The Immune System
In our body, several organs are responsible for engineering and teaching our antibodies to fight efficiently against viruses, inflammations and all other kind of diseases.
One of those « organs » is our microbiota which plays a major part in the activation of our immune defences and on which we can have a significant positive or negative influence. The microbiota term refers to all micro-organisms present in the human body. Each one of us harbors nearly 100 trillion of them on our skin, intestines, lungs and vagina for women. The microbiota is composed of various micro-organisms species and each human being has its own species’ diversity and balances, thus making its microbiota unique.
Our intestinal microbiota, also called intestinal flora, plays a key role in our immune defences. 70% of our immune cells live in our intestines; the intestinal mucosa, thanks to intestinal flora bacteria, fulfills a barrier role against other toxic bacteria only allowing through the nutrients and vitamins necessary for our body proper functioning; if that process is out of order, it can let unwanted and dangerous toxins enter our bloodstream.
Our diet therefore plays an essential part in our immune defences well-being. We can help balance our intestinal flora by regularly eating healthy food and yogurts that contain lactobacilli (our intestines’ required bacteria to proper functioning).
When unbalance occurs due to our hormones – for women, menstrual cycle has a deep impact on intestinal functions -, when taking antibiotics – which destroy all bacteria without distinction between good and toxic ones – or due to a virus, we can help our flora to rebuild itself by taking probiotics (overdosed lactobacilli) during several days.
Our skin microbiota defends our skin against all external aggressions and must also be preserved from cleansing substances and moisturizing creams repeated attacks. The more our skin needs to regenerate, the more energy it requires from our body. For women, the same goes for our vaginal flora which is extremely fragile and can only stay self-balanced if it is washed with no other substances than water; almost all intimate hygiene soaps weaken this flora and are irritant and harmful in the long term.
Another scourge for our immune system is chronic stress. Persistent stress creates inflammation everywhere in our body: our muscles, our intestines… in addition, it triggers a body damaging chemical reaction; our body is led to believe it is in a situation of danger since it is experiencing a current suffering and fear state and thus secretes specific hormones to help him cope with danger: adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline gives us the energy boost we need to react quickly facing danger – which is why some of us sometimes feel they’re more efficient under stress – but, on the long term, this hormone prevents us from sleeping, tires our organism into overdrive which leads to quicker oxidizing and deteriorations. By impacting our sleep, adrenaline deprives us of our regenerative capacities. Indeed, during sleep, our body, being less solicited than during awaken periods, sorts stored during the day information and repairs itself; this is also the period of time during which cells renew themselves and antibodies fight more intensely against microbes.
Cortisol is the hormone responsible for distributing the adrenaline boost of energy in the necessary body parts – the legs to flee danger more quickly, for example – but, in the long term, as cortisol is linked to our ability to synthesize sugar and fats into energy via our liver and pancreas and send them wherever they are needed, its excessive secretion leads to a progressive degradation of these organs which can cause diabetes or overweight problems because it induces a greater need to eat to compensate for sugar faster assimilation in the body.
Considering our hectic lives, it is not always easy to eliminate all stress attacks from them. Nevertheless, breathing techniques, relaxation and meditation enable to limit them while working on finding ways to completely and permanently eliminating them, specifically by changing our relationship to the world around us.
As far as I am concerned, when my daughter brings back home a new virus from school, I have my magic trio to prevent contamination:
• 1 drop of Tea Tree essential oil in the middle of the eyebrows morning and evening,
• Purple echinacea tablet or drinkable solution morning and evening,
• 1000 mg of acerola vitamin C every morning.
As I am not an outside person, I also take vitamin D several times during winter season.
As you can see, our immune system well-being largely depends on our diet and lifestyle. We are all therefore able to allow our body to optimize its defences and to be at the top of its immunity in the event of a powerful, whether viral or bacteriological, attack.
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