Nobody likes to get sick, especially active individuals who are always on the go, like me. As I sit here and write this I am recovering from our family's first good a$$ whooping of the winter months. Myself, and both kids are in the sick ward (aka living room) and not happy about it! Considering how much sickness there's been in and out of the gym and the schools over the last few months I think we did alright to avoid it up until this point.
Although, I must admit that thankfully, Mom is not included with this one, (insert wood knocking here) which is a good thing for all of us! When Mom goes down life as we know it deteriorates quickly!
Here's a few strategies I/we employ in our house to help supercharge our immune systems and keep us as durable as possible throughout the year.
1) Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate!
This is so simple but yet so many people walk around chronically dehydrated each day, and as a result our body is ill prepared at every level, compromising our immune systems ability to fight back. When you're dehydrated, among other things, your lymph system is not able to transport immune cells and dead cellular debris through the body, making it harder to recover from illness. It's kind of like having clogged drains in your home, not allowing waste such as dead blood cells, toxins, cancer cells and other toxic materials to flow out while also not allowing the good stuff such as white blood cells, vitamins and minerals to get where they need to go.
Strategy: Drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water each day. I bet I say this at least a handful of times each week to our clients and athletes. Admittedly I struggle at times as well. To avoid the nasties in the tap water at the gym, (sorry but it's true), I have started bringing a 1/2 gallon stainless steel jug of water with me to work each day with water filtered through our Hydroiv water filter. I also try like hell to get 25% of my daily water intake in the first hour that I'm awake.
2) Move your body!
One of the most effective ways to move lymph and other fluids & byproducts through your body is to actually move your body. This is important both before, prophylactically, and also during any bout with sickness.
Strategy: Go for a walk, ride a stationary bike, do some jumping jacks (jumping and bouncing is very effective), swimming, bodyweight squats & lunges, etc. will help with lymph flow and drainage so you can be more durable when hit up side yo head with a "bug" and also recover faster when it gets the best of you. If not too sick, I would recommend working hard enough and long enough to get a sweat going as this will further help eliminate toxins from your body. Today, my daughter and I went out for a 15 minute snowshoe and did some basic bodyweight strength movements to help get things moving. Yet another reason we must adhere to moving our body and sweating every day!
3) Bone Broth Magic
As I write this I am surrounded by the savory smells of a fresh pot of bone broth on the stove. Full of amino acids such as glutamine, arginine, and glycine which are vital to immune system response and function. Immune system aside, bone broth supplementation is a solid choice to enhance joint heath and function due to the more collagenous, "gristly bits" and the bone marrow found in a good batch. Bone broth is also full of health promoting properties that have been known to help your digestive system, reduce inflammation, improve skin health, fortify joints, and provide a boost of vitamins A, B2, B12, and E and minerals such as iron, calcium and zinc. It's also rich in lipids called alkylglycerols which are really important for the production of white blood cells which are vital to our immune system health. For those wondering, no you cannot get all that good stuff from vegetable stock. I'm sure your grandma was a big fan, and likely her recipe came from generations of grammies or grandpas before her as it's been consumed by our ancestors for thousands of years.
Strategy: It's really simple to make, you just need to source some good bones, preferably the "knuckles", from grass fed and finished cattle or poultry here's a simple recipe I use.
When we don't have the homemade stuff we use Kettle and Fire brand which is ethically sourced from grass fed and finished animals.
4) Fermented Foods
Some will say that 2/3 or more of your immune system is located in your gut. Essentially having a healthy gut biome will help regulate the bacteria we need to control nutrient absorption, a healthy mucosal lining of the gut and ultimately our immune function. There's a lot more to it than I have time for in this post, but our gut, in many ways, is the second brain of the body as the enteric nervous system that both controls gut function and communicates with the brain. Ever had butterflies in your stomach when you are nervous or anxious? Pretty strong connection there eh? There are tons of methods for supporting healthy gut function and in turn keeping you more durable to sickness and disease, one of which is the consumption of fermented foods such as kimchi, sauerkraut, yogurt or kefir. Having a daily dose of fermented foods each day has been shown to be a game changer in promoting a healthy gut while helping with the production of antibodies that help battle known toxins and even help with autoimmune symptoms.
