We often think of the immune system as a single entity, but that is far from reality. It is a whole bunch of things, like the U.S. Military. The U.S. military has multiple functions, although generally it has the task of protection of the country – there is the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, as well as the National Guard. When they fight, they don’t just go in and kill everyone, they have to kill only enemy combatants, and not kill those who don’t pose a threat. Moreover, there are a lot of support staff, as many as ten times the number of soldiers. There is also overlap, for example, the Army has more flying machines than the Air Force, and the Navy and Marines have less. Each has different types of weapons that are specialized to their needs.

This is a great analogy of the immune system. We think of it as our soldiers fighting off the little micro-enemies that constantly threaten to invade our bodies, but it is so much more. Much of the immune system is like janitors, military police, and disposal services for the body. When cells are disabled, infected, or dead, the immune system cleans up the mess, taking out the compromised cells. When our own cells go rogue and stop being what they are supposed to be and doing what they are supposed to do, the immune system takes them out, preventing cancer from growing. Amazingly, if one part of the immune system is compromised, the other parts can take over the function… but not as efficiently.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Commander-in-Chief, is the brain, which controls every regiment. You need a good working brain for the immune system to function well. Without good leadership, the immune system goes crazy with lots of “friendly fire” called autoimmune diseases. You must keep order, with every part of the system functioning well, doing their own job, and keeping the body clean and free of invasion from within and without.

How To Run an Army

You don’t have to be a West Point graduate with honors to keep a good immune system. It’s part of the AUTONOMIC nervous system, and runs very well on its own – as long as it has the resources it needs. Give the army all it’s supplies, and they will do their job well – but deny them ammo, guns, food, or transportation, and they will flounder! Remember, “For want of a nail, the kingdom was lost!” So, your only job is to give your military everything it needs to function well.

• Proper nutrition.
• Rest
• Avoid toxins
• Stress reduction

The basics are easy:

• Sleep 8 hours a night, in bed by 10pm;
• Practice intermittent fasting; no food for periods of 16+ hours;
• Minimize sugar and artificial sweeteners;
• Practice love, pursue peace and walk in forgiveness;
• Load up on zinc, vitamin C, vitamin D

These will turbo-charge your immunity:

Meditation:

Meditation is not an empty mind, but rather a focused mind. Stop multi-tasking! Start your meditation practice. Remember that there are many different forms of meditation. If you do yoga, that’s fine. Transcendental meditation works as well. Prayer is meditation focused on God, and is a great way to meditate for thirty minutes twice per day – a wonderful way to connect with the Infinite!

Exercise:

Exercise helps the brain, and all areas of the immune system. It keeps the hormones balanced and relieves stress. It can prevent cancer, as well as many kinds of infections. Physical activity is also essential to prevent aging. The exercise you do will depend upon what you enjoy. Find what you like to do. Walking is fine, but you get better results with short bursts of high-intensity exercise like interval training. Work up to a level that builds muscle, don’t try to do it all at once. Find time every day to exercise.

Other supplements that will improve immune function:

We often think antibiotics are going to fix everything, but they only work on the bacteria – they don’t work for viruses, nor do they help your immune system. Mushrooms and herbs have been used for centuries to fight infections and prevent illness by assisting army to fight. Some of these include:

• Reishi mushrooms activate the white blood cells to help them remove threats including infections and cancer.
• Echinacea increases white blood cells and prevents viral infections.
• Elderberry increased TNF-alpha by 44 times to increase the immune response to pathogens.
• Green tea has EGCG and catechins that help the cellular immunity to prevent and get rid of cancer cells.
• Quercetin is a free-radical scavenger, decreases allergy and increases viral response while lowering cytokines.
• Vitamin E lowers inflammation in the cell membranes.
• N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) is essential for glutathione production to decrease the inflammatory response.

It should be noted that several of these suppress inflammation while increasing immunity. This is important because most of the time people with viruses don’t die or get really sick from the virus itself, but rather from the immune response. For example, in COVID-19 the virus is relatively harmless, but can set off a “cytokine storm” that overwhelms the body and causes death. It’s like the army dropping an atom bomb on a whole city because they found one enemy soldier in it. This balance is essential for the immune system to get rid of the virus without killing the body by a huge reaction.

A good and functional immune system is amazing in its ability to keep the body free from enemies. The methods above will help to keep you safe from COVID-19, as well as all the other flu viruses. Moreover, while you may be exposed, and even get the virus, your response will be able to clear it without doing damage to your body.

Scott Saunders, MD

Photo by British Library on Unsplash