It’s winter this side of the world. Besides the fact that you’re guaranteed to get cold you’re also more likely to catch a cold too. Everywhere you go and everything you hear is telling you to do this or that to help boost your immune system. We all know we need to have a strong Immune System in order to avoid catching every single illness that is floating around. It was this thinking that brought me to the point of, “okay, but what is it exactly?” I know it plays an important role but I wanted to find out more about how it works and what I can do to help it along.
What Is Your Immune System?
“The immune system is made up of a network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to protect the body. One of the important cells involved are white blood cells, also called leukocytes, which come in two basic types that combine to seek out and destroy disease-causing organisms or substances.”
Source
That sounds pretty badass, don’t you think?
Essentially this good army sits around in your body and waits for some kind of an alarm to go off and as it’s sounding they are racing to send out the necessary good guys to wipe out the bad guys.
The technical term for this process is called the immune response.
Okay, so if that’s the case why do we get sick?
To answer that we first need to understand what it means to get sick. To put it simply and in sticking with our bad guy’s analogy above, the bad guys have names. They are known as the Pathogen family and they travel around and sometimes enter our bodies as a family or individually as either Bacteria, Viruses, Fungi or Parasites.
These guys are lurking everywhere and we often come into contact with them in our day to day lives. They’re in the food we eat and drink, the things we touch and the air we breathe. Fear not though as that’s what our Immune System is there for.
They invade and our super good guys spring into action. They attack and attempt to rid the body of these unwelcomed guests. The Pathogen Family is however a slick and sly enemy. Why are they sly? They adapt and evolve and are able to do so much quicker than our good guys are able to. This is when you get sick.
They might think that they have the upper hand but there’s a reason why this family have to behave the way they do. Our Immune System family eventually adapt too! Not only do they adapt, they remember and will immediately respond that way next time.
It’s important to note that not all illnesses are caused by this gallivanting family. Lifestyle choices, like smoking, will eventually make us sick too. There could also be a problem with our Immune System. Problems include things like:
"autoimmune disorders (in which the body's own immune system attacks its own tissue as foreign matter)
allergic disorders (in which the immune system overreacts in response to an antigen)" Source
So what can we do to support the work of this amazing family that’s working nonstop to protect us?
Supporting Your Immune System
Everyone has an opinion on what to do or not to do here. The consensus landing on living a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Great, that helps, however no two people are the same and neither are their Immune Systems. Some tips that I’ve picked up on over the years are listed below:
- Get enough sleep
- Stress less
- Exercise regularly
- Eat a healthy and balanced diet. Think about ditching the processed stuff and eat as close to the how it’s supposed to look in nature eating
- Don’t drink excessively and smoke
- Practice good hygiene
- Use Probiotics, Supplements and Immune Boosting Herbs
Over the years I have accumulated a lot of knowledge about what to take to help me and my families immune systems along. Both my children were in schools from a very young age and were constantly sick for the first three years of their lives. I suppose it was this that drove me to learning as much as possible about what I could do at home to support them. It’s important to note that the idea is to support your Immune System family in fighting off the bad guys.
With supplements it’s always important to note that getting it from the food we eat is the best way. The problem is I’m not so sure how much my food actually contains. If you’re not eating organic everything you run the risk of ingesting a whole bunch of other nasty things too. That’s why I use supplements. I also only really recommend taking ones that our bodies can’t produce on its own. In other words, the ones that we are dependent on the foods we eat to receive. Below is what I would recommend every day to help your Immune System along.
Vitamin C
Always advised and yet so few people take it daily. If you feel like you’re getting sick, bomb yourself with plenty. You can’t overdose on it and what your body doesn’t need it will get rid of. This is particularly important for people who don’t eat a lot of raw fruit and vegetables every day.
Cod Liver Oil
Yes, that nasty stuff. I’ve found a really great brand that doesn’t taste that terrible. I say it tastes like lemon and 
“Omega-3 fatty acids suppress inflammation and omega-6 fatty acids promote inflammation, and we need some of both. This delicate relationship keeps your immune system working properly so you produce “defense mechanisms” against posed threats (toxins, bacteria, pathogens) when you need to, but don’t become overly inflamed in the process.”
Source
Pre and Probiotics
You want a healthy gut. Why? For starters it’s where all the good stuff gets absorbed from the food and supplements that we take. If It’s not healthy it’s incapable of doing that efficiently. To do this we need a good amount of good bacteria. Probiotics are the good bacteria and we need the Prebiotics to feed them.
“Your gut wall houses 70 percent of the cells that make up your immune system. Consider the important jobs your gut performs regularly, including breaking down food, absorbing nutrients, keeping out toxins and producing nutrients. That’s a lot of work! For optimal immunity, detoxification and nourishment, your gut must function seamlessly.”
Source
When you do get sick, there are a whole lot of other things you can do to support yourself while the good guys fight the good fight. That’s a post for another time though. I hope that this was helpful in some way. I know I thoroughly enjoyed putting this together.
Thank you for reading and remember to keep smiling 😊
All Photos were taken by me 😊, with my Samsung Galaxy S8.
Image Source
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