The Big Four
Exercise - Exercise helps by lowering inflammation that in turn boosts the immune system and allows for a more efficient immune response. The problem is human error when exercising because of overtraining. By causing too much stress to the body, you are causing more inflammation than you can get rid of. This is very common especially with people who have type A personalities because we could call them “cortisol junkies”. These are people who are in high stress jobs that join into an intense class to cause more stress to the body. By already having stress throughout the day you are causing inflammation. Then to join a very high intense workout can cause more inflammation where when you go to sleep at night, your body can’t recover. This is also common at the beginning of the year when people tend to over train because they want to lose all the weight from the holidays. There have been times I have predicted a person will get sick within weeks because of overstressing the body. The key is to keep inflammation down.
Stress - Stress is a component that can affect your exercise, sleep, and nutrition. When someone is stressed, they are more likely not to workout, or sleep because they have things on their mind and make poor food choices because the body is going to want to relax. When cortisol is high it’s going to want something to bring it down. That's when high sugary foods come in. You want insulin to rise so that cortisol drops. Think about the way you feel when you eat a piece of cake, or when you are having a high calorie meal surrounded by great people. Your body relaxes. The good news with stress is that your mindset can control your stress levels because you can control your thoughts. This takes practice and time, but you are able to learn to enjoy things.
Nutrition - During a time like this, the best thing to do is to not lose an extreme amount of weight. A little weight is fine. Nutrition is simple, you want to stay around your maintenance calories and eat foods that don’t cause you inflammation. For some people who are obese, it may actually start to change body percent fat with working out, while staying the same weight, which in turn is immune boosting. Now if we are talking about everyday life in a different situation, to keep your immune system up, I would recommend slowly losing weight towards your goal. This will allow you to maintain a healthy weight and body percent fat, which is going to keep you the healthiest with a strong immune system. Another thing you can do is get plenty of vitamin C. You can get this through nutrient rich foods that have vitamin C and a supplement. Mega doses of vitamin C in research, recently has shown to be effective against certain viruses. The Jury is still out but adequate vitamin C has been shown to be immune boosting.
Sleep – This is one of the most important things to do because it sets up your day. For example, if you have a lack of sleep you will have a higher stress response in the morning and have more inflammation. Also, because you are in a lack of sleep your body is going to want to eat more and not workout. So how do you get better sleep? It’s quite simple. There are 3 main components: temperature, light and routine. I really want to talk about one in particular that really helps people from a mental standpoint, and a theory that is thought of to help protect against viruses. Getting light is super important when setting up your circadian rhythm. There are small proteins in the eye that relay information to the brain that it is time to be awake when sunlight hits it. This is why blue light blocking glasses really work because the blue light sends a signal to stay up. This is why laptops and phones that emit this spectrum of light make people struggle to sleep at night. This is why it’s important to put the phone down and stop working at night. But if you do have to work it’s important to get special glasses. This process will allow for melatonin to set in and allow for deep sleep. It is also theorized that because viruses don’t do well with certain UV rays, it’s good to go outside. When the flu or a virus typically hits, it is during the winter when we get less sunlight and vitamin D (which is believed also to help with viruses). Get sunlight!!!!
Just cool things I have learned
These are things I recommend learning and that I am going to implement within this year or two, but the Big four is where it's mostly where you want to be. This is like the supplements that will get you the last 5% towards your goal of being immune. I will brush through these quickly.
Extreme Warm/Cold therapy - This has been used for generations in cultures. For example, in Russia they have their kids run out in the snow in the extreme cold temperatures to help boost the immune system. Science is finally catching up to this and showing this to be true. For example, using saunas in northern Europe is showing a boost as well, because when raising core temperature, you are teaching the immune system. This is done because a core body temp rises when we are sick. The sauna artificially does that for us mimicking a fever, this is also why exercise is important. At the end of the day this is newer research which is showing promising results.
Wim Hof breathing - this is just a fun one and more recent. Learning breathing techniques can help with reducing stress and better sleep, maybe even boost the immune system. Want to see a guy control core temperature while in freezing water? Check out Wim Hof. The reason I put Wim Hof is because there are a lot of interesting things scientists are learning about the mind controlling metabolic activity, inflammation, and pain. More science is needed but showing really good results for individuals.
My recommendation - when it comes to exercise, have the least effective dose. For example, a doctor wouldn’t give you OxyContin if you had a small amount of pain. Same goes with exercise. You have to find the right dose. Everybody is at different levels so you must find yours. As far as stress goes you have to take your time and learn to focus on the positive vs the negative. Now, I could tell you even just a couple years ago if COVID-19 happened I would break down. I would have been so focused on the financial end and my kids being home making it more difficult. But instead, I choose to focus on the fact that I can spend time with my family, I can create more income by doing different things to get me through a tough time, and I get to write blogs which I really enjoy doing because I get to put thoughts on paper about a subject that matters to me and can help people. As far as nutrition goes, just be mindful of what you’re eating and pay attention to how you feel when you eat certain foods. Journaling really helps out and tracking food really helps out. For example, pizza during this time causes me a lot of inflammation, so I probably should stay away from that during this time. If you are able to, at this time, go outside and get sunlight, this is the perfect time to at least get 30 min of sunlight throughout the day to set your circadian rhythm and add some vitamin D in your life. Of course, do it safely and practice social distancing. Sleep is very important and underrated in many aspects.
If you notice each part affects another. If you are struggling to understand what to do for yourself, please contact me. Also don’t try to do everything at once. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will better habits for yourself. IT TAKES TIME!
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