do is to not have to get up for work the next morning, cancelall your uninteresting meetings and just lie in bed, relax and drink warm tea. If you have this option, we definitely recommend you take it, and if you catch the illness early on, the time needed to recover will be many times shorter than if you go through a few days of illness and then succumb anyway. But of course we understand that these illnesses usually come at the least opportune time (often becauseincreased stress) and in such a case you cannot cancel the program completely.

Increase your fluid intake

If you feel something is getting to you, it's certainly not a bad idea to increase the amount of fluids you drink in a day. This is because enough water helps to flush out toxins and other thanso it is advisable to drink plenty of fluids when you are ill. It is preferable to drink primarily plain water, but a good choice is also a variety ofherbal teas, ginger tea, or even honest home-made broths.

Try fruit and vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are important components of our diet at all times. But if you feel something is getting to you, they offer a range of benefits. Firstly, of course, they contain a wide range of vitamins and minerals. And while vitamin C capsules, for example, usually only offer the aforementioned vitamin C.n, fruit has a whole host of other antioxidants and potentially beneficial substances. In addition, however, it also contains water, so fruits and vegetables can also be a good way to keep yourself hydrated. You can then read about natural sources of vitamin C within one of our previous articles, with greatA good source, according to official sources, is acerola, which you can get in the form of various syrups and other supplements.

Don't forget to sleep

Although you can't usually cancel your programme, you can of course give your body more rest so that it can better fight off various pathogens. If you can at least partially modify your schedule, try to get some sleep in the morning or go to bed a little earlier in the evening. It's no coincidence that people who are sleep-deprived are more prone to illness than people who get enough rest, according to expert sources. So the next time something comes up, keep it in mind and swap your evening social media scrolling for a longer sleep period.

Follow basic hygiene precautions

While it may sound like a no-brainer for some, some people tend to forget basic hygiene precautions. However, if you have a weakened immune system, it's more important than ever to make sure you'reto wash your hands properly or even to ventilate your rooms regularly.

Skip the gym and the sauna

As we mentioned in a previous article, the sauna is really important for athletes and supports our immune system just as well as regular exercise. However, this is especially true for prevention. As soon as you've got a cold or, heaven forbid, a fever, it's definitely a good idea to take a sauna.to give your body a rest and sleep instead of exercising so that your body has enough strength to fight pathogens.

Don't forget about prevention

There are, of course, many other important tips and we could address those in this article as well. However, they are mostly related to some kind of long-term prevention, and they won't really help you once you've got something on you. Some of these tips might include:

• Taking key supplements regularly - for example, some of the products in our list of the best The best vitamin D products on our list can be a great option over the winter, as can products with a reasonable vitamin C content, which we wrote about in a separate comparison.
• Getting outdoors and getting plenty of exercise
• A varied and balanced diet

Is it worth exercising when you are ill? And how to return to exercise?

When deciding whether to go to the gym or to skip training, you should subjectively assess your health yourself. If you have a temperature or feel tired, we definitely recommend you to skip training at least for a few days. If, on the other hand, you only have a slight cold and you are not afraid of infecting others in the gym, you can go to the gym. However, in case you miss a few days, we recommend that you start gently when you return to the gym, so that you can get into the regime gradually. However, we have written about this in more detail within our article entitled How to get back to exercise after illness?

Some advice in conclusion

The main thing you should take away from this article is that in the moments when you are notsomething is bothering you, the best option is to cancel your current schedule and give your body plenty of rest. In addition, however, prepare a good portion of non-alcoholic liquids, increase your fruit and vegetable intake and, on Fri.r days, skip the gym, sauna and other activities that naturally make your body even more tired. You won't miss anything in a few days without training and you will see that your health will thank you in the long run.