As we begin to read this, lets pause for a moment and ask ourselves “How do I feel now”. Well, if we are feeling good, its likely that our immune system is happy with us. 😊 And for this we deserve a pat on the back.
Immunity is Our Only Defense
We shall try to keep things very simple in this series of write ups on Immunity. First of all, Immunity in simple terms is our body’s defense unit against anything that could pose a threat to our body. Imagine we are a football team with no defenders and playing a game against a strong opponent. Do you think you’d be able to overcome the challenge? Definitely not!
Immunity needs a good lifestyle
Similarly, a body without an immune system could be an easy victim to billions of viruses and bacteria that are waiting to feast in. Hence, if we do care for our body, its high time we give immense respect to our immune system. We could achieve this by adding lifestyle changes and staying disciplined with it considering our immunity to be an integral part of our life. When our immune system is working round the clock for us by fighting germs and keeping us fit, it is then our responsibility to pamper it. Unaware to us, the immune system is constantly fighting toxins (from food & air), bacteria, viruses and even parasites. By this, imagine how many times our immunity has saved us from infections and serious conditions?
Pamper your Immunity
In case we don’t give enough importance to our immune system, it can react and start attacking our own body cells. This is commonly known as an autoimmune condition. Hence, its critical to understand the likes and dislikes of our immune system. We shall cover this later on.
So our immune system comprises of the following:
- External barriers (skin, saliva, mucus, tears, urine which neutralize invaders and prevent foreign particles/germs from entering the bloodstream). These systems do not require any special preparation and are naturally fighting against germs all the time. Consider these barriers are the first line of defense in a football match.
- Acquired and Inner barriers are the key immune systems that fight invaders inside the body and ensure infections are eliminated. These systems include the Gut (which comprises of 80% of immune system cells- the most important) and the lymph system comprising of spleen, bone marrow, thymus and lymph nodes (which removes waste and carries water, air, oxygen to all our cells). We could fairly say that the “Gut” is the goalkeeper of our football team and becomes the most important factor of our defense system.
Have you observed that in situations where your mouth is wounded, it heals in no time and whereas when you have a wound anywhere on the skin, it takes much longer to heal? This is because, the saliva fights the germs inside the mouth and quickly heals them whereas external wounds need external applications to heal. Similarly, you might have observed that pets lick their wounds and heal them. This is the intuition to heal!
Coughing is a way to eliminate foreign particles that are trying to enter our body and this is one of body’s protective mechanisms. Secretion of excess mucus from the throat or nose are also methods of our immune system to eliminate germs from the body. During this process what we call as “The battle between Invaders and Protectors”, the Protectors have an intuition on the Invader and smartly recognize them. This area of the battle field could thereby cause Inflammations (Sore Throat, Pain, etc) as our Protectors are fighting the battle.
Furthermore, have you noticed when you over binge on foods high on sugar or spice, you tend to suffer immediately from stomach cramps? This is again because our Protector considers these food ingredients to be foreign and immediately works on eliminating them. The inflammation thereby caused leads to the stomach cramps.
Focus on the Cause and not the Effect
In such cases, we generally tend to focus on the effect (Pain, Cough, Sore Throat, etc) rather than on the Cause (Toxins, Bad Food, Virus, Bacteria, etc). We tend to eliminate the effects with pain killers rather than reducing our exposure to invaders that our body dislikes. This is the crux of the problem. It’s also essential to equip our immune system with more tools to fight better. We shall discuss on multiple ways to work on the cause and to strengthen our immune system as well.
The external barriers of the immune system often work on an auto pilot mode whereas the acquired barriers need to be pampered so that they work effectively for us. The way to pamper them is to minimize their work load by reducing invaders from entering the body. Thus, reducing toxins, viruses, parasites, bacteria from entering our body we would be able to minimize their work.
Solutions for a better Immunity
By now, you perhaps have a better understanding of our immune system and how it deals with foreign invaders. Let’s move on to understand how we could reduce our exposure to invaders.
- Balanced nutrition and adoption to natural foods
- Exposure to clean air and water
- Eliminating negative emotions (Arising from the five sensory organs of our body)
Further, its essential to also build a solid set of Armour for our immune system to fight any kind of invaders. For this, there are certain habits that we need to develop and pamper our immune system. They include:
- Frequent Exercise
- Specific nutrients that improve immune system
- Meditation & Pranayama
- Music, Humor & a happy mind!
Hence, the good news is that we can have total control over our immunity if we follow the right practices, feed our mind & body with the right ingredients so that our body can take on ANYTHING and emerge VICTORIOUS. Its left up to us to be aware and responsible for our actions so that the effects turn in our favor
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