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Far 2 Fabulous
Join Catherine & Julie, your feisty hosts at Far 2 Fabulous, as they lead you on a wellness revolution to embrace your fabulousness.
Julie, a Registered Nutritional Therapist with over 20 years of expertise, and Catherine, a former nurse turned Pilates Instructor and Vitality Coach, blend wisdom and laughter seamlessly.
Off the air, catch them harmonising in their local choir and dancing to 80's hits in superhero attire. Catherine braves the sea for year-round swims, while Julie flips and tumbles in ongoing gymnastics escapades.
With a shared passion for women's health and well-being, they bring you an engaging exploration of health, life, and laughter. Join us on this adventure toward a more fabulous and empowered you!
Far 2 Fabulous
Enhancing Immunity: The Power of Nutrition and Lifestyle Choices for Optimal Health
Unlock the secrets to a resilient immune system as we navigate the complexities of your body's defenses. Ever wondered why some people breeze through flu season while others are constantly under the weather? Discover the powerful trio of barrier, innate, and adaptive systems keeping you protected, and learn how your skin, lungs, and digestive tract form the first line of defense. We unravel the mystery of why white blood cells and phagocytes are crucial, and why understanding these mechanisms can significantly boost your well-being, especially when illness is on the rise.
Venture with us into the world of vital nutrients, where vitamin D and fiber play starring roles in fortifying your immune system. We tackle the intriguing chicken-or-egg dilemma of vitamin D deficiency and respiratory health, emphasizing the often overlooked importance of optimal vitamin D levels during the sun-scarce UK winters. Fiber's anti-inflammatory prowess and its pivotal role in gut health are also put under the spotlight, urging a reevaluation of standard nutritional guidelines. These insights are crucial for those aiming to support their body's natural defenses through mindful dietary choices.
Join our exploration of how lifestyle choices impact immunity, with a focus on stress, diet, and innovative wellness practices. From the overlooked lymphatic system to the surprising benefits of cold showers and infrared saunas, we highlight simple yet effective methods to bolster your immune function. Delve into the unexpected connections between emotions, eating habits, and immune response, and uncover the ancient wisdom behind practices like thymus gland tapping. This episode is packed with practical advice, aiming to equip you with the knowledge to reduce sick days and enhance your overall health.
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Welcome to Far Too Fabulous hosted by Julie and Catherine.
Speaker 2:Join us on a mission to embrace your fabulousness and redefine wellness. Get ready for some feistiness, inspiration, candy chats and humour as we journey together towards empowered well-being. Let's dive in.
Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. Now this week we are going to be talking about the immune system and how to well support yourself when it's a time of year when everyone seems to be getting ill.
Speaker 2:Yeah kids have gone back to school and you know how they like to share those snot and germs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they certainly do so. Yeah, so we're going to talk about the immune system and explain first how it works. So there are three main parts of your immune system. So we're going to talk about the immune system and explain first how it works. So there are three main parts of your immune system that we're going to discuss. We've got the barrier, the innate immune system and the adaptive immune system. Do you know what they are?
Speaker 2:Catherine, I have no idea. I mean, I could stab at them, but tell us.
Speaker 1:So the barrier is really, it does what it says on the tin, right, the skin which is our largest organ, by the way is a major barrier. So when we're looking at what's happening with our immune system, we're basically kind of making sure that our body can deal with anything foreign that comes in that shouldn't really be there or has no place to be there or needs to be dealt with. So obviously, the skin is is a major barrier. And the lungs you wouldn't necessarily think that, would you? No, I wouldn't have put it second. Definitely, yeah, but we have these like tiny little hairs that move around in the lungs and they, when we breathe things in, they act as a barrier because they expel all those little particles, anything that irritates us when we're breathing.
Speaker 2:basically, yeah, I was thinking about um when we got went back to talking about um hay fever one episode and we were talking about like breathing through the nose and things like that, so yeah, so I kind of picture that whole that whole system being a protection for you. It's interesting to talk about the skin and things like that. So, yeah, so I kind of picture that whole that whole system being a protection for you. It's interesting to talk about the skin and and like really looking after the skin, because when I was nursing, often you'd get the elderly with their either very frail skin or, if they've been on steroids, really really like paper, paper, thin, thin, yep, and really having to emphasize that they have to look after their skin because that's a direct once that barrier is broken for things like cellulitis and stuff that just then go bonkers on the legs.
Speaker 1:It's really important. It's a major, major barrier. We've got the digestive system because every single day, we put something from the outside in, don't we?
Speaker 1:yeah yeah, so we've got a. There's a barrier in the lining of the digestive system that that acts as a filter, so it only supposed to let things in that are recognizable, unless we've done things in our lifestyle that's damaged the gut lining. But we have spoken about this before, about the acid in the stomach is a major barrier because, as we know, acids are harsh and things can't survive in acid yeah, so if you're taking your omeprazole, your lansoprazole? Yeah, you've. You've destroyed a major part of the immune system I think that's interesting.
Speaker 2:I was thinking about the uh, that that particular barrier, today as I was swimming in the sea and uh, thinking that there may have been a uh, a release into the sea. I was keeping my mouth closed, but you never know what's gonna uh, gonna get onto your lips and things, and um, yeah, and and hoping that that barrier is working very well for me yeah, especially given all the rain, yeah, in the last day or so.
Speaker 1:So the eyes we've got our tears that also keep things out. Yeah, wash them away. And we've got mucus in our nose and our mouth does the same sort of thing. And again, we've spoken about the nose and how it really does act as a brilliant barrier, but we've got to. Really it's better than the lungs, so we've got to breathe through our nose, yeah, to support our immune system. And then, when we're looking at the urinary tract, we have bacteria there that protect us because, again, that's an area that is exposed. The same with the genitalia. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So that was the first layer. Oh, how many layers are there? There's three. Oh, this is exciting, I know, but it's good to know this stuff. I think it is definitely so.
Speaker 1:The second layer is the innate immune system. So the innate immune system is the innate immune system, is the one that you're born with and so it's not adaptive. It stays as it is. It's what you bring over from your parents, basically, and so we have our white blood cells there, which kind of act like the security guards. They're keeping an eye on things. And then we have phagocytes that kind of act like the security guards. They're keeping an eye on things. And then we have phagocytes, that kind of look for things that shouldn't be there and then consume them. Then we have temperature, which we will come on to again later, because temperature is a really amazing part of the innate immune system. And if you think about children, young children, they don't have an adaptive immune system when they're young, because that comes as you, as you experience life. They rely a lot on temperature, yeah, don't they? And the first thing that happens, isn't it yeah?
