As we enter the fall immunity support is even more critical to reduce the impact of all the various viruses we are exposed to. One thing we learned from COVID-19 is the importance of immune support. On top of the stress from the new normal of how we celebrate holidays we are dealing with seasonal colds and flu.
What are some things we can do to build immune support?
I have a couple of thoughts that I have about that. The first is that we as human beings are not machines. Humans are really self-healing organisms. And that also means that our immune systems are really an active and ever changing aspect of our being. And so, there are things that we can do to enhance our immunity and make us more resistant. And there are certainly things we can do in our lives that will make us less resistant or less able to survive an illness should we get it.
In complementary and integrative healthcare, as clinicians, we work to determine what we can we do with the body in order to better support it. We believe that supporting the body is far more important than what drug can we give people in order to either protect them better or kill the virus if we were to get it.
Will a good nights sleep provide immune support?
When we sleep, our bodies produce a protein called cytokines, which target infection and inflammation, creating an immune response. Our bodies also produce T-cells during sleep, which are white blood cells that play a critical role in our body’s immune response to an infectious diseases. Ideally, our bodies require seven to nine hours of quality sleep to recharge and to keep our immune system strong. Prioritizing sleep and allowing your body to rest can stabilize your mood, energize you and fuel your resilience, especially during these challenging times.
Exercise is thought to not just help you fall asleep faster, but it is also shown to improve the quality of your sleep by increasing the time spent in a deep sleep. The deep sleep stage of the sleep cycle helps to boost immune function and aids in controlling stress and anxiety.
What advice would you provide people about how they could deal with lifestyle stress?
I think that that answer is a little bit different for everybody, but some key pieces that seem consistent for a lot of people are some form of mind, body medicine, and the best form of mind, body medicine is that, which we can give ourselves at home on a daily basis. That might be meditation. For some people, maybe it is a certain type of a yoga practice. There is some movement incorporated with that mind body connection. Its whatever strategy works to quiet the nervous system to slow the heart rate, to slow breathing, those kinds of things have a really significant impact on the body and its ability to manage stress.
Another thing I would say about coping with stress is that many of us are facing high levels of stress right now. Media is bombarding us constantly with bad news. I think another trick or a tool that we could use right now is doing a regular media fast. Checking the news many times a day is simply not healthy for us. And when we use social media we are checking the news many times a day, setting some boundaries for ourselves, about how much we access, maybe television or our mobile devices and social media and so forth just to protect ourselves a little bit that way.
