Keys to Supporting Your Immune System

Maintaining your health requires diligence and awareness. Through a simple Internet search, you can learn how the immune system works. However, there is more that you need to know in order to be empowered to do more to support and protect your body.

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Your body is natural - it functions in a way that is aligned with how nature works. Chemicals work in a different way. The most significant thing you need to know about chemicals has to do with synergism. When you are exposed to two or more chemicals at a time, their effect on your body is greater than the sum of the effects of the individual chemicals, and these effects are unpredictable. 

Keeping synergistic toxicity in mind, here are the 3 most powerful action steps you can take to keep yourself and your family well during flu season, the coronavirus pandemic, and all year long.

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#1 Provide Your Body with a Strong Foundation for Wellness

It is simple: We feel the healthiest and most vibrant when our bodies are in a state of balance.

We all experience a certain toxic load in living in this polluted world. However, there are those who are exposed to significantly more toxins through their diets, smoking, alcohol and/or drug use, or chemicals in their workplace or home environment. When your body is continually inundated with toxic elements, it has to work harder to maintain a state of homeostasis.

Exposure to toxins causes stress for our bodies, which then have to work so much harder to return to balance. If they are already in a stressed, unbalanced state when we encounter a virus or other pathogen, we are more likely to become ill, and to experience more severe symptoms. It makes perfect sense to do what we can to limit our exposure to toxins in order to give our bodies the chance to be healthy.

Hand washing, although vital, will not cleanse toxins and pathogens from inside of the body that the body has already been exposed to.
Here are some simple action steps you can take to address your health on a deeper level:

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• Follow an organic, whole foods way of eating. This eliminates your exposure to chemicals that are used to grow and harvest foods - herbicides and glyphosate, pesticides, fungicides, hormones in animal products, and genetically modified foods, which are sprayed with high levels of chemicals. This also eliminates chemicals in the form of synthetic additives added to foods that include artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners. The act of processing foods exposes them to even more chemicals, as well as destroying many of the natural nutrients in the foods. If you are unable to eat completely organic foods, at the very least avoid those that are the most heavily treated with chemicals, GMOs (corn, soy, canola oil, sugar, zucchini, rice, salmon, apples, eggs, meat, milk, honey, seafood), and legumes and potatoes (sprayed with loads of chemicals).

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• Keep the air in your home clean and clear. Use natural cleaning products on your body and in your home. Avoid using artificial fragrances in perfumes and air fresheners. These are toxic and will harm your body as you inhale them. Make sure your home is free from toxic mold. Use a high-quality air purifier to clean indoor air. I like the products from Air Doctor and Austin Air. 

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• Use natural cosmetics and body products. Look at The Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep database to see if your home and body products contain harmful chemicals. Remember that your body absorbs chemicals through your skin and through your inhalations as you breathe.

 

• Drink clean, filtered water as your main beverage. Your body needs water to live. Drink the highest quality water you can and eliminate soft drinks, sports drinks, sugar-filled drinks, and alcoholic beverages. The more toxins you consume, the more difficult you make it for your body to be able to detoxify itself from the other harmful elements you encounter daily. Drink plenty of water throughout the day to provide proper hydration as well as support for your kidneys in cleansing toxins from your body.

 

• Avoid other toxins in the forms of non-essential medications, cigarette, cigar, pipe or vape smoke, recreational drugs, and alcohol. Your liver is the organ responsible for detoxifying your body. Everything you ingest must process through your liver. Avoiding these will help to keep your liver in a state where it can optimally perform its job. 

 

• Avoid consuming foods that are inflammatory to your body. This varies for different people, but generally includes wheat and gluten-containing grains, sugar (and high fructose corn syrup), and dairy products.

In addition to keeping as many toxins away from your body as possible, you need to make sure you are providing optimal nutrition to meet your body's personal needs for thriving. Although there is no one special diet to follow that is optimal for every person, it benefits everyone to eat whole foods that are clean and sustainably sourced. A good rule to follow is to eat whole foods that are nutrition-packed and avoid empty calories like sugar and processed foods.

It is extremely difficult to get all of the nutrition your body needs from just the food you eat. Here are some things to keep in mind when you use nutritional supplements:

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• Everyone's body needs certain vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids in order to function properly. However, the specific nutraceuticals and amounts you need are specific to you. At the very least, take a multivitamin/multimineral and make absolutely sure it is of the highest quality possible that includes nutrients in their most absorbable form. Inexpensive supplements you can find at a drugstore or regular grocery store often lack nutrients in a bioavailable form.

 

• Your needs will change - be prepared to supplement more or less as your body needs. 

 

• Based on your personal DNA, you will need to supplement certain vitamins and minerals in certain forms. Whatever your body is not able to provide for itself, you will have to give to it. A few examples include: Those with certain MTHFR gene mutations will need to supplement with more vitamin B12 and folate. Those with VDR gene mutations will need more vitamin D. Those with FUT 2 will need to supplement with B12 and certain probiotics. Knowing your body and its unique needs will help you to provide it with the nutrition it needs. I am currently working to create an online course to empower you to learn about your and your children's DNA.

 

• Again, be absolutely sure to choose the highest quality nutritional supplements you can find. 

#2 Support Your Immune System

Other factors such as emotional stress and trauma, lack of quality sleep, nutritional deficiencies and chronic pain can stress your body and cause the immune system to work extra hard just to maintain homeostasis. If this is already occurring, when you come into contact with a virus or other pathogen, you will be more likely to experience illness. 

Here are some supplements you can use to bring added support to your immune system so that it will be able to fight off pathogens as it meets them:

• Vitamin A Drops

• Vitamin C

• Vitamin D3 plus K2. Having a healthy vitamin D level is absolutely essential!

• Minerals that include selenium, zinc, and magnesium. 

• Also, include the flavonoid, quercentin.

• Enzymedica Enzyme Defense - Contains enzymes that break down proteins from viruses and pathogens so that the body can eliminate them more easily, allowing your immune system to work efficiently.

• Use natural viral, bacterial, and yeast inhibitors such as oregano oil, olive leaf, garlic, sambucus (elderberry), etc. Here are two that contain multiple natural compounds to support your immune system: Pathoguard from DesBio and  Neurobiologix Neuroimmune Infection Control

• For some people, liposomal glutathione can be helpful. Use it sparingly and carefully; start with only a drop or two once or twice per week and work your way up to using more based on your personal tolerance and needs.

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#3 Support Your Body's Detoxification Pathways

No matter how diligently you work to keep toxins away from yourself, you are still exposed on a daily basis to numerous chemicals through the polluted air you breathe and the water you drink. 

There are action steps you can take to assist your body in successfully detoxifying these so that your immune system can effectively perform its job of keeping you healthy when you get exposed to pathogens.

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• Use toxins binders, but make sure to use them correctly. Anything with charcoal should be taken away from other supplements and foods by 1 hour. Some favorite products include BIND from Systemic Formulas and BioTox from Microbe Formulas.

 

• Take Epsom salt baths.

 

• Use saunas - sweating is a great way to detox your body! Make sure to take a toxin binder 30 minutes before using your sauna.

 

• Optimize your methylation through proper supplementation.

• Take nutrients that support your liver function. A few high-quality liver support supplements Liver Drainage from DesBio and Liver Nutrients from Seeking Health.

Remember that maintaining your health requires diligence and awareness. Stay focused on doing what you need to do to  care for yourself and your family the best you can. You have more power than you may realize!