Speaker 1:yeah, and that is such a brilliant mechanism by the immune system. Yeah, and we can. We can utilize that ourselves, but most of the time, as an adult, we don't always get that in a response. We get the adaptive response and it's different. But we can use temperature because, again, if we think about it, things don't like to be too hot or too cold, so then we can kill them.
Speaker 2:The same as the acid will kill am I jumping the gun already when I talk about kids and temperature and suppressing it with things like cow poll?
Speaker 1:yeah, um, no, go for it, not very helpful no, it really isn't, because again, you're interfering with their natural response. And although we're we, I think we need to be aware that if the temperature goes over a certain point in some children it can trigger some issues. But actually, even if it does trigger a seizure or a response, it's not normally harmful for children and there are only a small percentage that do react like that. But we should allow their temperature to go up because that's how they're dealing with something. So getting the cowpull out straight away is not.
Speaker 2:No, it's definitely very much about, but about monitoring it, and I there is a study and I think that it. I think that if you don't reduce the temperature, your your kind of cold or flu-like symptoms are actually something like two days shorter yeah, and it's, and it is a balancing act.
Speaker 2:I know that when your children are uncomfortable or they're miserable, that you want to give them cowpoles and make them feel more comfortable, because when that temperature comes down you know that they suddenly feel much better. And I know in me, when I've had a high temperature and you feel like your eyes are hot and you're just achy, taking the, the paracetamol, for symptom control really, really does help. But there's that, there's that balancing act. Isn't there between you're allowing your body to do what it's designed to do and go and and go battle the bugs yeah, yeah, it's such an important one.
Speaker 1:And then we have inflammation. So the best way to think about this is if you cut your finger, you get an inflammatory response. That's the innate immune system and we want that because we need our cut to heal, yeah, but if we get too much inflammation, because it attracts the big army it's a bit like when we trigger inflammation. It it's like we just put in, we've got a nuclear bomb out to deal with a very small situation. It attracts that. Everything comes out the massive army. And then we need our immune system be able to instruct the army stand down. Yeah, when we get inflammation out of control, we get autoimmunity. We lose the ability to tell the army to stand down. That's what happens that's really interesting.
Speaker 2:And if you're thinking about um, that, that cut, and you're thinking about temperature, we often talked about this when I did a bit of district nursing and having that temperature as part of the healing process of of a cut or a wound, so having like keep cleaning things, keep pulling plasters off of things, is actually no good. You need to be able to create that environment for that wound to get up to a certain temperature for it to be able to to heal. And it's really interesting when you're like you to people talk about like drying things out and all that stuff. Actually, to a certain degree, that wound needs that heat, that sort of squidgy, sloughiness, to be able to heal within. So that was our second layer. What's our third?
Speaker 1:layer, julie. So the third layer we've already touched on is the adaptive part of the immune system. So now we get different types of um cells in within the white blood, we get lymphocytes, which are our antibodies, and our t-cells, and we get these amazing immune system members I guess you could call them that are specific targeted immune cells. So they know they have, like they know exactly what they're dealing with. They're like the specialists they deal with something and only one thing and they go out and they deal with that. Then we have memory cells. So that's the body going. Oh, I had this illness before. I did this and this. I've recalled that. I've looked that that worked. And then you have these cells that are memory cells and then you have cell suicide. So if a cell gets infected or it knows that it's not right and it's gone rogue, it can self-combust. I find that amazing.
Speaker 2:That's incredible isn't it, but I mean we are. We are designed so incredibly to survive and and I and I think we kind of we lose this trust in our body because modern medicine is so incredible. We lose this trust in our body and we forget that that it does all these things to support us yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1:I think we do forget there is an overlap between the innate and adaptive immunity systems as well, so they're not operating separately. The innate one is normally the fast reactive one, that's the one that comes in first and if it is working as it should, it will often deal with something before you even realize. So sometimes when you get that feeling like oh, I feel like I've got a cold, yeah, and then the next day like oh, I don't know what that was, I feel fine, that may be because the innate immune systems come in and just dealt with it. If it goes on longer, then you find that the adaptive one kicks in. So we want both working. So if we do get that temperature and we suppress it, we might suppress the innate immune system. And then the adaptive one's like oh guys, come on, you didn't do your job, now have to come in, yeah, and do the job for you.
Speaker 2:The specialist bit. Yeah, absolutely yeah, because I mean the temperature I'm guessing is is. I sounded like joshua binks, I'm guessing. Yeah, you did a bit, it's the. The temperature is almost that um alarm signal to your body to go come on, we need to do something about this, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1:So there are some specific things that we can, can use or we've got that can help support, though, the function of our immune system, whether that's the barrier, whether it's the na, whether it's the adaptive. So we've got to talk about vitamin d. Okay, because it is the. I guess you would call it like the, the regulator. It modulates the immune system. So it actually, although it's called a vitamin, it acts more like a hormone in the body and it will kind of keep the immune system down a bit. If it's called a vitamin, it acts more like a hormone in the body and it will kind of keep the immune system down a bit if it's gone a bit too much, yeah, or it will lift it up a bit if it's not enough. So it's a really, really key one. People with respiratory diseases often have low vitamin d because there's a very strong connection with the lungs and deficiency is quite common, which came first the deficiency or the problem?
Speaker 2:Good question.
Speaker 1:Chicken or the egg. Yeah, probably the deficiency. I reckon, yeah, I reckon the deficiency will come first. So, yeah, if we've got the innate immune system, that first line of defence and it's activating those parts of the immune system, what we want is the vitamin D binds to these cells and it allows the gene to express itself better at killing the pathogen that's in the body. Wow, so it's really important. And at this time of year in the uk where we've lost our sun although we spoke about not having much sun in the summer anyway what's what's sun? Julia?
