Transcript for Immune System Flashback 2
Hey guys. Dr. Chris back here with you talking about immunity. So last time we learned about the immune system some basics about where it is how the nervous system connects to it all those great things. If you missed it, go back to the video. Today we’re going to talk about three things that actively weaken the immune system.
Now a lot of we do people do these things all the time, and I don’t think I think that they do it on purpose. I certainly wouldn’t, we don’t purposely do things that we can our immune system right but it’s simply not knowing. So I asked the question if you knew there were things that we can your immune system wouldn’t you want to know about them so that you can avoid them of course, right because we don’t want to actively work to get sick. They just don’t make sense. It’s kind of intuitive.
Like I said in the first video it sucks being sick. We don’t want to go through that. So let’s talk about those three things. Let’s start with a biggie at the top. Poor dietary choices. So obviously if we eat a junkie diet full of fast food and poor calories and all that sort of stuff. We’re not going to express health, in general, will be overweight will be really lethargic things like that. But today I want to pick on two things, in particular, sugar and dairy. So first sugar, sugar is a known immune response inhibitor.
A couple of videos ago we even talked about how sugar inhibits your body’s ability to go after an attack bacteria. And that is not only like right when you eat it that is for many many hours after having consumed something sugary, whether that’s through a drink or a treat or candy or something like that and also things that convert into sugar so you may eat something that doesn’t seem like it’s real sugary.
That’s like really cheap simple carbs. Herb then converted to Sugar. Now you’ve increased your sugar intake and all these other sort of things. So sugar on its own will inhibit your body’s ability to mount an immune response.
We want to avoid sugar, depending on what time of year it is when you’re watching this, towards the holidays we call it sugar season because sugar is readily available. So make sure to limit your sugar intake. The next one is dairy, dairy more specifically pasteurized dairy is really tough on the immune system. Here’s why, in the pasteurization process the, let’s say milk, the milk, the dairy product gets heated to a high level. Okay, that heating is supposed to kill germs and all that sort of stuff.
But in that process, it breaks or denatures the proteins found in the milk. Those denatured proteins those broken proteins are identified by your immune system as being broken. It doesn’t like that your body wants to take in whole proteins that are in their natural form that are ready to be used by the body, not the broken ones. The broken ones then are going to force your body’s immune system to try to get them out. Okay, if you’ve ever heard that dairy is mucus-producing that’s what’s happening.
Your body is trying to build up that phlegm and mucus to up those broken proteins and try to get you to cough or sneeze it out or just get it out of there. So we don’t want to deal with that. So sugar and dairy if you look at your own diet, and if you especially if you or your children are getting sick a lot lately just make that cut, cut sugar and dairy. Okay, that’ll be a huge key for you because it does actively weaken your immune system.
The next one is having a sedentary lifestyle, being seated the data desk having a long commute and then coming home and sitting some more in front of the TV or doing more work at the table at the kitchen table or at a desk. Whatever it is. All of that sedentary activity or lack of activity is going to mess with your immune function. So when we talked about the anatomy of the immune system, one of those things was the lymphatic system. Now this lymphatic system carries your white blood cells and all kinds of great cells needed for proper immune function.
Well, the way that lymph moves is through the contraction of your muscles. If your muscles are moving all day other than to walk from one seated position to another you are not moving that lymph as effectively as you can so do some exercise do something that’s going to pump your heart pump your blood work your muscles and get that lymph moving. One thing. We recommend it especially for kids this works for adults too by the way, but kids get just extra joy out of it if they’re having some immune system and issues and need lymph to move.
We love them to jump, so jumping on a trampoline is fantastic for that. There are more sophisticated things like vibration plates and things like that. But just move your body whether it’s through trampoline or not go out and run around go do some, some sort of activity that you like that’s going to move your body get away from the desk get away from the couch get away from the driver seat and move that body.
The third thing on this list that actively weakens your immune system is antibiotics. And I know you’re probably given antibiotics because you were sick and now I’m telling you that they’re going to weaken your immune system. Well, it’s the reality. So here’s the deal oftentimes antibiotics get prescribed for viral infections.
You need to have a culture done before knowing if you should take an antibiotic or not. So often that culture is not done and It’s just been a prescription that was just handed out. So start there don’t just take antibiotics unless you know it’s for a bacterial infection. You can ask your doctor to culture it that is a thing you can do. But let’s say even if it was a bacterial thing and it was properly prescribed and all that stuff. Prolonged or repetitive antibiotic use will damage your immune system flat-out.
Here’s why antibiotics are effective. They’re designed to be effective. They will wipe out the bacteria in your gut specifically. Okay, so when there’s bacteria in your gut and you’ve probably seen or heard or read that we’re supposed to have this normal flora. And that is your balance between good bacteria and bad bacteria. When we take antibiotics, we don’t just they don’t discriminate they wipe out all of it the good and the bad bacteria. So in that new, wiped-clean environment the bad bacteria really know how to thrive. So after you’ve taken antibiotics, you’ve cleaned the gut out.
Let’s say you continue a diet of you know, lots of sugar and dairy you are just giving that bad bacteria fuel to wreak havoc again in a month or two. To go through that cycle all over again, but maybe this next time it’s even stronger so I would say yes, there are Times where antibiotics are necessary there that certain that does exist.
But though the rhythm and the repetitiveness of how we’ve been taking them and how they’re prescribed needs to stop. So next time that’s a recommendation for you. Take pause. Let your body rest give yourself a couple more days to fight something off before you turn to that, to that source and make sure that it’s actually for a bacterial infection not a viral infection.
They’re going to be useless against a viral infection. So I want you to take my story and if you had kids who had multiple rounds of antibiotics, you already know this, but when I was a kid, I had repetitive in chronic ear infections and I was on a whole bunch of antibiotics and it did wipe my system clean to the point where in my teenage years.
I was on even more antibiotics over and over again and I felt like I was constantly getting sick. Even when going into college and into chiropractic school when school would be done Semester I would crash and I would get sick. My immune system was really suffering and I could directly link it back to all of the antibiotics that I took throughout my childhood and early adulthood. There are ways to repair the repair the gut replenish the gut probiotics or part of it, but there’s systematic ways to improve that if you’re wondering about that we can certainly give you some more details.
But of those three that may be the strongest because there’s that chemical component. I would say make sure you are aware of all three of those things. The dairy and sugar in your diet, the lack of activity through a sedentary lifestyle, and the use of antibiotics. Those three things will actively weaken your immune system.
So avoid those things so move your body, eat healthy, avoid antibiotics pretty simple right. Next video, what we’re going to talk about is how to strengthen them. Give you five ways to strengthen your immune system. If you’re paying attention doing the opposite of these three is already part of that. So we’re going to learn two additional ones. So look out for that next video.
See you guys next time. Bye.
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