How To Boost The Immune System

The Seat Of Immunity

ThymocytesWhy do some people seem to catch everything going around, while others rarely get ill? There are reasons we can identify.

Some newer and perhaps surprising answers lie within, so read on.

We are multi-faceted as human beings. We have health that is mental, emotional and spiritual; physical and structural; and chemical and nutritional. In natural health and chiropractic science, we call these three the "triangle of health". Do all these elements have a potential effect on our immunity? By actual observation of many thousands of individuals, the answer is clearly yes. [Image at left: Thymic Nurse Cell - See Credit Below}

STRESS

"Stress", ongoing mental turmoil, emotional suppression clearly can run a person down. Getting this area sorted out, in those cases in which it is the source of immunity's failure, will be key. (Note: Your stress-responding system can also be boosted nutritionally.)

STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS

People with structural problems frequently suffer recurrent illnesses. Pain is not the only symptom of pinched nerves, not by a long shot. Witness the fact of our patients with recurrent bronchitis, strep throats, urinary infections, ear infections, skin infections, pneumonias, or colds who have been restored to strong health by correcting the pinched nerves in their spines. Those nerves we "fix" go to the organs that have been causing recurrent sickness. That's right. Many people with chronic illnesses and infections are dramatically cured by chiropractic care. This is done with chiropractic adjustments, causing the nerves that run the body, including its defenses, to be restored to normal function.

CHEMICAL AND NUTRITIONAL CAUSES

What of the chemical and nutritional side? It can be of great importance in turning around infections, new or chronic, and winning. Over and again, we help our patients fight disease and get well by using nutritional supplements.

One of the surprising facts of our immune system is how its seat has been found to be in the intestinal tract. There, the lining of our intestines and its health plays a central role in how well we fight disease. We've known for a long time that the health of friendly bacteria in our large intestines can make a huge difference in fighting infections, in staying well, in keeping allergies and asthma away. These facts have now been proven in medical studies and published in the most respected medical journals.

A very successful approach we have been using are the nutritional supplements which wipe out the bad bacteria from the intestines. One of them is an extract of a type of rhubarb. This natural product kills off the bad guys. Afterwards we can replace lots of the good guys by giving you a superior friendly bacteria product (a strong bifidus and acidophilus supplement).

Sometimes we notice that the patient has symptoms of upset digestion when they are sick. This is often another clue that the approach described above is the one of choice.

When you are sick: Are drugs better? Is nutrition better? These seem simple questions, but may require understanding the actual illness, and what dangers lie therein, to determine the right choices.

When possible to be used alone, the nutritional approach has several great advantages. One is that nutrients are non-toxic and therefore usually free of nasty side-effects. Drugs, on the other hand, almost all have side-effects, sometimes as bad or worse than the illness they treat!

Antibiotics can be a fast way to get a bug out of your body. But sometimes they don't work on the type of bacteria you have. They don't work at all on viruses, which are never killed by antibiotics. Sometimes they take too long, or just can't get the upper hand when the body's own health level isn't up to speed. They also are indiscriminate and kill the good bacteria that are necessary for health, while they are killing the bad. Antibiotics have been shown to lower the body's own immune effectiveness.

The one time in my life when I was desperately ill, with viral meningitis, no medicine, drugs or medical doctors could make a dent in the high fever or desperate pain it caused. The only substance that cured me, and dramatically fast, was wheat grass juice, yet another nutritional booster of immunity.

I am reminded of an amazing patient, who was plagued with bone infections ("osteomyelitis") after an injury and surgery to her ankle. Over a year later, the infection still raged on, eating through and destroying the tissues of her joints. Antibiotics, even repeatedly dripped into her by her medical doctors, could not control or kill this infection. She couldn't walk. I matched her with the right herb, and she was rapidly cured, the infection gone, for good.

We always carry a number of different types of nutritional products for the restoration of strong healthy immunity. Choosing which are right for you is part of the art of health care. Our Medical Doctor on our staff can prescribe medications when needed, but usually our patients do best with the non-drug approach. Time and again, it is the natural approach that changes the life of a sickly individual. Drugs and antibiotics don't ever seem to be able to do that. At best drugs can help a person get over an infection temporarily. But because they only weaken your own internal immune system, and don't strengthen it, they often leave the person more vulnerable to the next attack.

It's the smart individual who learns what resources exist to keep their own immune system, organs, and blood cells strong naturally. You are much smarter to not rely on drug companies to provide the first line of defense in this super-important area of health.

Related writings: See "Cold and Flu Season", "Epstein Barr Virus", "Sinus Misery", "Adrenal Glands".

 

 

 [Above: Image Of Thymic Nurse Cell Thanks To Jing-A-Ling at Flickr.com.]


Universal City Medical Wellness Group (UCMWG) is a Multidisciplinary & Complementary Alternative Medical Group near Universal Studios, Studio City, Hollywood, North Hollywood, Burbank & Toluca Lake, in L.A.

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