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Optimal immune function is not only important for the prevention of colds and flu, but also ensures other important aspects of immunity like detection and destruction of cancer cells and the prevention of autoimmune conditions.  Your immune system is constantly searching for foreign invaders. The healthy human body has about a trillion lymphocytes that are combat ready, and can produce 10 million cells per minute to replenish the stock. Our B-lymphocytes, which are programmed from your body’s accumulated immunologic memory, can secrete trillions of bug seeking antibodies every second to coat invaders – painting them like targets for your white blood cells to destroy.  With such a formidable immune force on your side, you need only give your body what it needs to keep it functioning in a healthy way.

Here is an easy 10 point action plan to bolster your defenses!

1: Catch Enough Zzz’s
Enough quality sleep helps keep the immune lowering stress hormone, cortisol, in check. Stress, coffee, and the average western go-go-get-it-done lifestyle triggers the release of cortisol from the adrenal glands to help you cope and keep up. Cortisol, when in excess, not only impairs immune function but also causes insomnia, increases appetite and cravings, increases blood sugar, and weakens connective tissue. The same goes for too little cortisol, a very common concern with fibromyalgia and CFIDS. Additionally sleep deprived individuals secrete less leptin – a hormone regulating appetite and is associated with weight gain and obesity.

Action Tip: Take Rest & Restore at night before bed to ensure good quality and duration of sleep. Getting enough sleep helps keep cortisol in check. Getting good quality sleep ensures adequate “resetting and restoring” at night. For optimum immune function, ensure about 8 hours of sleep each night, depending on individual needs.
Ask your doctor for a prescription sleep medicine if you need more help getting to or staying asleep.

2: Time your Zzz’s optimally
Cortisol levels fluctuate throughout the day.  Early morning (2am) it begins rising, peaking around 7-8am to help you get up and face the day’s challenges.  It then gradually decreases reaching a low around 9:30-10pm – bedtime according to your body’s natural day-night rhythm, this is your time to rest and recharge. Also, Melatonin is a very important sleep regulating hormone that responds to nighttime darkness and is associated with refreshing sleep.

Action Tip: To make use of the deepest most restorative sleep, try to be in bed by 9:45pm as often as possible. This ensures the benefit of that magic 4 hour sleep window from 10pm-2am. You’ll wake refreshed with plenty of energy for the morning and be more productive too! ‘Adrenal Boost’ supports the stressed out adrenal glands in a very nutritive way if taken early in the morning – helping you with more stable energy and blood sugar through the day. Try to make your bedroom completely dark at night – use heavy curtains or blinds. Melatonin release from a darkened bedroom will help you sleep more soundly. Rest and Restore contains melatonin as part of a well balanced immune formula.

3: Control your Cortisol
We know our bodies respond to stresses (deadlines, job insecurities, arguments, worries, etc) by secreting the appropriate hormones. At first, your adrenal glands secrete more cortisol. Later after months or years they start to fatigue and secrete less and less. During this whole time thyroid function is compromised, sex hormone levels decrease leading to loss of libido and infertility, and your body becomes more sensitive to adrenaline.
After prolonged periods of stress, the normal cortisol rhythm can be altered, keeping you up at night and making you sleepy and tired during the day. The list continues with symptoms such as weakened memory, highly symptomatic menopause, blood sugar imbalances, high cholesterol, chronic pain, faster aging, weight gain, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Action Tip:
Try to avoid caffeinated beverages, especially in the morning, replace morning coffee with delicious ginseng or licorice* tea. Both these teas have a stimulating effect as they improve your general sense of well being (and also your stress hormone status) and they don’t bring you down to that lower low like caffeine does. Wean off of caffeine over a 2-4 month period to avoid withdrawal headaches. At night, take some Ashwaganda (Withania somnifera – the species name referring to its long-term sleep promoting effects) to help prepare your body for a restful, invigorating sleep, normalize your hormones, stimulate your immune system, and help you along the path to longevity. Phosphatidyl Serine also helps control the cortisol levels at night in a very meaningful way – take at least 600mg before bed and a total of 800mg per day.  If you are experiencing adrenal stress and exhaustion, I highly recommend you consult with an FFC or naturopathic physician. Different strategies are required for different stages of adrenal fatigue.
* Caution with high blood pressure

4: Move toward Immunity
Much of the total immunologic action takes part in your arteries, veins and lymphatic vessels. Lymphocytes flow through these compartments to do their immune surveillance, traveling in the arteries and veins through the blood vessel walls into the tissues and returning to the blood circulation again via the lymphatic vessels and lymph nodes that filter and eliminate bugs. Circulation in arteries, veins, and lymphatic vessels is greatly enhanced by muscle contractions. Increased blood flow and lymphatic drainage means increased immune surveillance and vigilance.

