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4. EAT HEALTHY Having a salad before you get your shot likely won’t boost your immune system, but there is evidence that a healthy plant-based diet may reduce your risk of severe illness or

death from COVID-19. “A healthy vegan diet can benefit a large group of individuals who fail to respond adequately to vaccination yet do not have a classic immunosuppression condition,”

Saray Stancic, M.D., director of medical education at the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and a faculty member of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, said in a

statement. In a commentary appearing in the _American Journal of Medicine_, Stancic and colleagues suggest that doctors should refer patients to nutrition experts to give them ways to

address obesity, lipid disorders, blood pressure and diabetes that put them at higher risk of severe COVID-19. “Evidence suggests that such efforts will be rewarded. The smartphone-based

COVID Symptom Study including 592,571 participants of whom 31,815 developed COVID-19 found that dietary patterns that were highest in fruits, vegetables and plant-based foods in general were

associated with a 41 percent lower risk of severe COVID-19 and a 9 percent reduction of COVID-19 infection of any severity, compared with diets lowest in these foods,” they wrote.​ 5.

CONSIDER YOUR MEDICATIONS Most people who take medication can get a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the CDC. If you have been prescribed a drug to suppress the immune system, you should

consult your health care provider about getting a COVID-19 booster. Be sure to ask about the best timing for you to receive a vaccine.​ The CDC also cautions against trying to prevent

vaccine-related side effects by taking over-the-counter medications such as ibuprofen, aspirin or acetaminophen ahead of your booster. Similarly, the agency warns Americans not to take

antihistamines before the shot to try to prevent allergic reactions. If you routinely take these medications for other reasons, the CDC says you should continue taking them before getting

vaccinated. _Peter Urban is a contributing writer and editor who focuses on health news. Urban spent two decades working as a correspondent in Washington, D.C., for daily newspapers in

Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ohio, California and Arkansas, including a stint as Washington bureau chief for the _Las Vegas Review Journal_. His freelance work has appeared in _Scientific

American, Bloomberg Government_ and CTNewsJunkie.com._