Wash your hands, wear a mask, don’t go to any public gathering, blah, blah, blah. I can sit here and tell you all of the sanitary measures and give you the latest statistics on positive tests in Peoria, IL., Let’s be honest though, we are all sick of that because that’s all we’ve been hearing the last 6 months. So instead of inflicting fear for you readers, we are going to focus on PREVENTION!
I want to first talk about inflammation, “the silent killer”. There are good and bad kinds of inflammation. The good inflammation fights off invaders, heals injuries and cleans up messes. The bad inflammation sparks up a long list of disorders: arthritis and joint pain, asthma, high blood pressure, and so on. In the United States, inflammation is involved with most of the leading causes of death. It also causes our immune response to dysfunction!
Let’s compare how a healthy immune system and an unhealthy immune system work against viruses:
Unhealthy Immune System
When our immune system is unhealthy and has a lot of inflammation, this causes an excessive amount of monocytes, macrophages, and T cells leading to cytokine storm. Too many immune cells lead to overproduction of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which leads to widespread damage of multiple organs and tons of inflammation. We are seeing this response throughout COVID and its causing massive damage to the lungs.
Healthy Immune System
A healthy immune system, will rapidly clear the infected cells. Viruses are also “shut-off” by neutralizing antibodies, and this causes minimal inflammation and organ damage.
Now which one of those immune responses sound better? THE HEALTHY IMMUNE SYSTEM!
5 Steps for a Powerful Immune System
- Make time to exercise – this causes your bodies antibodies and white blood cells to circulate more rapidly, which means they can find the invaders more efficiently. Exercise also lowers stress hormones, which reduces your chances of getting sick.
- Stay on top of stress – when you’re under chronic stress your body creates these stress hormones that turn off your immune system.
- Get enough sleep – when you’re sleep deprived, your body has lower levels of T cells and suppresses your immune system.
- Supplementation – there is no magic pill to prevent diseases, but I work with a great company called Univera. All of their supplements are backed up by research. Contact me if you would like more information!
- Watch your diet – most of our immune system is in our guts. A healthy gut leads to a healthier immune system, which ultimately allows us to fight off infections more efficiently.
5 Steps to Decrease Inflammation
- Load up on anti-inflammatory foods – This can be another blog in itself, but a diet I like to recommend to patients is the DeFlame diet by Dr. David Seamen. This is a great anti-inflammatory diet. It focuses on reducing or eliminating nutrient-free calories made from refined sugar, flour/oils, and replacing them with whole foods from plant and animal origin. This diet is more of a concept vs. a specific diet. It’s tailored way more to the patients specific situation, which is what I love about it…check it out at http://www.deflamediet.com
- Control your blood sugar – Again, limit refined sugar and anything with high fructose corn syrup. Build meals around lean proteins and whole foods.
- Make time to exercise – this is a great way to prevent inflammation! There are a ton of gyms and online resources in the Peoria/Germantown area.
- Lose weight – people who are overweight have more inflammation. Thanks a lot Standard American Diet…Carrie, our Ideal Protein coach serves the Peoria and Germantown regions. She can get your started on a weight loss journey. Contact us for more information about our weight loss program.
- Manage Stress – Chronic stress contributes to inflammation.
Focus on Prevention!
The media wants to scare us all into staying inside and they’re not telling us anything about prevention. Don’t let the media inflict fear into our lives. We all need to come together, hold each other accountable, and live healthier lives!