Speaker 1:I don't know what you're saying to me what is sun?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we get vitamin d mostly from the sun. If we don't have the sun and of course in the winter we don't get the sun anyway, or it's not strong enough even when it comes out Then we don't make enough vitamin D and our blood level will be low. So when we're looking at blood level on vitamin D, the range with the doctor again is not optimal health, that's just. You know, you've not got rickets, so you're okay, right, yeah, but it's not looking at optimal health. So really, for optimal levels, we want to be over 50, maybe even at 100 on that, on that result. But yeah, you may find that if you get a vitamin d test done through the doctor and you're at the 25, they might actually say you're okay, yeah, but not for optimal health and not for regulating the immune system yeah, but and that's really interesting to keep in mind, isn't it that the parameters that they work by are quite low and for you to be like really vital that perhaps they need to be much, much higher?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's a bit like with um recommended daily allowances for vitamins and minerals anyway isn't it. I mean, it's the, the vitamin c. One always makes me laugh because it literally the amount of vitamin c you need to not get scurvy is the figure, but vitamin c is needed everywhere. So we would need around a thousand milligrams upwards of that, but the recommended daily allowance is like 60.
Speaker 2:Yeah and I mean how old are these figures? Have they been revised? In this modern crazy world, like with all the stress and and and toxins and stuff they do, they take I'm I'm just saying this out into the universe. I am pretty sure they don't take that into consideration?
Speaker 1:I don't think they do, but I tell you this is. This is amusing is that the they do um review the numbers and the numbers have got smaller and it's because they they're viewing the whole population and they don't want more and more people being deficient, and so they alter the range that is acceptable.
Speaker 2:That's bonkers, I know so you end up with a group of people that do not have what they need to support themselves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly because they might be at the low end of the range and the range is already low. How does that serve anybody? I know, I know, but that's what's happened and it's in line with things like the nutrients depleted in the soil. Yeah, and the way that the the government. Again, they don't want to address the bigger picture ever, do they? No?
Speaker 2:so they just adjusted the rdas and actually lowered a lot of the amounts for the nutrients oh, I'm surprised they don't go the other way and the pharmaceutical companies don't jump on board and make lots of money out of us anyway.
Speaker 1:For another day so vitamin d immune modulator we need it, but we need to know our levels testing again. It's so simple, it's not expensive, it's about 30 pounds. Pinprick your finger, send it off and it tells you what the levels are. That's incredible, isn't?
Speaker 2:it, and so for things like sunlight exposure, because I know in the uk that the sun isn't strong enough through the winter to support us, but so in the summer, when allegedly we have sun, it's remembering to actually be a little bit exposed to that as well, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Because I mean we then add sunscreen into the mix, which makes it really, and again it's that balancing act, isn't it Between not being burnt, because we're obviously very aware of that and the HIV and skin cancer and things, but still getting the benefits of of how nature designed us to?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, and I've seen people that have been like living in spain and they're still deficient. You've got to have 50 of your body exposed for at least 20 minutes to get any vitamin d, and is that?
Speaker 2:and that's like your daily, daily dose. So, and I mean on a normal day, when somebody is, is at work, even in the height of the summer. Um, unless they, unless they create their own jobs like us, they're not, they're not likely to do that at all now you've got to be wearing shorts and a vest top really to get that skin exposure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's, that's really telling, isn't that? Yeah, it is. Fiber is so crucial and I just think it's so easy to do, but people just don't hit 30 grams of fiber a day that that's interesting.
Speaker 2:So when I knew we were going to have this conversation about the immune system, fiber was the last thing I thought we were talking about. We've banged on about it in all other podcasts. Why is it great for the immune system?
Speaker 1:Because it directly impacts the immune cells, and so if we don't have fiber fiber it's one of the easiest ways, because of that gut connection again to support your immune system is to have enough fiber. It acts as an anti-inflammatory that's crazy.
Speaker 2:It is crazy and it's so, so simple, and I know I don't is. It is uk and us based, with very low in the amount of fibre. So low.
Speaker 1:It's not good. We really are rubbish on fibre, and it goes back to when we were talking about processed foods and things. The fibre is often stripped out when things are processed. When you've made a whole grain into a white you know a white product like white rice that we spoke about before what you've done is you've stripped all the fiber away. And it's so important for the immune system. Interesting guess what's next?
Speaker 2:okay, we're talking about fiber, we're talking about the gut, yep, so something down there the good bacteria in the gut are involved in.
Speaker 1:They act again as like an extra army. So when we've eaten our food which was from the outside, and we've processed it often not very well because we've got low stomach acid or we're stressed it goes into the bowel and the bacteria that live there do the extra work for you if you've got the bacteria. If you haven't got the bacteria, then you haven't got that extra line of defense. So, yeah, they support the white blood cells, they stimulate the immune system when it's needed, and so we can consume food that contains good bacteria. We can use supplements and I've mentioned this before about antibacterial products just no, just, no, just no.
Speaker 2:So I'm kind of thinking this works on loads of different levels because I'm assuming that it will help. So if anything has managed to get past the stomach, it will help to get rid of any nasties as a as a line of defense. Also, supporting your good gut bacteria will help your immune system to be super, super strong and so it can fight anything. And I'm assuming, as long as you've got good gut bacteria, you're then absorbing everything that you need all around the body again to keep you kind of fit and healthy and vital yep, you've got it amazing and isn't it terrible that when we're talking about friendly bacteria, that marketing kicks in my head and I think about.
Speaker 2:I think about all your, all the yakults and all those sorts of things. That was the first thing that I thought of in my head, and I know I mean I like to say yakult, just to watch what your face does.
Speaker 1:Quite frankly, it's just so full of sugar. And again sugar, remember that causes inflammation it puts a lot of stress on the body and therefore impacts the immune system. So why on earth would you put a product in that's supposed to help you with a load of sugar? I just have an issue with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I mean that's the same for all of the all of the products that are sort of quote unquote, good for you or low in fat yeah is that. And they're all full of sugar yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And after our conversation in a previous episode about when we were talking about sugar and continuous glucose monitors and and things like that, this came up, didn't it again about the how much sugar and what, what it's doing to our systems.
Speaker 2:It's yeah, no, good, no all right, I'll take the soapbox back away from from julie again and just winding her up. Uh, what's the next thing?
Speaker 1:so there are lots of other nutrients that help support the immune system. So I think a lot of people understand that zinc is a major player. And what zinc does is, although it is a co-factor we spoke about co-factors when we were explaining how sugar is used in the body turned into our energy atp that there are certain co-factors the vitamins and minerals involved. Zinc is a co-factor for the immune system because it can act as the brakes. So again, if the immune system is over, especially in the inflammatory state, yeah, if it's involved there, you know, everything's gone a bit crazy. Like I said, we put a nuclear bomb into a very small situation that needs to be dealt with. The body will throw everything at it. Zinc can go and tell. It's part of that mechanism that says stop now.
