The Season is Upon Us!
Cold/Flu Prevention Steps to Strengthen Your Immune System Now
If you missed Part I on how to Strengthen your Immune System take a peak at the provided link. As briefly mentioned within it, STRESS is a big common denominator to wearing down your immune system and with the Holiday FRENZY upon us anxiety tends to accelerate.
So how does mis-managed stress effect the immune system? * Stress will commonly impair sleep, trickling to inadequate rest for the adrenals to recover reduces magnesium levels which is needed to activate over 350 enzymes in the body including uptake of critical nutrients of Vitamin D & B * Stress decreases the body’s ability to manufacture B vitamins this will reduce energy to keep up with daily demands * Stress will cause the body to use up nutrient resources faster, draining it from its ability to have enough to fight off invasion of pathogens * Anatomically Stress sympathetic fibers (you’ve heard of fight and flight), “descend from the brain into bone marrow, thymus (an immune gland), spleen, lymph nodes (lymphoid tissues)(1). These fibers can release a wide variety of substances that influence immune responses (immunosuppression) by binding to receptors on white blood cells….” “Chronic stressors were associated with the most global immunosuppression,… they were associated with …. decreases in almost all functional immune measures examined.”
I can say much more but I think you get the picture. If not, here’s a statistic worth remembering: 75+% doctor’s visits are associated with stress-related complaints.
Do-able ways to manage stress, inadvertently keeping the immune system strong! * Digestion: eat all main meals before 7pm and all meat protein before 2pm (for more info see part I * Sleep: keep a dark bedroom and turn off / remove all electronic devices from your bedroom * Rest the Brain: 5 – 10 min/day; breathing and meditation practices, put your mind to your breathe and relieve it from all other thoughts * Eliminate/Reduce Stress Inducers: – Caffeine: minimize to 4oz/ day and before 10am, rehydrate with additional 32 oz purified water – Drugs and Alcohol: add toxins to the body and never clear main causes of stress/poor sleep * Express Daily Appreciation: it is true medicine for the soul… – one of my all time time favorite bible verses: Philippians 4:6 – 7 “6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.7 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.” * Take Advantage of Nature’s Offerings: – Sunlight: minimum 10 minutes of sun/day on exposed skin without sunscreen – Nature: walk in forest, beach, work in the garden and receive a natural euphoric sense of calmness – Essential Oils: essential oils get direct access to the brain via the olfactory bulb (neural structure in the brain involved in sense of smell) Three Opportunities to…. Learn More on quality Essential Oil effectiveness in supporting stress reduction and support the immune strength. (details in each link) Essentials to Build Immune & De-Stress: Saturday, November 10, 12:00 – 1:00pm Creating Zen during Holiday Shopping: Saturday, November 24, 11:30a – 2:30pm Essential Oils Personal Care & De-Stresss: Tuesday, December 11, 10:00 – 11:00am
So it happened! You tried to keep yourself healthy (or not) and you caught a bug!!!! What to do to recover fast and without reoccurrence? Stay tuned, that will be coming up in next blog.
To Great Health & Fitness! Tracy Coe, CPT-PMA, cQRA Wellness & Nutrition Practitioner
Tracy Coe is a certified QRA wellness and nutrition practitioner who’s passion is to support the community in educating and providing professional documented and researched options of whole foods, cleansing, and toxicity prevention to support short/long term health and wellness and vitality for the individual and family. For more information email pilates@coe-dynamics.com or call 424.903.3104
References: (1) (Felten & Felten, 1994) (2) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361287/ https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/04/25/stress-and-vitamin-d-deficiency-cause-cold.aspx https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/12/28/how-to-be-happy-and-healthy.aspx https://www.doterra.com/US/en/media-press-releases-research-release-most-tested https://www.doterra.com/US/en/blog/science-research-news-doterra-on-guard-study
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