so I think there are a number of things

that people can do to try to make sure 
their immune system is in good shape if 
they happen to become infected with corona virus your immune system has never felt so important while it can't stop you getting coronavirus it can help your body fight it so immune system does this and what you can do to support it's vital does the body or the immune system help us beat a virus so the strength of somebody's immune system won't influence whether they actually get coronavirus that's why hand-washing social distancing those are the things that will stop people actually getting the virus what the immune system does is it helps people deal with the virus once they've actually got it there are all sorts of cells that are part of the immune system that each have their own jobs to do two of the most important cells are called natural killer cells and a type of T lymphocyte which is called a cytotoxic T lymphocyte both have the ability to destroy cells which are harboring viruses now is it correct to say that you can boost your immune system some people use the term boosting the immune system I prefer to use a different term which is supporting the immune system and there are lots of reasons why people's immune systems are different from one another so some of it is to do with age some of it has to do with disease some pharmaceutical drugs or treatments like treatment for cancer they weaken the immune system but there are other things that also influence how well our immune system works because we understand some of the reasons for that that means by manipulating those things that influence immune function like getting people physically fit like improving their diet like not smoking not having too much alcohol not being in polluted environments we can actually improve their immune response and that's what I mean by supporting the immune system to work better because what we want to an immune system that functions properly when it's challenged with bacteria and with viruses can we get into some of these foods that you can eat and how they help the function of your immune system the first would be a variety of fruits and vegetables and that's because fruits and vegetables are very good sources of many vitamins of many minerals that are very important for supporting the immune system and also of polyphenolic compounds so these are the compounds that give the color to many fruits and berries and so on second I would say good sources of fiber and plenty of fiber because some of the fiber which we don't digest is actually used by the bacteria that live in our intestine and promotes the growth of good bacteria and those bacteria have an interaction with our immune system to make it work better um thirdly I would say oily fish has the really important source of omega-3 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids are really important in sort of regulating role and controlling the immune system from getting out of hand then the other thing not to forget is meat is a good source of some important nutrients like iron and vitamin b12 so it's very important for people who choose not to eat meat for various reasons that they make sure that they have good sources of iron and vitamin b12 and maybe a few other nutrients and that may be a situation where people need to consider supplements for example particularly vitamin b12now what about probiotics how do these support your immune system and how is there all different to fiber probiotic bacteria can have a role in helping our immune system probiotics are live bacteria so we're really seeding our gut through consuming probiotics an alternative is a diet with a variety of plant-based foods including plenty of fiber and that is really providing the environment that allows those sorts of bacteria to grow in our large intestine particularly so we've got a choice really between seeding our gut with probiotic bacteria sort of helping bacteria that are already there along by consuming fiber and other plant foods now is there anyway to know which probiotics have a greater benefit or even any benefit at all there isn't really most of the commercially available probiotics do colonize the gut and showing that they colonize is one thing but showing they have an impact on a person's health is a little bit trickier and it's probably true that not all commercially available probiotic organisms actually have health benefit but it's very hard to tease that out and it's very hard for the consumer to know that is there anything else we can do and including anything kind of less mainstream there are a lot of things that can be done that might have small impacts on the immune system whether they actually make a big difference as far as dealing with bacterial viruses is concerned probably isn't really Nam one thing to keep in mind is that any form of stress influences your immune system and sort of weakens it so things like you know meditation yoga physical activity are probably quite useful and there are papers on very unusual things like music for example
that sounds a bit strange but if you 
imagine all of these things meditation yoga or listening to music you will have release of chemicals mainly from the brain which are about having a peaceful sort of environment and probably some of those chemicals impact on the immune system and help it to work a little bit better the other one is getting good sleep and enough sleep is very important for the immune system and what happens is while we're asleep our immune system actually is sort of renewing itself and new cells are being produced that are 
released at that cabin to our 
bloodstream after we wake up so I think sleep is also very important in terms of helping our immune system be in good shape