Kickstarting and Protecting Our Immune System

Kickstarting and Protecting Our Immune System

To all my readers,

Your immune system is a complex network of white blood cells, organs and tissues of the lymph system.This system is spread throughout your entire body, protecting and defending your body from microorganisms and foreign predators, such as bad bacterias, viruses, parasites, or fungi; within your body there exists a terrain of bacteria that helps you to ward off these antigens,  It is a system of communication amongst its army of cells involved to defend against cellular damage to the rest of the entire body thus keeping your body in homeostasis, In a healthy state, your immune system is just monitoring and resting, it’s not in attack mode.
This is the time of the year when people seem to get more ‘colds and flu’. The weather changes to cooler, people are cooped up indoors  and aren’t getting outside to get fresh air and exercise, the holidays and all their busy fanfare, also all the sugary treats and other foods the body isn’t used to. It seems that there is more stress on your body at this time of the year, and that plays in as exhaustion which lowers your immune health. 70% of your immune system is right in your gut, this is the first layer of immunity.  What we need to do during the rest of the year is to build a strong immune support network for ourselves. How do we do this you ask? Immune system depleters include: excess sugar consumption, alcohol consumption, a Standard American Diet with its anti-nutrient foods. Frequent exposure to infectious agents. Stress is a biggie. Stress directly inhibits many functions of your immune health. Severe trauma from surgery or accident also stresses the body.  Stress increases your body’s production of cortisol which blunts your immune health. Vaccines and regular antibiotic use can cause a depression of the immune response for one to two weeks minimum. Fevers are your body’s response to fight the inward microorganisms, so taking aspirin or Tylenol is thwarting this process. Cool water washes will help decrease high temperatures, allowing your body’s healing process to continue. Lack of sleep suppresses the Natural Killer cell activity. It’s interesting, because with more hours of darkness at this season of the year our body tends to desire more rest, so why do we push it beyond what it needs? Being too clean can inhibit your immune system from functioning properly. Cleaning and disinfecting seems like the best, but it can be too much of a good thing. Practice good hygiene, but don’t go overboard. While trying to avoid foreign pathogens you don’t want to unintentionally minimize the good bacteria in your inner environment.

To your good health,
Marie