No one likes being sick. Even the healthiest person will catch a cold now and then. Our immune system works hard to keep infections at bay every single day, so why not support it?
Here, we will learn how to do this naturally. By using food as medicine and incorporating lifestyle recommendations, we can enhance our bodies’ natural defences so we can live healthily!
What are you waiting for? Let’s get started!
Our immune system is quite complex. Before we move onto how we can support our body’s natural defences, let’s take a look at how it works in its simplest terms. In essence, we have 3 different lines of defences to help fend off pathogens (invaders) to keep us health.
The physical barrier
Our skin, mucous membranes, tears, saliva, stomach lining, intestinal tract, etc. all act as a wall to keep invaders out of our system. If our physical barrier is healthy and strong, invaders are less likely to get through!
The innate immune system (non-specific)
When our first line is breached, cells and proteins in the body get activated against these invaders. This involves:
- Macrophages bind and “eat” the invader. They also call for help by producing cytokines to recruit other white blood cells needed to fight the infection
- Neutrophils “eat up” bacteria and fungi
- Eosinophils contain toxins to kill invaders that are too large to be “eaten” such as parasites
- Basophils which are involved with inflammatory reactions and allergic responses
Oftentimes, our 2nd line of defence is enough to fend off the invaders!
The adaptive immune system (specific)
When the macrophages called for help during the non-specific phase of our immune response, it also sent a signal to the liaison (called dendritic cells) between the innate and adaptive responses. These cells take a sample of the pathogen and carry it to our lymph nodes where they search for the right lymphocyte (B cells and T cells) that can help fight off that specific invader.
THE APPROACH
Now that we understand a bit more about how our immune system functions, let’s see how we can support our bodies’ to optimize our immune response! Our goal is to:
- Optimize nutrition to support our immune cells and gut health
- Encourage white blood cell activity for defence
- Maintain immune balance
- Promote restorative support to regulate and enhance our immune system
Every system in our body is interconnected. Each system has its role but they all come together to function as a whole. This is why one aspect of our life can influence another even if it doesn’t seem too obvious. For this reason, it is important to consider everything in our lives when looking at our health – whether this is psychological, economical, social, physical, or spiritual. I mean, this is what naturopathic medicine does! So here, we will consider our lifestyle habits and how we can use it to enhance and support our immune system.
Regular moderate exercise can enhance our immune responses. It can reduce inflammation, enhance immune surveillance, and maintain our thymus health (our immune system organ). We want to avoid prolonged intensive exercises as this can actually depress our immunity!
Moderate = at an intensity where you are still able to have a conversation comfortably.
Stress management
Long term stress can suppress and dysregulate our immune responses by affecting our cytokine balance and the functions of our immunoprotective cells.
Consider deep breathing, exercise, self-care, emotional freedom technique (EFT) etc. for managing your stress! Check out our EFT handout by clicking here.
Gut support
The gut serves as a protective barrier for our first line of defence. There is also a strong relationship between our gut ecosystem (microbiome) and our immune responses. The good bacteria regulates our mucosal immune system whereas the bad causes immune dysfunction and disease. Inflammation in the gut can also lead to an imbalance between the two.
3R’s to gut healing:
- Remove offending items
- Repair the gut
- Replace with good bacteria
Sleep support
Sleep is a period of recovery for our bodies. It can help promote our defences by regulating our inflammatory responses, enhance interactions between our immune cells and the invaders for healing, and form immunological memory so our bodies can be more effective in fighting things off in the future.
Consider practicing sleep hygiene for deeper and better sleep. Check out our sleep hygiene handout by clicking here.
Suki Hon, ND