Speaker 2:So if we haven't got zinc, we haven't got the ability to say stop now which is, yeah, which is really important, because I think, yeah, when there, when there's an over reaction in the body, that's almost as dangerous as the under under reaction yeah, because we want our body to react and inflammation isn't necessarily bad.
Speaker 1:We need like we spoke about cutting the finger, you need an inflammatory response, but if you've got inflammation, just keeps going, keeps going. It causes such a mess. The aftermath of an inflammatory reaction is huge.
Speaker 2:There's so much debris to deal with.
Speaker 1:it's a lot of work for your body, yeah, yeah and in the process it often damages parts of itself that it didn't mean to, and that's where you then can spiral into autoimmune conditions when you can't switch off that inflammatory response by the body. So yeah, the zinc is important. It does work in other ways as well, but that's kind of one of its key roles is to it's involved in going in and saying it works with vitamin d as well.
Speaker 2:To say I was gonna say I remember like when we were sort of in the midst of the pandemic, knowing that the vitamin d and zinc were very important things to have around yeah, and lots of people are low in zinc because it's depleted when we're stressed, because it's involved in the stress pathways, okay, it's depleted when we drink alcohol, massively depleted.
Speaker 1:And it's depleted when we've got low intake anyway in the body because the quality of our food how much zinc is in the soil, we know that that's really gone down because it gets displaced by copper which is in pesticides oh, interesting, yeah, and that's even if people are eating fresh fruit and in the first place, and not just processed stuff yeah, exactly then vitamin c. Vitamin c is involved in how the body makes mucous membranes and it's involved in collagen.
Speaker 2:So when we're looking at barriers, we've got to have sufficient vitamin c yeah, so looking after our, looking after our stomachs, looking after, like, the inside of our mouths on each of our noses, those sorts of things yeah, all those mucous membranes are going to need vitamin c.
Speaker 1:And yeah, vitamin c, again like zinc, has other actions within the immune system, but it is a key component of the barrier it's interesting, isn't it?
Speaker 2:I think vitamin c, of all of them, is the one that people will reach for when they feel like they've got a cough or a cold coming on. But just from what you've said, it doesn't appear to be sort of the most important factor. Why do you think people reach straight for the vitamin c? I mean other than it tastes nice and orangey.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of studies that's been done on it, for a start. So it's quite well known that it can impact and it is a key component of the immune system. But I don't I'm used I'm saying about the barrier because we don't often think about it as being connected there but it supports the adrenals, which means that the stress response is regulated when we've got vitamin c. And, yeah, I don't really know why it's the most common one known, other than the fact there are a lot of studies that go back. I think maybe it's one of the earlier vitamins that were studied and and realized for its potential. Yeah, and maybe it's because the doctor's accepted that one. Yeah, yeah, okay, let's talk about vitamin A. So vitamin A is quite an interesting one At the moment. It's coming up a lot in extra training that I'm doing just looking at genetics, hormones, all sorts. It keeps coming up at the moment and I'm looking at it. Often we don't get vitamin A in its original form, in its retinal form. We get it as beta carotene, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:I was just saying I don't feel like I know vitamin A very well, but I've definitely heard of things like beta carotene.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so if you have, you can access the downstream metabolite I guess you call it of vitamin A in the form of beta carotene, so you can get that. That's your plant-based version. You can't get vitamin a retinol through plants. It comes to animals. But lots of people can't convert very easily retinol vitamin A into the form that it needs to be used in the body, or they can't convert the beta carotene, so they need to eat it with something else. They might need the vitamin A as it is in retinol form, or they might need to eat a lot of beta carotene. It's quite interesting, but it's involved in the gut lining.
Speaker 2:It's involved in other places, like the eyes and things, but it is another one that tends to be a bit low in people's diets you're talking about um, you're saying about retinol, and that makes me think about stuff that's in skin creams and stuff as well, I imagine so as a help for the barriers of linings yeah, it's a component of linings.
Speaker 2:So if you've got compromised gut lining because of antibiotics or poor food choices, or alcohol or food allergies or all sorts of things can damage the gut lining, then vitamin a is going to become your friend really, because you're going to have to repair it I remember one of my oncology patients years and years ago, alongside their traditional treatment that they were having with us, they were doing, they were taking part in a study that involved them eating I can't remember the amounts now, but enormous amounts of carrot, enormous amounts of carrots and to do with the beta carotene. I think that was probably one of my lung cancer patients. I think it had limited help for them, as I recall, but unfortunately most of those patients were by the time that they were diagnosed and having treatment. There was limited stuff that we could do for them. But yeah, I do remember there were always lots of different studies and I just remember that. I just imagined it would be like big bags of carrots, but they had to use a lot of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, omega-3 is an essential fat fat. I know we've spoken about that before we do yeah, it's. It works on the anti-inflammatory pathways in the body, as opposed to omega-6, which is pro-inflammatory. But again, we don't necessarily have the right balance. In today's, the way that our food is and everything, we tend to be more omega-6 dominant. So, again, when we're looking at helping regulate the immune system, we want to make sure that we've got some anti-inflammatory capacity, because we don't want inflammation getting out of control and inflammation is a major issue now, isn't it?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah I think it's one of the. I think it's now recognized as a trigger for a lot of major, major diseases.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely so probably a good thing if you, if you feel like your immune system isn't uh, isn't working for you, is perhaps to find out what your um, omega levels are.
Speaker 1:I think it's an important one and again it's it's an important component of the immune system. Then there is an. It's quite unique, but a lot of people will recognize it for being in immune boosting. It's often called, isn't it, immune boosting, although we don't necessarily want to boost our immune system, but to support our immune system. We often have vitamin c, zinc, and often you'll get elderberry, so elderberry is a powerful antioxidant, yeah, and it has an affinity to the lungs, so it's a really good one. If you're someone that has respiratory issues and you know that if you get a cold it's going to go on your chest, yeah, you can take black elderberry as a preventative I was gonna say can you have it as a as a preventative?
