We live in a world of toxins and we all carry significant amounts of heavy metals and environmental toxins within our bodies. Even if you eat all organic foods, drink specific water, and use non-toxic home and body products, you will still come in contact with numerous toxins as a part of our everyday lives we live.
Our blessings are that we can support our health and buffer the impact of these toxins on & in our bodies. Strategies include a diet that helps your body detoxify regularly and that minimizes toxic exposure, anti-inflammatory protocols to buffer the inflammatory effects of toxins on your body, supporting the pathways of elimination, and including binders in your regular protocol to “sponge up” toxins in your system.
Sounds easy enough, right?
It is!!!
Toxins are inflammatory to the body. One of the best things you can do is reduce your inflammatory load with an anti-inflammatory diet. Although even organic foods are shown to contain toxins these days due to air, water, and soil contamination, choosing foods that have not been produced with pesticides, hormones, or antibiotics will reduce your overall burden.
You also want to keep your blood sugar stable by avoiding sugars and foods that are high in processed carbohydrates. This means not letting yourself crash from low blood sugar and not overeating yourself into a food coma.
It is especially important is to avoid the foods that trigger an inflammatory response in you. If you have a food sensitivity or intolerance, eating a food that flares your immune system will keep it in a state of constant red alert, stoking inflammation throughout your body. The most common immune reactive foods are gluten, dairy, soy, egg, and corn.
In addition to minimizing your dietary sources of inflammation, certain supplements can also control and reduce inflammation.
Studies show taking larger doses of the antioxidants resveratrol and curcumin can help protect the body from the damage of toxins, Glutathione that is liposomal or in another absorbable form is another way to lower inflammation and protect your body. One of the best I find for inflammation is, Omega 6 & 9 along with Thymoquinone < Some will say this is an emerging natural drug- it is not emerging- it has always been available! Nigella sativa has attracted healers in ancient civilizations for centuries! Nigella sativa L aka Thymoquinone vice-versa Nigella sativa L or commonly know as the black cumin seed. This seed in many forms shows a wide spectrum of favorable biological activities, the most prominent being antioxidant, anti-inflammatory , antibacterial , hepatoprotective , antimutagenic and antitumor activities.
Taking nutritional compounds on a regular basis that bind with toxins for easy removal is another way to buffer your body. Binders can help remove heavy metals, environmental toxins, mycotoxins from molds, infectious bacteria, and fungal infections from your body. This will be in Part 2 of this series- I am purposely putting this series out there backwards so you read both! Protecting or Building immunity and How to Detox and take or use Binders on a regular basis for easy removal of toxins.
Some will say four ways to boost your immune are:
1. Moderate exercise - Yes BUT you can exercise all you want and IF you are not eating healthy and taking what your body needs, you are just waiting time and in some cases money. 2. Sex. Okay, fair enough- it does increase proteins and such to help the body heal in ways- this is for another posting. 3. Vitamin C , Yes!, it does work - I've written enough on this mighty vitamin in other blogs - you can read into and 4. Probiotics, Yes, again re-read other blogs about this. BUT there is more to it than these...
The many culprits that suppress our immune systems are well worth knowing. Not just for warding off colds, and flu, but for eliminating toxins, inflammation in our bodies that cause both accelerated aging and in most cases diseases. The main culprits are: Diet, Leaky Gut, Toxins, Stress, and Infection(s). Not in any order but you want to work on all five above that contribute to the inflammation. A simple diet change and or Detox will not correct it alone.
Anything you can do to reduce your body's toxic levels and support it in getting rid of toxins helps to optimize your immune system and keep infections away - particularly if you have had Epstein Barr (mon), herpes, shingles, or other viruses.
Fasting, temporarily for like three days helps and works. Long, fasting diets I do not recommend! Even Daily hourly fasting works. Eat only when hungry not just because something looks or sounds good. 11-16 hrs. between meals is a great start-not hard to do-simply choose which meals are preferable to you on any given day. If you have blood sugar issues snack on easily digestible healthy snacks or drinks in between meals.
Fasting is a well-known method for stimulating the production of new immune cells and to reset and kickstart your immune system function. As you fast, your body uses autophagy to break down old and damaged white blood cells, discarding the damaged parts and recycling the remaining macromolecules throughout the body. The process stimulates the production of new, healthy replacement cells
Sleep, sleep is vital-a goods nights sleep. Sleep and the immune system have a bidirectional relationship. Getting enough quality sleep every night profoundly impacts the immune system. Your immune system is active during sleep, producing cytokines associated with regulating inflammation. When the body is sleep-deprived, immune system activity is reduced, leading to decreased production of antibodies, cytokines, and other protective factors
Once you reboot your immune it is essential to support the growth of new immune cells and maintain their new level of readiness and activity.
Follow a supportive diet high in polyphenols from fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and rich in omega-3 fatty acids from cold-water fish. Avoid GPS: gluten, processed foods, and sugar. Also, avoid DNA: dairy, nicotine, and artificial sweeteners.
The health of your immune system can make the difference between a mild infection that resolves in a few days or a severe infection that could hinder you for days and cause long-term ramifications.
As I have explained previously in other blogs, we have two immune systems that we have to support.
The innate immune system (the one you’re born with)
The adaptive immune system (acquired during your lifetime)
Read more into them in the older blogs to better understand how your body, immune system works.
My protocol is: Foods and diet , Nutrients and supplements, Curcumin, Thymoquinone, NAD+ and NAC, Probiotics, and Detox (twice a year, for some more often). No need to rewrite what's written >you need to do your homework >To learn more on each one mentioned here, re-read other blogs.
The combination of lifestyle modifications, fasting, some exercise, sleep, and pointed supplemental choices and detoxing will provide transformative effects on and kickstart your immune system. Supporting immunorejuvenation leads to immune resilience, optimizes your health, and enhances your protection against viruses, all variants.
Watch for Part 2 - Removing toxic burden > Detoxing