I have always tried to have a healthy immune system. I was a sickly child due to chronic allergies and tonsillitis. My Mother was unaware that I had allergies until I began having significant symptoms around her cats. I was allergy tested and the doctor told my Mother that I was allergic to dust, cats, wheat and strawberries. We lived on a dirt road with a house full of cats and ate wheat bread every day and strawberries whenever we could get them. I had severe pneumonia at age three that I still remember. It was wicked. They thought that I would surely die. I had my tonsils out at age 6 and had pneumonia again at age 7. I had bronchitis every Winter until I was 14 when our last cat died. My Mother did not believe that anyone could be allergic to food and there was no getting away from the dust on that road, until we moved away at age 9, and cats were my siblings. By the time I was 14 years old, I had been sick enough for a lifetime. Even as a much younger child, I was trying to be healthy, learning how to eat liver and spinach just because the doctor told me I needed to because I was anemic. Health has always been a priority. I learned early that our actions make all the difference in the world in our health. Getting away from the dust and the beloved Persian cat greatly improved my allergies. Being mindful to eat plenty of Iron containing foods alleviated my anemia fast. The doctor was astonished when I returned a month later with a normal red blood cell count. I have learned a thing or two along the way to healthy.
911
In this time of disease and unrest, health has to be our number one priority. I talk to people daily who refuse to take responsibility for their own well-being. All of the pills, shots and medical interventions in the world won’t save you if you don’t practice good health habits. You may squeak by an illness, even COVID, but unless you become your own health advocate and actively seek good health, another ailment will most likely get you sooner than necessary. If you want to have a good quality of life, you MUST do your part. You can continue to roll the dice and you may win sometime, but your day of reckoning is at hand sooner rather than later if you make the wrong health choices. Learn to prioritize your health and learn to live well. There are simple things that you can do to greatly improve your health and immune function.
1-DON’T SMOKE. It destroys Vitamin C and Vitamin C is an immune system booster.
2-Eat multi-colored fruits and vegetables. The colorful compounds are powerful immune system stimulants.
3-Get regular exercise. Exercise can make changes in antibodies and white blood cells which fight disease. (1)
4-Maintain a healthy weight. Excess weight increases inflammation in your body and inflammation is the beginning of almost all disease.
5-Avoid alcohol. Excessive alcohol consumption is linked to a susceptibility to pneumonia. (2)
6-Sleep-You release cytokines, proteins of the immune system during sleep.
7-WASH YOUR HANDS.
8-Cook foods thoroughly to avoid the immune system stress of food-borne infection.
9-Decrease stress, like we are always telling you, “Make your world small.”
10-Avoid added sugars. They cause inflammation and obesity which are the beginnings of many disease processes.
Told You So
These are the basic tenants of David’s Way. We promote a healthy lifestyle filled with healthy food and regular exercise that has been approved by your doctor. We advocate stress reduction at all costs. We will always tell you that YOU and you alone are responsible for the lifestyle choices that you make concerning sugar and alcohol consumption and smoking. We are not hapless victims. We navigate our lives by the decisions that we make and live, or die, with the results of those decisions. There are always exceptions to this where someone has done everything that they know to do and still tragedy befalls them, but this is rare. Even then, if you have done everything that you can to be healthy, you can weather the storm much better with strength and a measure of pride and dignity. Be responsible. If each one of us would do our best to have a strong immune system, COVID would not have as much power in the World.
(1) https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/how-to-boost-your-immune-system