Speaker 2:like, if we're getting into the winter and you know that this is the sort of time that you're going to get a chest infection or something like that, then yeah, then having that to prevent it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you can, I mean I. I usually give my daughter a product called sambucol not to be messed up with sambuca no yeah, don't mess those two's up.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, and that is because she's um, she has that vulnerability through my side of the family with asthma. If she gets a cold, if I get a cold, you know, we, we don't want that going on our chest because that's a bit of an achilles heel for us. Yeah, so she will have those. Um, they're chewable sweets that have got black elderberry in, but the brand name is sambucol, but it's the active form of black elderberry oh, really interesting, fantastic.
Speaker 2:Oh, this is, uh, this is this is the fun bit.
Speaker 2:How does yeah, how does moving support your immune system so, yeah, so you've got the lymphatic system, which is a system that runs along your, uh, alongside your circulatory system. Um, it's not got its own pumps, um, so you kind of you know, you know you lift your arm up and it'll drain down. Things like body brushing are really awesome for helping it and for kind of like revving it up a little bit, and it does things like helps that barrier, so making sure that you're sort of really looking after your skin, and it's a system that basically takes all the infection away. I actually, when I was 10 years old, had an infection in my lymphatic system. Did you? I did? Oh, wow, that's really unusual. Yeah, I always feel like I want to know a little bit more about it as I've got into adulthood.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, it presented as an appendicitis and so then the lymph glands that were around, sort of around my appendix were were inflamed and so that's why they thought that it was an appendicitis and eventually so they scanned my appendix and that all looked absolutely fine and they wanted to send me home and it was only because my white cells were through the roof that they kept me there and they burst into my stomach and I went into toxic shock. I can still remember going into that. I can still remember hallucinating. I felt like I was blowing up. How old were you then? Ten, Wow, yeah. So that's how I'm quite familiar with the lymphatic system. Yeah, but yeah, no very very weird.
Speaker 1:Um, we take it for granted though, don't we? That system? I don't think we often really know about it, think much about it, but yeah, it is like the drainage part of whatever the immune system's done. You know it's got to come out of the system, yeah, and so that's where it gets put and it travels around to come out. So people that have had lymph nodes removed because of therapies for, um, cancer and things, they they will probably be well aware of that they are compromised there yeah, and I think they're probably people.
Speaker 2:People have heard hear the words um, about lymph nodes and things, but they don't necessarily think that it's a whole system and that it's all connected up so it is a whole system but it's got some main points under the arm and in the groin like the main main access points.
Speaker 1:I think for that that system yeah and then what about exercising and the impact on the, the immune system?
Speaker 2:so, like we've talked about this before, that obviously exercising is a is a stress to the body, particularly if you're doing things like like weight training or sort of running really fast. So it is, again, it's another. It's a balancing act, isn't it about not putting too much stress on your body. However, you know yourself, when you're feeling grotty and then you go out for a walk, for instance, how much that kind of lifts you. It gets the blood system moving, it's going to get the lymphatic system moving. You're going to get some fresh air, maybe you're going to get out in nature. It's gonna, it's going to help. So again, it's that, that balancing act between not being too much of a stress but not being a couch potato yeah, yeah, we, we do know, don't we from studies that people that do little exercise have a lowered immune response.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and exercise does boost your white blood cells, yes, which is what you want. Yeah, you know, when your blood cells are raised like you had in that situation, they kept you in, but you want that to happen because that's your body's um army coming out to deal with the fact that you had a major infection there yeah, yeah, and that was good.
Speaker 2:It was a good, uh, it was a good indicator for them. Um, when we're talking about, like, the white blood cells and things like that, about raising them up there are, we were talking about other things that we could do, and that was things like cold water immersion. It's there've been loads of studies to to show that it's it's really beneficial to to support and boost your immune system, and one of the reasons is that, again, we're just talking about the stress response. It it boosts the amount of white blood cells produced and so it enhances your immune system. And then we were talking about the other way, weren't we?
Speaker 1:you were talking about heat therapy yeah, so I will use my infrared sauna if I feel like I'm coming down with anything. I will put myself in the sauna as high a temperature as I can tolerate, actually, because if you can raise the body's temperature, we know that a fever will kill things. These bugs and viruses generally don't like things too hot or too cold goldilocks thing again, isn't it so if we, if we purposely lower our temperature or raise our temperature, we can, you know, often kill these things before they do anything else yeah, I, I did exactly that last week.
Speaker 2:I took myself off to the sauna and, in combination with that, things like going and laying yourself in your soul in your sauna bed or I just went and going I went and sat in the sauna, I did some deep breathing. I also did some cold water therapy as well is that you get that meditative effect? It's a rest as well, yeah, and that you're. So you're not just doing physical things, you're supporting your, your whole being. Yeah, and it was just blooming glorious. I love it.
Speaker 1:I love it so much uh, sleep is a really important one. Again, we know that if our sleep isn't good and we're tired, we're more vulnerable to things. The t-cells are really active when we're asleep. That's an important part of our immune system. We're going to clean up the debris and the mess that's been made when we're asleep.
Speaker 1:the impact on the blood sugars. If we're sleeping, it means that we're asleep the impact on the blood sugars. If we're sleeping, it means that we're more able to manage our blood glucose levels. If we can't, then we put in pressure and strain on the immune system. So sleep is just so important, and we've spoken before about the liver becoming most active in the evening, from about 11pm through to the early hours of the morning, and that you need to be asleep for that to be working properly yeah, because I guess if it can't clear up everything it needs to overnight, it's already on the back foot when you're starting the next day.
Speaker 2:And people often cite a like lack of sleep and oh, I felt run down, I was busy, I was stressed, I didn't get very much sleep and that's why I've got a cold.
Speaker 1:People recognize that don't know? Yeah, they, I think they do. So. Yeah, if you're stressed, you're burning through your nutrients, especially those key ones like vitamin c and zinc and your b vitamins, and then if you're not sleeping and it makes you want to eat more sugar as well you've got it coming at you from all angles. Then you're tired. You won't move your body. It has a massive knock-on effect. So, yeah, we were talking about the cold using, like your cold water plunge or even a cold shower. One of the stats showed that there was 30% fewer sick days in those people that had a daily cold shower. Wow, that's very significant. 30, 30, isn't it? That's really significant.
Speaker 2:And it's so simple. It's so simple you just have your normal shower and then whack it onto cold.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just it you're, you're already doing it. You're saving money on your, on your. You know you're heating the water bill because you're having half the time in, you know but and it's never as bad as you think it's going to be, oh it's no, it's joyous, it's absolutely joyous.
