I’d venture to say that a goodly number of people don’t even know they have an immune system. That’s not good because your immune system is probably the greatest indicator of your health in general. Better yet, you have the power to strengthen this system to help prevent and fight diseases of all kinds. I consider the immune system to be the most important system in the human body because it is the body’s defense system and it’s job is to fight off disease, germs and bacteria.
On the cellular level, the immune system directs antibodies and antitoxins to attack and destroy disease carrying bacteria and germs every day. If the system is weak, the bad guys take over and we get sick. Our bodies are protected from a number of health enemies including fatigue, infections, colds and the flu by a well cared for immune system. There is also protection from antibiotics and the chemicals in so many of today’s highly processed foods.
Your immune system is made up of the white cells and proteins in the blood. These are known as antibodies. Three organs oversee, replenish and organize the immune system. They are the thymus, the spleen and the liver. Your immune system also includes the lymph system and it’s own vessels which run parallel to the blood vessels. When germs enter the body or a cell becomes cancerous the white cells attack the invader naturally. Antibiotics and other drugs can suppress this natural function by producing fewer antibiodies and causing the white blood cells to become less active.
Many things can weaken your immune system and lead to illness. The most obvious are eating nutritionally defunct junk and processed food that’s loaded with sugar, bad fat and so many chemicals even the scientists are scratching their heads these days. Over eating just makes things worse and is the precurser to all kinds of digestive problems, diabetes, obesity, heart disease and even stress. Just watch the nightly news. We appear to be a pretty sick nation with all kinds of maladies. Worse yet, we don’t seem to know it.
Good news though. We can do something about it and it’s so easy to stay or get healthier and feel good. We’ll talk about the immune system alot, but here’s what you can do right now to help your own body protect you when everyone around you is sick. It’s all in the food you eat. Nature so perfectly provides what sustains us, and the truth is that it is up to us to use it correctly if we want to feel good and have lots of energy to live and ward off illness.
Get your shopping list together and put on it all kinds of fruits and vegetables, beans, grains, seeds and nuts, garlic, onion, yogurt, and some dairy and meat if you like. Remember deep green and deep orange and red for fruits and vegetables are preferred. Shop around the perimeter of your grocery store to avoid most of the processed foods and try to buy organic to avoid a host of chemicals that are known to create havoc to your cells in the form of free radicals. Now, go ahead and eat the healing foods. Oh yeah, you’ll need to cook a little too. Few foods worth eating come in a heat and eat box.
We all know the famous quote from Hippocrates: “Let thy food be thy medicine”. But I’d like to share a very thought provoking quote that came across my desk a while back. The author is Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. The message is simply “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are”. Some things are indeed beyond our control healthwise, however the food we choose to eat is not. So, today begin to concentrate on one thing—a strong immune system made that way by eating nourishing food. You’ll thank me when flu seaon rolls around again.
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