Health is your biggest asset. Some may have time or/and money but without health it is virtually impossible to enjoy our riches, big or small. On the other hand, if we have good health and have no time or/and money, we can enjoy even the smallest of treasures, like a beautiful sunset and the smile of a child. Your best game plan in 2022 is to prioritize your health so that you may have the ability to seize the moment and the opportunities to live life abundantly
In this day and age, people live longer but many experience chronic conditions that rob their life enjoyment. A study in 2020, found that most people will have at least one chronic disease by the end of their life. These chronic conditions are associated with modifiable lifestyle factors such as weight, diet, exercise, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumptions (1).
According to the CDC, “6 out of 10 adults in the USA have a chronic condition and 4 in 10 adults, have two or more chronic conditions. These cost the nation about $3.8 trillion dollars annually in health care cost. The leading cause of death and disability are heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease” (2).
These are sobering statistics. The good news is that by changing your lifestyle (modifiable lifestyle factors) we are able to avoid being part of the statistics.
Likewise, the pandemic has probably motivated you into looking at ways on how to protect yourself and your family’s health. The good news is that you have a protector of your health residing within you called the “immune system”. Your immune system plays an important role in both infectious disease such as the flu and chronic conditions like diabetes and asthma. As a matter a fact, a recent article published by the Journal of Immunological Research in 2018 found that the “immune system has a central role in many processes involving chronic conditions (3).
The immune system is your innate healing system. Your body’s main goal is of survival and toward that end it will do everything to keep you alive. It has multiple mechanism that keep the body functioning when it is out of balance. Our health starts to fail when these mechanisms have been exhausted. We have an amazing body that if we give it what it needs and take away what it blocks it, the body will heal itself. Then, we will truly live not just survive.
Below are five effective strategies you can implement today to boost your immune system and enjoy vitality.
Strategy 1 – Nutrition
For our immune system to operate at its best, we need to provide our physical body with the raw materials to nourish our cells, tissues, and organs. The raw materials are found in the food we eat (vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, grains, fats, meats, water, air). If we eat nutritionally dense food (what the body needs), we will boots our immune system. If we eat junk food or food laden with toxins (what blocks the body), we will overburden our immune system and our health will suffer.
The nutritional needs of each individual vary throughout their lifespans as well as depending on whether they are male or female, stage in life, activity level, health status, stress, etc. However, there are certain principles that everyone can benefit from and boost their immune system.
- Eat whole foods – Whole foods are one ingredient foods. The whole food may be part of a recipe or prepared alongside other whole food ingredients. They contain no artificial ingredients at all. Examples of these are unprocessed foods such as apples, lettuce, tomatoes, chicken, nuts, beans, etc.
- Organic produce and meats – By consuming organic produce and meats we protect ourselves from the toxic accumulation and effects of pesticides, herbicides and GMO foods. Organic foods tend to be cleaner from toxic chemicals (pesticides/herbicides), free from hormones, antibiotics, etc. They also tend to contain a higher nutritional content. Lastly, they are free from GMOs which are very inflammatory and toxic compromising our immune system.
3. Eat an abundance of fruits and vegetables from all the colors of the rainbow – fruits and vegetables are rich in fiber, vitamins, minerals and other phytonutrients necessary to nourish and build up your immune system.
4. Eat healthy fats – fats are important for the immune system. They help regulate the immune system and control inflammation. Examples of healthy fats are avocados, nuts, seeds, coconut and their unrefined cold pressed oils.
5. Eat non-gluten grains – wheat and gluten have been found to be inflammatory for most individuals so if you are looking to boost your immune system it is best to avoid them. Enjoy gluten free grains such as brown rice, amaranth, quinoa and buckwheat and their stone ground flours.
6. Eat probiotic foods – probiotic foods are important component to boost your immune system. They add variety and number to your microbiome boosting your immune system in return. Eat probiotics foods such as miso, kimchi, sauerkraut, tempeh and yogurt.
7. Drink pure water – unfortunately our water is contaminated due to multiple reasons such as industrial and marine dumping, sewage, wastewater, chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides and the list goes on. Drink only purified water to avoid toxins and pathogens that can potentially get you sick. Pure water is essential component in boosting your immune system.