Action Tip:
Exercise and various treatments like hydrotherapy, far infra red sauna with contrast, massage, and dry skin brushing are all quite effective in achieving better circulation. Gentle exercise is also a great stress buster, and generally lowers cortisol.  When fit, you actually might need up to two hours less sleep per night. To encourage optimal blood flow and address inflammation and protein sequestration that may prevent white blood cells from moving freely, consider CoAgClear – these enzymes also help digest biofilms in which bacteria hide away from the immune system and from antibiotics.
[Individualization hint: some people feel (a) tired and relaxed while others feel (b) tired and wired after exercise.  Use your own body’s response to exercise to determine if you should exercise in the mornings (b’s) or evenings (a’s).]

5: ACE your Immune System
Healthy white blood cells can contain up to 150 times more Vitamin C than blood plasma – when you are low in Vitamin C your white blood cells don’t work as well. Sufficient Vitamin C is also crucial in the healthy stress response, and is decreased by aging, smoking, stress, and not eating enough fresh fruits and vegetables. Other antioxidants like vitamins A, D, E, and most of the B’s, selenium, zinc, glutathione, and beta-carotene also play an integral role in directly supporting healthy immune function.

Action Tip: Experts disagree on how much vitamin C is optimal for individuals. Linus Pauling took up to 10 grams per day (10,000 mg); the RDA ranges from 15-125 mg.  Amounts up to 3 grams (3,000 mg) are considered safe and will increase your immune system function dramatically. Antiox is a sensible option to increase your ability to scavenge free radicals that play a role in decreased immunity and also to help limit damage to your cells during times of increased immune activity.
Cod liver oil is singularly one of the most beneficial wintertime supports. It contains vitamins A and D, and also omega 3 fatty acids – all very important in supporting mucous membrane immunity in the respiratory system that is the primary immune barrier to flu viruses. (But remember, vitamin A should be used sparingly in pregnancy!)

6: Harness Plant Power
What you eat daily can affect your immune system dramatically. Many plants and mushrooms have the amazing ability to stimulate white blood cells to greater activity, increase the rate of white blood cell production, and/or have a direct antimicrobial action. Some plants increase our resistance to stress and lower cortisol, indirectly stimulating immune function. What a bonus to have friends like these looking after us during the winter. Eating more plant foods will also displace animal proteins and meats that contain saturated fats, animal and synthetic hormones, and loads of agricultural pesticides that animal tissues bio-accumulate.  We encourage you to try new ideas and add more herbs and vegetables to your diet.

Action Tip: Harness Plant Power by eating more fresh plant foods high in vitamins, minerals, enzymes, fiber, and good fats. Cook with shitake, maitake, and oyster mushrooms, garlic, onions, ginger, cayenne, and turmeric. Ensure adequate intake of deeply colored red, yellow, and green vegetables for a balanced blend of natural carotenes and bioflavonoids. Be creative, approach cooking with wild abandon. Make nutritious, scrumptious mushroom and vegetable soups, stews, and stir fries to energize and vitalize you through the cold grey months. Anti-Viral, Leuko-Stim and Maitake D Fraction are very effective focused formulae to ensure a competent and focused immune system in the wintertime.

7: Feed Your Fighting Force!
If you’re already sick, there’s no need to take it lying down. Being proactive will shorten your downtime considerably and make it less likely that you will pass your illness on to your family, friends or co-workers.

