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Health & Fitness

Fight The Flu With A Strong Immune System

As we approach "flu season" in White Lake Michigan, people want to know what to do to boost their immune system naturally. Here at Awesome Chiropractic, we believe that a healthy body is the best way to fight "flu season".

Your body is an incredible complex of systems all working together. And your immune system is interactive, totally integrated, and constantly communicating with the other systems of your body. How those systems communicate plays a part in producing your current state of health.

Risk Free Steps to Boosting Your Immune System:

  • Awesome Chiropractic Adjustments: Nerve irritation suppresses your immune function. Specific Chiropractic adjustments decrease nerve irritation, restore balance in your body, and restore your parasympathetic (rest and repair) nervous system. Adjustments increase your white blood cell count; it’s measurable. Chiropractic patients have been shown to have a 200% greater immune competence than people not under chiropractic care. Getting adjusted boosts your immune system.
  • No Sugar: Simply put, sugar cripples your immune system. Your body uses Vitamin C in your immune system to fuel your white blood cells. It fights colds to cancer sores to cancer. Sugar, or glucose, in the blood stream will compete with Vitamin C to get into your cells. Less Vitamin C in the cells means an impaired ability of the white blood cells to sweep up and kill bacteria. Sugar also robs your body of nutrients like zinc, which is important factor in your body’s ability to fight infection.
  • Drink Water: Water is absolutely essential and critical for all cell functions in your body. When someone is dehydrated they produce Histamines, which are the mucus promoters in your body. So dehydration causes mucus, inflammation, and swelling. We want to be fully hydrated. All of the time, not simply sometimes! Best practice for daily requirements of water is to divide your weight in half and drink that number in ounces every day.
  • Eat Fermented Foods: if you are serious about boosting your immunity, then adding traditionally fermented foods is essential. Kefir is an ancient cultured, enzyme-rich food full of friendly microorganisms that balance your "inner ecosystem" and strengthen immunity. Besides kefir, other good fermented foods include natto, kimchee, miso, tempeh, pickles, sauerkraut, yogurt (watch for sugar), and olives. Friendly bacteria have a powerful, beneficial effect on your gut’s immune system, your first line of defense against pathogens, and aid in the production of antibodies.
  • Go nuts over coconuts: besides being excellent for your thyroid and your metabolism, coconut oil is rich in lauric acid, which converts in your body to monolaurin. Monolaurin is the actual compound found in breast milk that strengthens a baby’s immunity. This medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA) actually disrupts the lipid membranes of offending organisms. When selecting coconuts and coconut oil, make sure you choose organic ones that are unrefined, unbleached, made without heat processing or chemicals, and are non-GMO.
  • Get Plenty of Rest: The immune system requires a lot of energy to work. When you notice that you’re tired, your appetite is suppressed, and you’re low on energy, your body is diverting energy to your immune system. Instead of taking drugs so you can rush off to work, listen to your body and get some rest. Stay home, stay warm, allow your body to use the energy to feed your immune system, and get healthy. When you sleep, your body is rebuilding new, healthy tissues. Staying up late only slows down this process.
  • Eat Simple: Your energy needs to go to your immune system, not your digestive system, when you’re fighting something, stay away from inflammatory foods such as dairy, gluten, wheat and refined grains. They promote mucus build up and inflammation.
  • Eat plenty of whole foods:  like vegetables which are loaded with water and the phytonutrients your body needs. And if you’re only going to eat a small amount of food, make sure it’s nutrient dense food that will bring energy and life into your system.
  • Boost Your Supplements: Supplements are exactly that…supplemental, not a replacement to whole foods. While supplements will never be as good as whole food, they do have their place in enhancing how our body’s work! Supplements helps because our lives are so fast, stress is greater than ever, and it’s hard to get all the nutrients we need in our diet every day.
  • Move: Moderate exercise like a walk can activate the healing nerves in your body. As your body moves, specific nerves are stimulated. These nerves are the strongest and fastest nerves in your body. They activate your healing mechanism and act to calm your body down. Most people feel better after a walk outside; it’s not the great outdoors that made them feel better, it is stimulating the motion nerves that did the job. Please dress appropriately.
  • Have a healing attitude: Funny how people will have all the faith in the world that their body will heal when they get a cut, but it is unable to heal from a flu or other problem. The principle of healing is the same, no matter the problem. Believe that God gave you an amazing ability to heal. Put more faith in that than any pill, potion or therapy. If you focus on the sickness, you will find it, even if it is minute.
  • Let Your Body Fight:  Your immune system will get stronger and smarter if you let your body fight. If you interfere and suppress it because it’s more important for you to be comfortable rather than healthy, your body will get weaker and not be able to defend itself properly in future attacks.

Ultimately, it’s best to treat your body well and keep your immune system strong so you can avoid getting sick as we experience the weather changes outside. It’s also important to understand that catching a cold or getting the flu is not necessarily a bad thing either.

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A healthy immune system doesn’t mean you’ll never catch anything (although you’ll catch much less of what’s going around if you are healthy), but it means that if you do catch a bug and your immune system is doing its job, you’ll have milder symptoms and get over it quicker.

The most interesting thing about these tips for a healthy immune system, is that they apply to every other system in your body. These tips have no dangerous side effects or risks. Yes, they take some effort, but it is always easier to stay healthy, than to regain your health.

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Dr. Robert Moore at Awesome Chiropractic in Brighton, was the "sick kid" of his family. It was chiropractic care that helped him with his severe asthma, allergies and weak immune system. He is healthier today at 48 than when he was 18. If you or your loved ones are interested in building a healthy body, call our office today (810) 225-7246.

All you have to lose is your problem.

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