What about your immunity?

I hear a lot of talk about the various illnesses that seem to flow freely throughout our small community. When it comes to the flu or any other common community ailment, it seems that paranoia is the most common denominator for all equations.   Hand sanitizers, masks and sterilizing all contact surfaces seems to be the order of the day.  I overheard a conversation at the High School the other day and the topic was in regard to the actual number of times a person should rub their hands together while washing in order to effectively kill all the germs on their hands.   It seems like it was around forty-five times.   I don't know about you but all that seems a bit ridiculous to me.  It's like a commander in battle telling his troops fighting from foxholes to drop their weapons and quickly organize their ammunition and grenades into neat little rows of six and if they will do this, they will be more effective against oncoming attacks.

Why are we living in fear of the common flu?  Why does it seem to get a little worse every year?   Might I be so forward as to suggest that it could be due to the fact that our collective immunity to such things is becoming weaker?  There is no other logical answer.

Your immune system is only as good as the fuel you provide for it.  Doesn't that make sense?  It's not magical and it is definitely not self sustaining.  Just like our military forces, it must be daily fortified and supplied in order to be effective.   I am also a firm believer that we do ourselves no favors when we give in to the paranoia of today's sanitizing frenzy.   Our immune system relies upon all the things your body comes into contact with daily in order to develop an immunity or a resistance to all the enemies that are floating around out there.  In other words, daily skirmishes and encounters with the enemy will provide a whole lot more knowledge and experience with the enemy than a major battle every nine months.  If your house is completely sanitized and germ free and you spend a couple of months in there without any exposure to the outside world and then you decide to go to the school Christmas party  . . . . . . . you are expecting your immune system to go from 0 to 60  in three seconds.   It doesn't work very well that way.

There are things you can do to boost the strength of your immune system and your body's ability to overcome illness.  Primarily it is done through diet.   The quality and quantity of nutrients, vitamins and minerals you provide your body will directly affect it's ability to react to and fight illness effectively.

I am a prime example of this philosophy.  When I was in my thirties, my immune system must have been extremely vulnerable.  Every time our family contracted the flu, I would generally get it three times as bad as any other member of the family. When the cough settled into my chest, I would cough and hack for weeks before I began to get any better.  Usually I was in bed for two or three days in the beginning.  I dreaded the flu; it became a matter of endurance and greatly affected my ability to work effectively or interact with the family.

As I have mentioned earlier, I have had the good fortune three years ago to be introduced to a food science company that provides nutritional products that are designed to provide the body with every conceivable form of quality nutrition known to man in a highly absorb able format.   Since I began taking advantage of these products, I have not been sick with the flu or any other malady for a single day - in three years.  Knowing my history with such things, that is incredible indeed.  Now when the flu comes around, I will get a very faint dose of each symptom; just enough to know that I have the flu but not enough to make me uncomfortable at all.  I will cycle through all of the symptoms and within two days, it is gone.  So, the flu does come to visit but my body kicks it out as fast as it arrives.   Now that is a happy story - life as it should be; good health from a position of strength rather than just being a victim every time some germ comes floating by.

Great health and vitality is possible.  You just have to open up your mind and think in order to turn the tide.