8. Avoid added sugars – an easy way to avoid added sugar is to avoid all processed food. Processed foods trend to be loaded with sugar to increase its palatability. Sugar suppresses the immune system and feeds pathogen increasing your risk of illness. So an immune boosting strategy is to avoid added sugar
9 . Avoid bad fats– These bad fats are very inflammatory and create havoc in your immune system. Examples of bad fats are vegetable oil, hydrogenated oil and trans fats. An easy way to avoid them is by avoiding processes foods and substituting healthy oils such as avocado oil and olive oil. Other healthy fats are coconut oil, butter and ghee.
10. Avoid table salt – table salt is highly processed and contains preservatives and very little nutrition. Instead opt for healthy salt such as unprocessed sea salt, Himalayan salt and Celtic salt. These salts are full of minerals that your body needs.
11. Eat a variety of foods and rotate foods – By eating a variety of foods and rotating them your increase your intake of different nutrients and fibers creating a stronger microbiome. This is an excellent immune boosting strategy, stronger microbiome stronger immune system.
12. Supplement – due to industrial framing, lifestyle stressors, lack of sunshine exposure, excess or lack of exercise, illness, medications, poor diet/junk food, etc.; it is virtually impossible to consume all nutrients needed in order to keep our immunes system strong, it is recommended to supplement our diet with pharmaceutical and professional grade supplements. Pharmaceutical grade supplements are important to ensure that they are toxic free and provide the nutritional properties they claim. In addition, supplements that are professional grade tend to be formulated according to the latest science. Adequate supplementation is another strategy to boost your immune system such as a multi vitamin-mineral formula, fish oil, vitamin D, and probiotics.
Strategy 2 – Optimize Digestion
In order for a good diet to be beneficial to the body, the body needs to be able to digest, assimilate and eliminate to keep good health. This is of critical importance because we are not only what we eat but what we assimilate and eliminate. Making sure that we are digesting, assimilating and eliminating properly is also a form of immune booster. If we are not digesting, the food is not broken down in a way that we can assimilate and use, we will run into issues. For example, large food molecules are capable of compromising our intestines resulting in hyper permeability or “leaky gut”.
Leaky gut if left unchecked has a risk for developing food allergies and increasing the risk of pathogens and toxins to go into general circulation and producing havoc in the body (4).
An immune booster strategy is making sure that we are digesting properly. Proper digestion starts in the how we eat, yes, “the how”. How are you eating? Are you eating stressed out at your desk, during a heated argument, on the run, watching a scary movie, or multitasking? The reality is that proper digestion occurs only in the “relax and digest” or parasympathetic state. It is here where our digestive systems is stimulated to release hydrochloric acid, enzymes and bile to digest our food and be assimilated. So next time you are tempted to eat on the run, stop, take a couple of minutes to catch your breath and eat your food. How well your digest, assimilate, and eliminate your food is dependent on how you eat your food.
An immune booster technique is making sure that we are digesting properly by checking gastric and/enzyme status, food allergies, pathogens, and toxins. For example, if you find that you have poor gastric acid and/or enzymes, supplementation with HCL and/or digestive enzymes will correct digestion and improve assimilation and elimination.
If you find that you have food intolerances/allergies which contribute to leaky gut, food antigen testing or an elimination diet may be called for. Optimizing digestion is an effective and far-reaching immune boosting strategy to optimize your health4
Strategy 3 – Detoxification
It is a fact of life. We are expose to toxins on daily basis, form the food we eat, to the air we breathe, to the clothes we wear, to the thoughts to hold, to chronic infections (i.e., candida) and the list goes on and on. It is virtually impossible to avoid toxins. The good news is that our body has a detoxification system set in place to eliminate all these toxins, purify our bodies and continue function. The problem arises when we accumulate more toxins that the body is able to eliminate via its elimination organs (bowels, liver, kidneys, lungs and skin) and we start developing symptoms and later conditions
such asthma, eczema, allergies, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s’, etc. Virtually every health condition is associated with an accumulation of toxins that are causing havoc in the body. Symptoms or conditions such as asthma, eczema, and environmental allergies are our bodies efforts to eliminate the excess toxins in our system.
An immune boosting strategy is to support our detoxification system by avoiding toxins in food, air, water and the environment in general (5). In addition, it is good practice to routinely implement a detoxification protocols to keep our bodies clean and reduce our risk of developing diseases.
Strategy 4 – Exercise
Centuries ago, our ancestors were physically active, and exercise was not an activity that had to be planned or thought of. It was simply how they lived. Due to numerous advances in industry and technology our lifestyle through the centuries has changed to more sedentary. Now movement must be planned and intentional. For example, we now have to set a time to go to the gym, take a hike in the forest or to simply take a stroll. These activities must be intentional if we would like incorporate movement or exercise. Unfortunately, many people due to their busy schedule, consider exercise and movement, something that they can do without in order to get ahead.