Strategy: Start incorporating fermented foods such as those listed above in your diet. Just be sure to do your homework and source them from companies with organic and glyphosate free ingredients. We use Real Pickles Sauerkraut and Butterworks Farm kefir. I'm a big fan of mixing 5g of creatine monohydrate and 2-3oz of Kefir in 12oz of Raw Milk that we source from Sunday Bell Farm. I mix it with a frother and consume 3-4 days a week after a training session.
5) Helpful supplements I take:
The following vitamins are part of my daily or weekly routine and I feel are quite helpful in keeping my immune system at it's best.
1) Every day - Beef organs, either raw sourced from grass fed and finished cows and put in a shake, or desiccated from Heart and Soil supplements. Since I started taking the Histamine & Immune supplement that Heart & Soil offers over 2 years ago I no longer have to take those nasty allergy medications such as Claritin or Zyrtec. I also feel this is a big factor in my immune system health throughout the year. Beef organs are full of fat soluble vitamins A,D,K & E, iron, B vitamins, riboflavin, zinc and other health promoting properties. Organ meats and raw milk are natures multivitamins!
2) Every day - 500mg Vitamin C. Some research shows high doses of Vit C, 1000mg and up can be even more effective for immune response and tissue recovery. However, ingesting too much and you risk gastro intestinal stress which is a big downside to immune health.
3) Seasonal - 5000iu of Vitamin D3 during the winter months. In the summer I just get out in the sun and eat my organ supplements. I use Thorne brand for Vit D.
4) 2-3 days/week - Bovine Colostrum from Heart and Soil supplements. Colostrum is full of antibodies that provide a boost of antibodies IgG, IgA and IgM which play a big role in battling pathogens in the intestinal lining that can lead to issues such as leaky gut. Interestingly, there's also some evidence to support supplementation with colostrum to help stave off gastrointestinal distress from exercising in the heat and improve performance and recovery. Pretty cool! And no, cow farts are not responsible for global warming. Taylor Swift's private jet is.
6) Not to be left out:
Sleep: I would be remiss to not make mention of a few extremely important factors for our immune system's durability and also our metabolic health. Sleep is such an important component in cellular metabolism and essential to the performance of literally every system in the human body. Some studies show that adults need 7+ hours each night of uninterrupted sleep. Not only will you be healthier but you will also live longer while increasing your health span. Health span refers to the number of years you can live in good health, free from age related disease and sickness. Basically allowing you to do all the things you love for longer. Some studies also show that more than 8.5 hours of sleep/night actually correlates with shorter life expectancy. So 7-8hrs is the sweet spot for adults.
Consume whole foods: Eating highly processed foods will destroy your metabolic health and durability, ruin your gut biome, and lead to a suppressed immune system as a result. Eat a whole food diet of foods that grow in the dirt or walk on the dirt, and preferably a combination of both. Just like our ancestors did! Rid your diet of highly processed seed oils & vegetable oils and the refined sugars found in highly processed foods. Don't wait on this one! Those seed oils are really really bad and should be removed immediately. If you want to learn more about the health risks of seed oils pick up a copy of Dark Calories by Catherine Shanahan. Be ready to be both mad and also relieved when you learn how terrible these calories and chemicals are for you and what strategies you can implement today to change. C & C is what we call them in our house, because it's actually not food.
I hope you all find a morsel of information from this list of immune system hacks that our family employs on the regular. We're certainly not perfect, but I like to think that 98% of the time we are and that makes the other 2% not so bad. I also hope you are inspired to dive into your own research on the topic and develop a plan for your family that will lead to improved immune system health and performance for many years to come.
Adrian Guyer CSCS, NSCA CPT, RSCC, USAW2, CSAC
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