Speaker 2:You're absolutely right. You do save a bit money, because I what I normally do, because I like I mean it is cold and I like to be kind of uh busy, and so at the end of my shower and I've got the conditioner on my hair and the soap on my body, that's when I'll turn it cold. So then I'm busy rinsing everything off whilst it's cold and getting over it. That's such a significant 30% is huge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is, yeah, just from having a cold shower.
Speaker 2:God, no wonder I don't get any duvet days. Yeah, me, neither somebody. Actually, when I was poorly last week, one of my lovely clients reminded me she'd listened to the favourite things episode and I had said in there that sometimes I was jealous when people didn't feel very well because they got to sit on the sofa and watch netflix. And it's so funny that these things get reflected back at me because I was saying, oh, I'm gonna go and have a sauna, I'm gonna go to, I'm gonna go and sit at the back of choir and like listen and and try and sing, just because, even if I'm croaking my way through it, the whole like being at choir and singing, that is just joyous. And um, and she reflected back at me. She said you could also rest, catherine, and have your, have your, have your like Netflix and chill kind of day as well.
Speaker 2:So, uh, yeah, that was funny. Thank you for that.
Speaker 1:Thank you for reflecting that maybe that's the issue that even when we, when we are in a, in a position where we could potentially, you know need that duvet day, we tend not to because we've got other things going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean and I want to be proactive, I want to feel like I am doing something. So that was me going down to the sauna and and like doing battle with this cold because I wasn't having any of it. No, but yeah again, I think probably a balance is required.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we can't talk about the immune system and not talk about food. So when we're talking about eating for our immune system, or how the immune system is impacted by what we eat, of course we've got to think about the inflammatory response again, because a lot of foods will give that inflammatory response and certain foods will give an anti-inflammatory response. So I think it links back to the sugar thing again, because if we eat too much sugar, if we're eating too many processed foods, if we haven't got the co-factors, then we're going to be putting a strain on our immune system and of course, our immune system is going to be doing a lot of work because that when we eat, we're putting something outside inside on a regular basis. So that's going to be doing a lot of work because that when we eat, we're putting something outside inside on a regular basis. So that's going to be a lot of work for the immune system, isn't it absolutely?
Speaker 2:so I know that um turmeric is a good anti-inflammatory. Are there? Are there foods that are pro-inflammatory?
Speaker 1:yeah, so red meat. So red meat is definitely. Dairy products are inflammatory. In fact, they produce mucus anyway. Yes, yeah, we know that when we start thinking about milk before singing, that's never very good no um, gluten containing foods are inflammatory and sugar is definitely inflammatory because, as part of that whole process, when we were talking on the cgm episode, about what happens with the insulin being released and everything that goes on there, yep, we've got an immune response going on anyway.
Speaker 2:So is there ever a point that having those inflammatory foods is good for the immune system or good for a cold or good for a cut or something like that?
Speaker 1:well, I think we will go into detail when we talk about how to help the immune system when we are sick, but there are lots of benefits to lessening the foods that are pro-inflammatory and upping the foods that are anti-inflammatory to support the immune system for sure.
Speaker 1:I think the other thing to remember is that because when you put food in and it is foreign, it's something foreign going into the body that the more often you eat, the more you're triggering that immune system. We know that it's going to trigger insulin release anyway. Right, because every time you eat, your insulin's got to do something. Yeah, but got got to be involved there. But if you're eating, you know, if you're one of those people that graze all day, you're constantly triggering your immune system, aren't you?
Speaker 2:if you think about it, completely distracted by sorting that out, rather than doing all the other things it needs to do yeah, and it does take a lot of energy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's because of that it takes energy to break the food down anyway. But then when you've got the immune response involved, we know that the immune system uses up a lot of energy. So, yeah, and this will tie in with the fasting when we talk about fasting and that impact on the immune system and that energy side of things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's really cool. I don't know. You've said in past episodes about because there's the, the whole uh, feed a cold, starve a fever, saying isn't there. I remember you didn't agree with that, did you?
Speaker 1:you want to, you want to starve it all yeah, I think initially you do, because you want your immune system to divert, like you want your body to divert, all energy to your immune system to do the job it's doing, and you don't necessarily want to be eating, but you've got to be someone that is already nutritionally sound. Yeah, because otherwise, if you're not, you're not going to have the nutrients that the diet, that the immune system needs anyway.
Speaker 2:So then, when you do eat, you're making sure that you are putting in nutritionally dense food to help the whole thing along, rather than yeah and it's, and again, that's hard, isn't it? Because when you're feeling a bit crappy and maybe you're feeling tired, actually you want to reach for some of the rubbish stuff. I think that's a I don't know whether that's a society thing or if that really is kind of like a nature thing you kind of want, you feel like you want to reach for the sort of comfort food and and I mean you can still do that, but you need to be really mindful of what it is I think when you start to feel a bit better, so that your immune system has done its job, because nine times out of ten, when you're under the weather, you actually don't want to eat, do you no?
Speaker 1:but when you start to feel better, so after that initial energy expenditure by the immune system, you will crave the sugar and the carbs, those foods, because you do need to replenish your energy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's again making sure you're making the right choices, yeah, always, always right, yeah. So another thing that you can do, do and I think maybe we touched on it a little bit earlier on when I was talking about when I was poorly is your, is your mindset around it. And I am going to say right from the offset there is no judgment about how you conduct yourself when you are poorly. If you choose to do a netflix and chill day, or if you choose to go down to the sauna or a combination of both, then that is absolutely fine. And I think we also touched on the fact that we have lost touch with how incredible our bodies are, and so there's a danger of dropping into into fear, into that kind of and kicking off that like fight or flight sort of um system, and that goes against anything that we need to be doing in our body right.
Speaker 1:I think that fear is detrimental to the immune system, because fear and there's a lot of other emotions like anger and resentment and all those emotions that have that low energy, that low vibration, are going to be having an impact on things like your immune system.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, I think, and I mean I don't know about you, but maybe we can all all picture a mood hoover that we know in our lives, someone that's, someone that kind of hangs out in those low frequencies, and it's no coincidence that they are not very well a lot of the time. Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. Uh. Same thing for things like stress as well.
Speaker 1:Stress is, I mean, so terrible for the body and for the immune system I, I think sometimes I think of stress as being a really big bully to the immune system. I think that stress just kicks the immune system away and says, like hang a minute, I'm the boss here, I'm dealing with your survival. Yeah, right now, because there's a freaking tiger in the room. You know the traffic jam or whatever it is and it it has the ability to push away the immune system. So in the physiology, it reduces the lymphocytes, which is a key part of your white blood cells and what they're doing to support you.
