Let’s dive into how you can really support your immune system, especially during these times when it’s of the utmost importance to keep your immune system in tiptop shape and protect yourself.
The first tip is really, you have to stay hydrated. Staying hydrated is really the key to supporting your immune system. Your body is made out of 70% water.
So, it’s vital to keep that going and keep the body hydrated as well because like we talked about with the importance of the Detoxification circuit, water helps to flush out and eliminate these toxic metabolites from your body.
Dr. Carrie and Dr. Lam, thank you for the good example of staying hydrated.
A lot of these pathogens, the viral pathogens, they are proteins. They get denatured very fast. So, you see me walking around with a water bottle all the time; that’s not only good for the adrenals, not only good for the immune system, but it’s also good to kill… Not kill but support a healthy immune system.
A lot of these proteins get denatured under heat. So warm water and warm to hot water is tolerable, but not burning yourself is always preferred.
It also helps in the production of lymphatic fluid. Lymph is a vital part in your immune system in helping your body be in homeostasis, be balanced. Lymph is actually where a lot of your immune cells are also held. So you want to keep that flowing and keep that going.
Yeah, and if you’re the type of person who kind of maybe thinks water is boring, you can try adding some of these ingredients to support the immune system into your water such as:
Those things can help the taste and can also boost your immune system at the same time.
Yes, if you have adrenal fatigue, you have to be a little bit more careful because excessive vitamins— especially vitamin C—can be beneficial for some, but can also crash some people. So, talk to your coach and make sure you’re okay and then he’ll guide you on the exact procedure on how to do this.
Very good. We got to keep drinking water. So, let’s talk about sunshine next.
Dr. Lam, why don’t you kind of tell us how sunshine helps our immune system.
Well, sunshine, in addition to being a great source of vitamin D, is also easy to do. It is free. You just go 15 minutes every day is enough to get you the vitamin D that you need. If you are in an area that sunshine is hard to come by, then you may have to take vitamin D supplementation.
Now, because of adrenal fatigue, many people are temperature sensitive. They don’t do well with heat. Then just a few minutes of exposure, especially direct sunlight exposure, can crash the system. In which case, you can go to be under the shade. Sometimes you can also bring an umbrella. Don’t be embarrassed, okay? It is what it is.
So, it’s very important to have the sunshine.
Early morning is actually quite good. See, I've found that before 10 a.m. it is cool, and that will give you the freshness of the air as well to help.
Right, even in the shade you can get UV rays if you’re outside, but know that if you wear a sunblock, that’s going to block the vitamin D production on your body. So, if you wanted to go outside to actually create vitamin D production from the sunshine, then you should not wear sunblock, but don’t go out in direct sunlight.
Like you said, early mornings are probably the best.
Vitamin D is very important for the immune system because it helps regulate inflammatory compounds in your body and helps support the immune system, but we’ll definitely go into that a little later.
So the third thing that we want to talk about is getting adequate sleep.
Dr. Lam, do you sleep well?
Sleep regulates the cytokine production in the body, which in turn helps the regulation of the immune system and inflammation. So taking naps is okay.
Now, sleep is very interesting because if you have enough sleep…
You simply cannot say, “I want to force my body to go to sleep.” It’s not going to happen. It is a natural phenomenon. If you have enough sleep, you will wake up. You have no option. At the same time, if you don’t have enough sleep, your body will force you to go to sleep. So, you may feel slumpy in the afternoon.
So, the lesson to learn is not to have a clock and say, “I have to go to sleep at a certain time.”
Although we know that if you got to sleep early, let’s say before 10, it tends to be better in terms of our adrenal system, but you really have to learn to listen to your body.
If you need to take naps, you need to take naps. If you take naps and you like to sleep longer, then you have to sleep longer.
The biggest problem today in adrenal fatigue is a lot of people have what we call autonomic imbalances. So they become wired and tired. They cannot go to sleep when they need to. They wake up in the middle of the night.
When you have that kind of cycle, it really sets up a very dysregulated circadian rhythm. Now, that’s a separate problem for the immune system. It does lower the immune system. That’s why people that don’t have good rest tend to get infections more frequently and tend to have them stay around.
We have to resolve that, and it’s a separate discussion of how to deal with sleep, but suffice it to say that right now sleep is very important.
Don’t find it. If you feel you need it, just go ahead and take it.
Some people take the nap and they cannot sleep at night. In which case, you just have to kind of back off.
There are many sleep aids, but we have to warn you because sleep aids sometimes can be beneficial, but sometimes they also can backfire, especially if you’re in the advanced stage of adrenal fatigue. It can actually behave paradoxically or have an exaggerated response. So, if you’re in that situation, just give us a call and we’ll guide you through what to do because everyone is very different.
Right, so, getting good sleep will help regulate your cytokine production and help regulate that inflammation that goes on in your immune system.
Next, we’re going to talk about a positive attitude, and we all know how important this is, especially at this time when you’re staying home, and you just feel like sometimes your liberty is lost.
We want to make sure you have a good mood because a negative attitude can actually bring more stress and worry, and we know that that isn’t good for your adrenals.
So think of your immune system kind of like warriors and soldiers on the frontlines of defense for your body. They want to be inspired when they go into battle. They want arousing, uplifting, positive attitude in order for them to really fight well.
So, don’t dwell on the bad things that can happen. Focus on the positives.
Some other things you could do is unplug from the news if it’s just overwhelming. Sometimes too much news. They only talk about the bad things. What you want to do is focus on the good things.
So, take out a piece of paper. Write in your journal what you’re actually grateful for because studies have shown that when you are writing down what you’re grateful for, you can actually stay joyful. You have a more balanced cortisol level.
So that’s a good thing to try if you’re wanting to have a positive attitude.
