6 Strategies to Strengthen your Immune System

Right now it is the prime time of the year to know strategies to increase or boost your immune system. Here are my 6 favorite immune building strategies that can help keep you and your family healthy. I use these in my life, with my patients/ clients and I want to share them with you too.

Chiropractic Care

A highly functioning nervous system is the foundation to keeping us in overall good health. Our brain contains all of the information in our bodies. The brain speaks to the body by your spinal cord and the nerves coming out from the spinal cord. And those nerves go to every part of your body! Your spinal cord is surrounded and protected by our spinal column. Our spinal column needs to be in proper alignment and each vertebra aligned right above and below the other. Proper alignment to your spine is crucial to the health of your body. It’s also crucial to the strength of your immune system. A study was done on immune system strength among people who were adjusted on a regular basis vs people who do not get adjusted. Guess what? The people who were adjusted have an immune system that is 200% stronger than a non-adjusted person. Regularly adjusted people also have 600% stronger immune systems than cancer patients.

I see a strong immune systems all the time in practice. My patients get sick less than the average person And if they do get sick it is milder and healing happens quicker. Getting adjusted is invaluable to your body. I personally get adjusted 1-3x per week. I have since 2006. And I will (and my family will) for the rest of my life. I want that for you too!! Find a good chiropractor and wellness office and plug in there. I can help you find one if you need me to!

Low Inflammatory Foods

Another strategy to build and strengthen your immune system is with foods. Eating a diet low in inflammatory foods will build and sustain a powerful immune system. The main keys are to extremely reduce and limit sugars and things that turn to sugar (grains), increase good and healthy fats along with eliminating chemicals and preservatives in processed foods. I personally believe that we all should cut wheat out of our diets (Article here). That takes some inflammation out of the mix with cutting wheat alone. But many of us should cut all grains out of our diets. They are very inflammatory and often times out bodies have been so damaged because of past health choices (most of the time without even knowing it) that we should stay away from these foods. For example, people with autoimmune diseases like Hashimotos thyroiditis and celiac disease should much a grain free diet for life. Too much damage has been done and the body can’t handle the glycemic load and the amylase irritating the digestive system. Foods are powerful and can be a powerful tool to use against inflammation. 

Gut Health

Our digestive systems are critical to our overall health, even our immune systems. About 60-80% of our immune system is in our guts. Our bodies “good” bacteria determine this. They specialize in fighting off foreign invaders and run the intricate balance of communication with your brain, cells and organs. Our digestive system actually secrete an immune cell and they a part of the lymphatic system and are called Pyers Patches. A healthy microbiome in the gut also creates T-cells that protect the body from invaders (Immune Cells).  A majority of us have gut dysbiosis, or leaky gut, and that decreases the functioning of our guts. The more unhealthy our guts, the lower our immune system is. The body doesn’t have enough raw material to boost the immune system and then we get sick. From having a cold to building worse diseases like cancer a major cause of a depressed immune system is the health of the digestive system. (About The Gut Article Here)

Exercise

Exercise can be an amazing tool for boozing the immune system. Many of you may know the immune system increasing result of exercise and others may not. Exercise is amazing because when you sweat you detox your cells, gets your lymphatic system moving, your digestive system can heal and you also increase your T-cells which are known to kill cancer and other diseases. One of my favorite ways to exercise is by Burst Training (Article Here). It burns fat for hours and it only takes 10-20 minutes. I also love yoga, pilates, BarreAmped, and weight lifting. If your body is symptomatic and you are having some health struggles you can still exercise. But take is slowly and easily, don’t overdo exercise, it can make your body feel a lot worse! And in general, even if your body is very strong, exercising too much can breakdown your body and actually decrease your immune system. But exercising to the fitness level of your body can be extremely beneficial and can keep your immune system high and your body healing.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is a popular topic in the news right now. And there’s good reason why. Vitamin D is a vitamin (which seems obvious) but it is also a hormone. And because of that it has a major affect on our genes and can affect proper gene expression. It also triggers about 200 antimicrobial peptides in your body. It has also been shown to increase the immune system by 3-5x. And the majority of us are very deficient in Vitamin D. The worst being the northern climates where there’s not a lot of sun and is very cold year round. People with darker skin also need more vitamin D because their skin doesn’t absorb as much. We all need to take a supplement for vitamin D (unless you are in the sun a lot). I recommend a Vitamin D3 with K2. We also need K2 to absorb D3 and to have the vitamins together are very important.

Prayer/ Meditation

Prayer is an important piece to our lives, but also our immune system because of stress. Prayer decreases your body’s stress response. Prayer has power, prayer can actually activate molecules in your nervous system and cells of the immune system. It’s amazing that is how God wired our bodies to work. The more we pray to him and lean on him and are in prayer it has a positive effect on our physiological body and also us mentally and emotionally. Don’t underestimate or negate the power of prayer. Lean on this strategy often and on a regular basis!

Philippians 4:6-7 says “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

How many do you use on a daily basis? Any ones that you need to start doing? 

Sources:

http://www.mercola.com

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com