My philosophy on good health is simple: every small choice counts. It is not about waking up one day and deciding to eat an apple because you read that apples are healthy, or squeezing a lemon into your water because it has vitamin C and that will bring your health back. It does not work like that. What works is consistency, small changes made incrementally, and baby steps taken every single day.
To make those choices well, it helps to understand what you are supporting. So let me start with the immune system itself, and then the everyday habits that quietly undermine it.
A network, not an organ
The human immune system is a network of cells and proteins that helps the body fight disease and infection. It is not in one place. It is distributed all over the body, with a seamless system of communication about when to do what. We walk away from exposures every single day without getting infected, and we never notice. That is the immune system doing its job.
We are born with this system. If something is going wrong, we are probably not doing enough to let it work. That is what this whole series is about: supporting the body so it can do what it already knows how to do.
The immune system also has a memory. It remembers who has visited, communicates that to the rest of the army, and the next time that visitor shows up, the body knows how to handle it. When the system goes out of balance, that is when we see allergies, autoimmune conditions, and immunodeficiencies.
The main players
You do not need every detail, just an outline.
- White blood cells are the soldiers. T cells and B cells handle viral and bacterial invasions, and they are also our memory cells.
- Antibodies are what everyone talks about when they say "I need to get my antibody count up." They have a very specific role.
- The lymphatic system runs throughout the body.
- The mucus lining is a first line of defense. It slows down anything foreign, captures it, and deals with it.
- The spleen and thymus filter the blood, and the bone marrow is where much of this begins.
Your first line of defense
Before any of those cells get involved, the body has physical and chemical barriers.
The skin is a waterproof barrier with a slightly acidic pH and oils that kill bacteria. The phlegm in your lungs is there for a reason: to trap an invader so you can cough it out. Your stomach releases acid at a pH of around 3 the moment you eat, because our ancestors ate food straight from the dirt and the stomach had to deal with mold and bacteria. It still does. Saliva, tears, the urinary tract, and the bowel all help remove what does not belong.
Why a low fever is your friend
When we see 102 or 103 on the thermometer, we go into high alert and reach for medication. Sometimes we have to, because we do not want the brain and other organs under too much stress. But a low fever of 100 or 101 is your body doing exactly what it is meant to do. It is studying the intruder, working out how it behaves, so it can have its guard up next time. Going through a low fever is part of the immune system learning.
How clever the enemy is
Pathogens, the bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms that cause disease, know we are intelligent. They know we can tag them and hunt them down. So they camouflage themselves as our own tissue. They hide in crevices and in calcium structures. And if they can get through a cell wall, they use our own DNA to make copies of themselves. That is when we say the body has been hijacked.
Three habits that weaken the system
Many things weaken immunity, but three of them we do regularly.
Direct sugar. The white stuff we add to tea, coffee, and desserts. There are guidelines on how much is acceptable. My view is that the best amount is none.
Hidden sugar. Processed food is easy to eat, easy to prepare, and easy to store, which suits both the seller and the buyer. Breads, pastas, and refined carbohydrates convert to sugar just the same. That is the hidden sugar.
Poor quality oils. Most packaged and restaurant food is made with canola, cottonseed, soybean, safflower, sunflower, or grapeseed oil. Read any label and you will find them. These oils are high in omega-6 fatty acids. We need a little omega-6, and we can get it from whole foods like sunflower seeds and sesame seeds. However, when we overdo omega-6 through oils and do not balance it with omega-3, the result is inflammation and a compromised immune system.
Awareness is the first step. Once you know what you are looking at on a label, the choice becomes easier. In the rest of this series, I will go through what strengthens the system: the vitamins, minerals, probiotics, booster foods, and lifestyle habits that let your body do its work.
This post is adapted from my webinar "Strengthening Our Immunity." Watch the full talk on YouTube →