If you are looking for another powerful immune booster strategy, exercise and movement must be part of your lifestyle. Exercise is not only for those that are seeking to lose weight or have a shapely and attractive body. Your body needs movement for several reasons; among these are stimulation, growth, cognitive development and detoxification. Yes, detoxification, and like you read previously, an immune booster strategy is detoxification. So, exercise is an immune booster strategy.
How is movement and our immune system related? Our body needs to be clean or free of toxins to operate its best and avoid developing symptoms and conditions. Exercise and movement help flush toxins and support the lymphatic system to operate optimally. The lymphatic system is part of the circulatory system and the immune system. The lymphatics system is a network of nodes and vessels that filters fluid containing antibodies and pathogens. The lymphatic system depends on movement. If theirs is not movement, the lymphatic fluid becomes stagnant and a breeding ground for diseases.
Another way in which exercise boosts the immunes system is by supporting microbiome diversity. Studies have shown that an active person has more diversity in their gut bacteria (6). More diversity, stronger immune system. So, get moving today. You can pick an activity or a sport and have fun with it. Make it another immune system boosting strategies.
Strategy 5- Sleep
Sleeps has numerous functions in the body. For example, sleep helps us repair, balance and detoxify. Sleep is closely related to the immune system and this relationship is very complex (6). We see the effects of lack of sleep when we become more prone to colds and flu. Better yet, when we are sick, we know that a good night sleep will help us recover faster. So, you see, prioritizing sleep is another immune boosting strategy that you must harness if you want to avoid illness and protect your health.
When we are asleep, our nervous system is in parasympathetic mode; also called “rest and digest”. It is only in this mode, that our body can repair; our immune system is busy doing it cleaning and repairing. But when we deprive ourselves from sleep, our immune system becomes weaker and is not able to protects us or repair to full capacity and we are more likely to develop infections or disease.
In addition, when we sleep our brain does its cleaning too. It removes waste and toxins. Interestingly enough, the detoxifying benefits of sleep have the benefit of keeping your brain healthy and less likely to develop cognitive decline as seen in individuals with dementia and Alzheimer’s (7).
Boosting your immune system is not about taking a pill or using a few botanicals. This approach is short sighted and lacks understanding on how complex our bodies were designed to operate and thrive. The best approach is to provide the body what it needs and eliminate what is blocking it. Once you do that, the body knows what to do, heal itself. After all, you were designed with a protector within you called the immune system that fiercely fights for survival.
Viva La Vida!
Dr. Ivonne
References
- yan Ng, Rinku Sutradhar, Zhan Yao, Walter P. Wodchis, Laura C Rosella, Laura, Smoking, drinking, diet and physical activity-modifiable lifestyle risk factors and their associations with age to first chronic disease, International Journal of Epidemiology, 2020 Feb, 1;49(1):113-130
- https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/infographic/chronic-disease.ht
- Margarete Dulce Bagatini, Andreia Mahcado Cardoso, Cristina Ruedell Reschke, and Fabiano Barboso Carvalho, Immune System and Chronic Disease 2018, Journal of Immunological Research, October 18, 2018.
- Alesio Fasan, All disease begins in the (leaky) gut: role of zolulin-mediated gut permeability in the pathogenesis of some chronic inflammatory diseases, F1000Res, Jan 2020.
- Takamfumi Suzuki, Takanori Hidaka, Yoshito Jumagai, Masayuki Yamamoto, Environmental pollutants and the immune response, Nature Immunology, Dec 2020; 21(12):1486-1495.
- Roberto codella, Livio Luzi, Ileana Terruzzi, Exercise has the guts: How physical activity may positively modulate gut microbiota in chronic and immune-based disease, Digestion and Liver Disease Journal, April 2018; 50(4):331-34.
- Lulciana Besedosvsky, Tanja Lange and Monicka Haackk, The Sleep-Immune Crosstalk in Health and Disease, Physiological Reviews, Jul 2019,:99(3):1325-1380.
- Hao W, Sophie Dunnett, Yuen-Shan Ho, Raymond Chuen-Chung Chang, The role of Sleep deprivation and circadian rhythm disruption as risk factors of Alzheimer’s disease, Front Neuroendocrinology, July 2019.
