Immunity Starts in The Gut!

When it comes to immunity, your GUT is key.  It houses about 70 to 80 percent of your immune system and it just so happens that’s the same place you get your nutrients. If your body doesn’t get the proper nutrition, the correct exercise and the right amount of sleep, it is a stressed body. Add some mental, emotional and financial challenges, and a little bit of any underlying or pre-existing health conditions, then you have a body in a constant state of chronic stress.

We tend to think about vitamins and nutrients to boost immunity and support handling stress.  However, there are other lifestyle factors to consider, because stress in all forms, is the biggest factor undermining your immune capacity.  Below are some supplements that work to support our immune system and relieve some nutritional stress.  The overarching goal is and should always be to reduce stress. 

Start your day off with a glass of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) and Lemon water. 1-2 tablespoonfuls ACV +1 teaspoonful lemon juice. Although acidic, they actually increase your body’s alkalinity and promote detoxification.

NUTRITION & SUPPLEMENTS-Food is always my preferred source of nutrients, vitamins and minerals.  However, farming is not quite what it used to be, and soils are depleted. The same wholesome foods have less minerals and nutrients than they did years ago. Even if you don’t subscribe to the Standard American Diet (SAD) of highly processed, calorie rich and nutrient deficient foods, sadly you may still not be getting the best nutrition.

Vitamin D - more like a hormone than a vitamin, is essential for our immune function. A vast majority of the population is deficient. It may be easiest to supplement as it’s not abundant in foods. The best source is from sun exposure, where your liver converts cholesterol into the active form of Vitamin D. Magnesium helps to activate vitamin D to boost immunity.  Why not kill two birds with one stone and take a stress relieving Epsom salt bath and soak up some magnesium? 

Vitamin C - eat your fruits and green leafy vegetables. Ones high in natural vitamin C and support good gut bacteria such as asparagus. Add fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi to your diet. ACV is also an excellent source of natural vitamin C. Remember the simple yet exceptionally effective cure for the deadly scurvy?

Zinc – an essential trace mineral, is involved in multiple functions to improve your immune system, including maintaining the integrity of your cells. Meat, pumpkin seeds, vegetables like mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, kale, and garlic contain zinc.

Vitamin A and Omega3 - needed to maintain and protect your cell walls. Also needed to make cortisol, your stress hormone to help you handle and adapt to stress better.  Avocado, hemp and flax seeds are good food sources of Omega3. Best Vitamin A source is Cod Liver Oil.

Garlic – Allicin, the active ingredient in garlic has been extensively studied and used for killing of bacteria, fungus, viruses, yeasts and even mold. A good concentrated powdered garlic may even be more potent than fresh garlic even if the flavor is not as rewarding. So, pour it on.  Garlic owns prime real estate on my kitchen counter as does coconut oil!

Lifestyle Medicine

Functional Nutrition & Lifestyle medicine addresses nutrition, exercise, sleep and stress reduction to improve health. Chronic health problems almost always originate from stress or arise after a stressful life event. If you are feeling stressed it’s a good idea to consume some high levels of B vitamins or B complex. Nutritional Yeast is an excellent source of B-vitamins.

EXERCISE – Too much, too little or the wrong type of exercise can be a problem. You don’t have to suddenly marshal up the energy and time for a 30 minutes 5 times per week routine. Simply roll out of bed and drop onto the floor. One push-up. One plank. End with child’s pose. Or just take a walk. Exercise done! But most importantly, the stress of thinking ‘I need to exercise,’ gone!

Eventually, hopefully not years later, you’ll work up to doing more. And when you do get there, high intensity interval training (HIIT) may be the way to go. The recovery period is essential, so give your body time to rest and repair. Steady state exercise can cause an increase and prolong production of cortisol, your stress hormone. To those of you who already have a great exercise routine, keep it going.

SLEEP - Be asleep, not just in bed, by 10pm. I just read an email saying sleep is the one thing anyone can do during this time, that requires no tools or know how. Ha! This is only true if you’re one of the lucky ones who fall asleep as your head hits the pillow, then stay asleep all night and wake up feeling well rested and rejuvenated!  50 to 70 million, myself included, do not regularly enjoy such luxury and I’m assuming with the state of current affairs, many more have joined us. Welcome!

Nevertheless, the hours between 10 and midnight, are 2 for 1 deal.  You gain 2 hours of restorative, rest and repair, for every 1 hour of sleep. You give your adrenal glands a well-deserved break. Did you know that you lose fat when you sleep?

THERAPY FOR STRESS REDUCTION-Yoga. Meditation. Walk. Read. Music. A relaxing bath. Everybody is home. Put your feet up and point to what needs to be done...whatever works for you!

LIVER- Although it is quite nutritious, I’m not talking supplementing here. I’m actually talking about ALCOHOL! Your liver is your most important body detoxifying and blood cleansing organ. Alcohol destroys liver cells and is toxic to your liver. When consumed, your liver will prioritize clearing the alcohol and directing any and ALL resources to this process.

Whether you’re taking a Tylenol, needing to clear excess hormones, process and absorb nutrients or simply getting rid of immune complexes and viral particles, you need this organ to be available and in prime working condition.

The body is all interconnected. Everything works in concert. Remember when supplementing with Calcium for bone health was all the craze…then we needed vitamin D to absorb the calcium…now we need vitamin K to tell the calcium where to go after it gets absorbed…  The goal should be to strive for balance nutrition, health sustaining lifestyle and good, if not great, overall health.

p.s. You can supplement your exercise, stress relief therapy and body detoxification, by making the most of an infrared sauna. I used to call it my cheat-cardio days but now I refer to my sessions as cardio-on-steroids days, because it provides so many health benefits - it can’t possibly be cheating. I close my eyes and breathe deeply, blocking out the world and all its’ stressors. I feel better. I sleep better. I am better.

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