Action Tip:
Feed your body’s fighting force with any of the following herbs alone or in combination. They are taken different ways – in your food, as a tea, as capsules, or all of the above.
Astragalus Root: increases activity of killer T-cells (the body’s first line of defense), macrophages and phagocytes
Cayenne Pepper: reduces fevers and stimulates blood circulation
Echinacea: stimulates the immune response by increasing T-lymphocytes, macrophages, and interferon activity
Garlic: is anti-microbial and anti-fungal
Lomatium and Larch (Larix): destroy viruses by interfering with certain processes necessary for viral replication and directly stimulate phagocytosis (literally, eating of (bad) cells)
Olive Leaf Extract: supports the immune system and promotes beneficial microflora.  Olive leaf also contains bioflavonoids which increase its natural anti-viral activity.
Oregano Oil: is a powerful antibacterial agent effective in killing many types of bacteria that cause upper respiratory and intestinal infections.
Licorice*: is very effective in killing viruses, including Herpes and Epstein-Barr viruses – it prevents the formation of certain viral proteins, and helps kill them in the cells where they replicate. Licorice tea can be a delicious part of your antiviral program. * Caution – in sensitive people licorice can increase blood pressure.
Maitake and medicinal mushrooms: increases natural killers cell’s action to actively destroy infectious agents and also cells infected with viruses and intracellular bacteria. They also play a very important role in detecting and destroying cancer cells.
Botanical medicines can be safely combined with other immune enhancing substances for quicker recovery.
8: Maintain Your System
Plant sterols and sterolins can play a very important action in immune modulation. They enhance your immune system’s ability to respond flexibly and adequately to acute challenges. Due to this immune balancing effect phytosterols have some marvelous side effects. They may reduce symptoms of joint pain and stiffness, have been shown to increase T- cell proliferation by an average of 58%, support healthy prostate function, and assist in maintaining healthy cholesterol levels.
The thymus gland, located right behind the breast bone, plays a very important role in the maturation and programming of T lymphocytes. T cells play a very important role in recognizing and signaling the attack when infectious agents are present, but also in ensuring that your immune system does not attack your body – something that happens in auto-immune diseases.

Action Tip:
Maintain your immune system by increasing your intake of phytosterols - eat more plant based foods. They may also be taken as supplements. Ginseng** and Astragalus are plants you can use longer term for enhanced immunity.
Thymus derived proteins are clinically very helpful in supporting the immune system during acute challenges and in ensuring that a competent cell mediated immune reaction is mounted. ProBoost contains thymic fractions that enhance immune reactions to all infectious agents.
**Even though ginseng is generally a very safe all over hormonal and body tonic, it may increase blood pressure in rare cases.

9: Boost by Breathing
Breathing not only keeps you alive, but is a wonderful nervous system regulating tool. Breathing is also unique in that it is an automatic body function we have almost complete control over. Certain breathing patterns have been associated with significant increases in immunity.

Action Tip:  To increase oxygen to your body and brain and get rid of metabolic wastes: Place your left hand on your stomach, with the center of your palm over your belly button. Place your right thumb on the pulse of your left wrist, and note your pulse rate, rhythm, and amplitude. In your mind’s eye, locate three parts of the torso: belly, lower lungs, and upper lungs. Breathe into the belly, gently filling it, then move the breath into filling the lower lungs, then all the way up under the collarbones into the upper lungs. Exhale slowly with one long breath. Try to have your exhalation time twice as long as inhalation time.  Repeat 6 times, and then breathe regularly. Be conscious of pulse rate, rhythm, and amplitude and notice the difference. What a great in-and-out-of-office stress buster this is, and no one will know when you are doing it.
Avoid chronic disease, just breathe!!

10: Heal with Homeopathy
Homeopathic medicine is one of the most effective and safe ways to focus your immune surveillance on the specific challenges winter brings. Homeopathic medicine has been in use for over 200 years, and is well tried and trusted, having proved itself in many influenza and other infectious disease epidemics. These potent medicines are very affordable, and can be considered a “natural” flu shot.  This non-chemical medicine can be administered either by mouth or through an injection to both prevent and fight the flu.

Action Tip:
Try general homeopathic immune boosting and flu preventive medicines like Ferrum phosphoricum, Engystol and GrippHeel in combination, Influenzinum, Oscillococcinum, or Dolicoccil as an effective safe flu preventative measure and treatment that leaves no chemical residue in the body.
Hope you are also looking forward to the transition of the season with immune readiness.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.