Eat more garlic! Drink ginger tea! Take vitamin C!
You’ve heard that before. You know all that, but why is it that you are still battling recurrent colds and get a flu with every change of the weather?
Low immune system from lack of pills?
Advice on internet abounds, but a lot of it is inadequate, misleading or frankly bad. Don’t get me wrong. Garlic, ginger and vitamin C is a great prescription for a faster recovery, but it is NOT a prescription for a stronger immune system. After all you don’t get frequent colds because suddenly your level of ginger dips down in the blood or your garlic breath is insufficient. You get recurrent colds because your immune system is weak, not because you did not invest in vitamin C stocks.
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“Doc, so what do I do for my weak immune system?” I get that a lot. “What do I do for…” is the question everyone asks. But this is a bad question. A bad question will get you a bad answer. So if you ask “what do I do” don’t be surprised the answer will be: garlic, ginger, and vitamin C, etc. Unless you ask the right question you will be stuck with half-solutions or risk having your nose cold-glued to Kleenex.
- Recurring colds in adults? WHY?
- Immune – blood pressure connection
- Foods that boost your defenses
- How to make the body stronger
What do I do for…
We live in an epidemic of “what do I do for…” Everyone wants a simple and a quick answer. Life is too busy and too complicated. We want things the easy way and that’s exactly what gets us in trouble. Imagine a leaky sink. Water is running down the spout, flows along the edges and then ends up on the floor. You ask “what do I do for the leaking sink?” You get the answer “Wipe the water off!” Great advice! For sure it works. It works right away and it produces immediately visible results. You wipe. The sink gets dry, but not for long.
That’s not any different than garlic, ginger and vitamin C. Just as sink does not leak due to lack of wiping, you do not get recurrent colds due to lack of pills. Only when you ask the right question “WHY is the sink leaking?” you may get to the bottom of the problem: a worn out washer. Once washer is replaced your sink is good again for the next three years and you don’t have to worry about wiping it again.
Shopping therapy
Your body is not any different. If things keeps on coming back and you keep on repeating the same treatment it is a sure sign things are not working and you haven’t been asking the right question: WHY? So really why? If deficiency of garlic, ginger, and vitamin C is not the cause, then what is? What is the underlying cause of weak immune system?
Weak immune system causes
Everyone is different and there is not just one universal cause of weak immune system for everyone. You need to find your own. This is exactly what I do when people come with sniffling noses, high blood pressure, diabetes, and fatigue.
90% of our health problems are environmental and lifestyle dependent and not genetic as many people think. Thus it is good to remember that health is ultimately up to you and your actions and if your body is in need, maybe so is your lifestyle.
Before you decide on your own reason for low immune system you need to check the following:
Vitamins & minerals
- Is your body low on immune-boosting vitamins and minerals? Vitamin D, selenium, silicon and others can be tested. These and other nutrients have to be present in the body defenses to work. No amount of vitamin C will do if other immune supporting nutrients are low. The problem is your traditionally trained physician cannot help you with discovering your nutritional needs. He has no training in nutrition. For that you have to venture beyond standard clinic care.
To do:
- Self-check vit D status
- Get hair test done for a thorough heavy metal and mineral analysis
Pro-inflammatory diet
- Is your diet full of pro-inflammatory foods? Everything from salad dressing, to cereals, to fish batter contain pro-inflammatory ingredients that do not get (on purpose) advertised on the labels. You eat them you end up with inflammation: pain, sniffles, fever, body aches, and even obesity. Inflammation is underlying our progressive degeneration, yet many individuals eat pro-inflammatory diet without realizing that they cause problems themselves.
To do:
- Avoid processed and fried foods
- Avoid cooked vegetable oils and margarines
Gut flora well-being
- Are you killing off your immuno-protective flora? The protective role of gut bacteria is by now well-understood. It is the microbiota in our bodies that keeps your immune system strong. Despite that logic, slaughtering of the protective army is a norm in our society. We do it without knowing. Chlorinated tap water and pesticide residue on the foods are hidden bullets against your immunity. Unless you drink pure water and organic produce you are sure decimating your gut flora that keeps your immune system strong.
To do:
- Install water filter
- Eat organic produce
To become an expert on building iron-strong immune system read the book “Ousting Sniffles“ by DrD