Speaker 2:But that's how I think about it, yeah, and we are constantly in this modern world, we are constantly living with that bully in charge.
Speaker 1:There's very little time that we put the bully to rest and let the body kind of get on with what it would be normally yeah, and then we got to remember that when we're stressed, we are using up our nutrients like crazy, the same ones that we need for the immune system. Yeah, and these nutrients, so there's only so many available and a lot of them can't be stored in the body if they're water soluble, so they've got to be coming in to be able to do their function and and if you've got too many places wanting that nutrient, it's got to go to the what, what it would be considered the most important, and unfortunately, stress, like I've said before, the boss of the endocrine system is the stress response yeah so that's why everything else gets affected.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's very interesting and I I don't.
Speaker 2:I say I like the way you're talking about it. I don't like it because we're talking about stress, but I like the way that you are making us remember that it's a high in within our body and with our systems. It's a high energy thing and it is burning through all those nutrients. So if there's ever a point that you could reframe or just change your state, like almost come out of your body, have a look at what's going on and have a and have a think about whether you actually need to be in this state of stress, this state of fight or flight, or if you could look at something differently, if you could go and meditate, if you could go and do something fun, if you could laugh yeah, laughter is really good for the immune system, actually really good.
Speaker 1:Again, studies done on laughter yoga show an increase in immune system function. That's incredible, isn't it?
Speaker 2:and again so simple and lots of fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, just going back to that stress for a minute, because, yeah, it is burning through the nutrients, which is why we call that exhaustion, stress burnout. You know the? The clue is in the name. Yeah, yeah. So going back to stress for a minute. Of course, when you are stressed, you get that exhaustion and it's often called stress burnout. You know, the clue is in the name. Right, you're burning through your nutrients and you get exhausted. But I I find that a lot of people are stuck in stress mode and fight and flight and they don't necessarily realize, yeah, and they don't know how to tell their body not to be in survival mode. So their body's just rapidly using up it, up their nutrients, and everything's getting a bit imbalanced. And you know they've got problems, but they don't necessarily know why. Yeah, I think we have to because of how we live today.
Speaker 2:We have to remind ourselves yeah because they're so used to functioning at such a kind of high level. They've actually forgotten what it's like to be calm and relaxed. Yeah, default stress head yeah, and there's almost a negative connotation to being calm and chilled and relaxed. Yeah, within our society there's. There's reward for being, like you know, on it and busy busy, busy yeah, and charging ahead and pushing ahead, and actually that's not, it's not beneficial no, no, exactly.
Speaker 1:The other thing is using your, your language, to give you what you actually want. I didn't say that very well, did I like? Speak your life into existence, yeah, so if you're someone that says I always get a cold, yeah, every year, as soon as those kids go back to school, I can guarantee I can guarantee I'm going to get a cold. Yeah, guess what's going to happen to those people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like oh, it's half term, the teachers have all got colds. Yeah, that's another thing that people say, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, the minute I'm taking time off, I'm going to be ill. Yeah, yeah, you, yeah, you've got to be careful about what you say. Yeah, because the body follows the mind at the end of the day, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. If that's yeah, that's what your subconscious is looking out for. That's what you're going to get.
Speaker 1:Yeah, although it does remind me of when we were doing our very first episode and we were talking about not being available for things, and then I was actually here, wasn't?
Speaker 2:I.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and couldn't come on the on the facebook group to do the live. But yeah, that was just unfortunate timing it was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, and we do our absolute, very, very best, and sometimes nature has other things up her sleeve exactly.
Speaker 1:Obviously, I always find that if I do get ill, it's normally because I actually need to rest, yeah, and I've ignored, yeah, the fact I often know, because there's always little signs, aren't there, and I'm quite good at picking up on the signs now, but I'm also good at ignoring them because I've got time for that. No, we're double busy, doubly busy. That was your doubly doubly the last time, wasn't it.
Speaker 2:I was exactly the same, not last week, week before um I it was, I was doubly busy and and it coincided with all the kids going back to school and normally if there is a cold that rips through our house, I don't get it, and and I got it worse than everybody else and that was because I would. I was just full steam ahead with that week and I had people messaging me saying I don't know how you do it like fit all these things in and normally, if, even if I don't get a cold, I will then factor some downtime in. So that's exactly what I factored in for the week after I just it just so happened that that week was was doubly busy yeah, and that sometimes that just happens and you can't always control it, can you?
Speaker 1:and that's just how it is. But yeah, when, when your body gives you a massive slap around the head, yeah, it's really normally totally inconvenient, yeah yeah, yeah, absolutely well, they say, don't they?
Speaker 2:if you don't make time for wellness, you've got to make time for illness. So it's so loads of the things that we're talking about now you need to embrace before you are poorly, so that well, so that there's less chance of you getting poorly so you've got a quicker recovery. Otherwise, yeah, otherwise it's going to give you a slap in the head when it's least convenient for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah so true, we got to make time for our, our wellness, yeah, yeah, because actually when you are ill, it really does impact your your time, doesn't it? Yeah, literally takes your time away overnight when you're real. Yeah, um, let's talk about the thymus gland for a minute. So the the thymus gland is. It's at that place where, if you have a like a shock, and you kind of go, yeah, and you put your hand on that part of your chest, that is the thymus gland but everybody knew exactly where you were talking about just there yeah, so I think that's, that's intuitive, because a lot of the time when we have had a shock, we want our immune system to be on standby.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and by tapping that thymus gland it helps the thymus to produce its killer T-cells. Killer T-cells are a big part of the adaptive immune system. They sound serious yeah, no messing around. And you want them, especially if your innate immune system has not been able to fulfill its role completely and you've still got something. This was quite obvious in covid, actually, because if somebody was able to have their innate immune system deal with covid, it was over in a few days. Yeah, if it went into the adaptive immune system, that's when you had that 10 days. Remember the 10 days?
Speaker 2:yeah, and you went into that inflammation.
Speaker 1:Response yeah so you want, you want your innate immune system to be firing up and doing its job, but if it doesn't, and you move into the adaptive, you want the killer t-cells coming out. Yeah, so you can tap your thymus if you're feeling like you're a bit run down, or you're feeling like, oh, I think, oh, my throat, my throat's a bit scratchy, or you know you've not had a good night's sleep or something. You can tap it and the rhythm that the thymus likes is is it the waltz? That's one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. It likes that. Oh.
