An army at your command
IF THIS IS NOT FUNCTIONING PROPERLY YOU’LL BE PRONE TO INFECTION
We have had some pretty interesting weather across South Africa over the past few months and it feels different from previous years. We have started to feel the chill in the air and it has been very wet.
With that comes the sniffles and flu and what better way to tackle the start of winter by preparing in advance to build your immune system. Is it really possible to build one’s immune system? To answer that question you first need to understand what an immune system is.
Your immune system is a system of things working harmoniously in balance to keep the body functioning at an optimal rate. For example, the minute you go on a fad diet and limit your food, you will be depriving your body of essential vitamins and minerals. This will break down your immune system.
In turn, stress causes a physiological flight or fright response and if you are always stressed, this affects your body’s natural rhythm because it is so busy trying to get it off hormones generated from the constant response. This could lead to a decrease in your wellbeing and immune system. Now see your immune system as various parts of your body which help to fight off bacteria and viruses. A healthy lifestyle is a key ingredient in making sure your body is performing at a high level when a virus attacks. All your systems are firing on all cylinders. The last thing you want to do when going to war on a virus is to have half your soldiers on vacation or in the sick bay.
Your body therefore has strategic organs that help fight off infection.
Your tonsils are there to help create antibodies.
The lymph nodes are responsible for carrying fluid, nutrients and waste material to and from the bloodstream and body tissues. The lymph node during this process helps to trap bacteria and other nasties and helps destroy them with white blood cells.
Your thymus gland helps produce antibodies and your bone marrow also helps in producing white blood cells.
The spleen plays its part by helping to identify bacteria and foreign substance.
Your body is an amazing machine designed to keep you alive and healthy. The minute we start abusing our bodies by not looking after they through environmental factors, nutrition, exercise and stress management, we open ourselves up to a greater change of bacteria getting a hold. Your body spends a great deal of time and resources just trying to keep up with your poor lifestyle and when bacteria hits, you are low on resources to help fight off infection and then it takes longer for you to recover.
The next thing most people end up doing is trying to treat the cause without changing their lifestyle. They will pop to the local chemist and buy every immune-boosting supplement to help “build” the immune system but that can be the same as buying a chair with one leg. Sure, one leg is important, but you need all four to support you sitting on it. In health systems, see the chair as your immune system, it needs support for the 12 factors above in order to have the best chance of fighting off bacteria.