Speaker 2:So I mean, don't punch yourself, it's a tap, it's a tap yeah, but isn't that interesting because it is intuitive to put your hand up, up towards your chest or like, if you say, if you've had a shot, oh something you'll like, tap on it, you will, naturally. Yeah, that's so interesting, isn't it? And actually I'm thinking, when you're talking about tapping, thinking about, like, full-on the tapping eft yeah, um will definitely help with with calming down your immune system or boosting it up, depending what it what it needs at the time, sort of calming you down, reducing that stress response yeah would be another brilliant thing.
Speaker 2:I just love tapping.
Speaker 1:I think it is so underrated, yeah, it's so simple and so powerful, and even if you don't feel it doing anything, it is because you're tapping on those points like the ones under the eyes. That's the fear point. So you could tap that. My kids do it when they go to the dentist because they don't like it. So they will tap under their eyes and that just literally takes away the hormone response, the fear that's going on. It doesn't take it away completely, but it just takes it down a few notches. Yeah, and that's good enough if you're absolutely terrified of something right and it's brilliant.
Speaker 2:And also it means that it feels like you're doing something like for yourself. You're not just out of control. You can, you've got. You've got some sort of control over it, something you can do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we've, so we've explained the three parts of the immune system and then the things that we've gone through, which we'll summarise in a minute were 10 points and they are really to, like Catherine said, is to put your prevention in place, and really we want to be in that. Yeah, prevention is better than cure.
Speaker 2:Yes, boom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, so we spoke about vitamin d. We cannot have a proper function in immune system if we haven't got the thing that regulates and modulates things in the right quantity so lots of sunny holidays right, got that next fiber fiber.
Speaker 1:We need to create that nice fiber boat down your, down into it, down into your gut, ready to go, yep yep, fiber and and, like you said, you hadn't really thought about the connection between fiber and the immune system, but it does have a direct impact on the white blood cells. Then we've got your friendly bacteria again. They're like, they're like another army that's there to help you, and we've spoken about other roles that they do, like help with cholesterol, help process certain foods if they're not fully broken down. They help with lots of things your neurotransmitters, like serotonin in the gut, but they are a major, major part of of your immune system and you know that it's busy when you're feeling poorly.
Speaker 2:I think you kind of your stomach feels maybe a little bit empty, maybe a little bit, just a bit off sometimes. Sometimes you'll have that that kind of gastric response when you're, when you're poorly, you know that that area is double busy for you, working hard when you feel poorly and if something's in your system and you want it to be out of your system, that is the best place for that to happen. Yes, absolutely, you know.
Speaker 1:Yes, I can vouch for that from holiday um, we spoke about some other nutrients like zinc, vitamin a, vitamin c, uh, omega-3. Black elderberry can be particularly useful as prevention for if you're if you're a respiratory sufferer. Yeah, so we've got some other key nutrients there your favorite one yep, to move.
Speaker 2:I don't love it. So you're talking about the algebra, so you're talking about things like we're going to say about movement, and sleep was the next one. These are all things that you can do something about, and they're so simple. They're so simple and not only is it going to help you I mean, I think we probably say this every single episode not only is it going to help you. I mean, I think we, I think we probably say this every single episode not only is it going to help you with what we're talking about right now, but it's going to make you feel fabulous. Yeah, so move people. Yeah, move, but uh, not not quite as much as I had to move, um, uh, the other day, when I wasn't feeling very well, but I still had to train for a half marathon. So don't do that marathon. So don't do that.
Speaker 1:Yes, don't do that and please go to bed on time and get your sleep Are you just talking to me?
Speaker 2:Because if you're just talking to me, you now need to talk to my daughter, because she is my sleep blocker at the moment, because she's discovered that there's much more things, much more fun, happening after dark.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is not something you can easily control either, is it no?
Speaker 2:But again, thinking about what helps me actually is when you talk about the liver doing its job from like 11 till the early hours of the morning. That is something. So if I can't get actually get to bed for myself and I've got the, the monkeys keeping me awake thinking that I need to get in bed for my liver to do its work actually is really powerful to me.
Speaker 1:Oh good, I'm glad that's that would.
Speaker 2:That will motivate me, and I have always wanted to go to bed early. I'm just not very good at it.
Speaker 1:But now, now you've done your dementia questionnaire, yeah, and you know that that is something you need to focus on as well, yeah, yeah, and it helps, like literally the day after for my brain fog, for my menopause, dementia.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, brain fog, fog for my, my menopause, dementia, yeah, exactly. It's amazing how many people I speak to who all tell me that they are a night owl, yeah. And then when we start to even slightly change the sleep patterns and they realize that, oh, actually, I do feel better if I go to bed at a normal time. They just got used to it, yeah. And then they've come up with their reason why yeah, I don't go to bed till one in the morning, so I'm a night owl, excuses, unless you do shift work, and that's completely different. Absolutely, okay. Then we spoke a little bit about food and just being aware that when you eat, it does use a lot of energy which is going to be diverted away from your immune system, and especially if you continuously eat and you're eating things that are going to be diverted away from your immune system, and especially if you continuously eat and you're eating things that are going to push up inflammation in the body back to sugar and stuff again absolutely.
Speaker 2:We have things like cold showers or saunas. We're all helping your immune system. Yeah, mindset, yeah, I mean, that's a, it's a big one all the way through. It's a big one. It's like you said your, your body will follow your mind, and that's, yeah, absolutely so, keeping that and we're not saying keep the positive mindset when you're feeling crappy, we are not going to ask you to. You know, sing mary poppins.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean you could do it and it will probably help. And it will. Yes, a spoonful of sugar and chim chiminy, I think, will raise your spirits. However, if you don't want to do that, you don't have to. But singing and laughter are all good things that will really, really, will really help. But just being positive, trust your trust, your body. Trust your body knows what it is doing and that it is working for you, even if you're feeling absolutely grotty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well said so. Yeah, so that's. Oh, we finished on the thymus, didn't we? We did so that nice tapping, yeah, and I put that one in there just because it's a little bit different. Yeah, but it's something you could easily do. Yeah, no, absolutely good to know. Okay, so that was about prevention. I think we should do another episode where we talk about what to do if you are actually sick sick what we can actually have, practical things.
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