{"id":1318761,"date":"2020-03-16T00:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-16T06:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/doctors-tip-one-of-your-bodys-five-defense-mechanisms-immunity-part-1\/"},"modified":"2020-03-16T00:04:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T06:04:00","slug":"doctors-tip-one-of-your-bodys-five-defense-mechanisms-immunity-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/doctors-tip-one-of-your-bodys-five-defense-mechanisms-immunity-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor\u2019s Tip: One of your body\u2019s five defense mechanisms \u2014 immunity, part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Greg Feinsinger<\/strong>
<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Last week\u2019s column was an overview of Dr. William Li\u2019s new book \u201cEat to Beat Disease,\u201d and the five body defense systems he talks about: immunity, angiogenesis, regeneration, the microbiome and DNA protection. Dr. Li is a practicing physician who is also on the cutting edge of medical research. The subtitle of his book is \u201cThe New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

A column on immunity is timely, given the current COVID-19 pandemic. It\u2019s interesting that with all the media attention, there has been minimal to no discussion about how each of us can improve our immunity while we\u2019re waiting for a vaccine \u2014 which they say will be at least a year.<\/p>\n

Our immune system has two parts: fast and slow, both of which protect against foreign invaders, such as bacteria, viruses, parasites and cancer cells. The fast \u2014 called the innate \u2014 immune system includes physical, chemical and cellular components. Our skin is an example of a physical barrier. An example of a chemical barrier are the secretions in our mouth, nose, and upper airways that contain enzymes that kill invaders. An example of cellular barriers are neutrophils and monocytes, that create an inflammatory response and remove harmful microbes and other invaders by consuming them.<\/p>\n

The second, slower part of our immune system is called the adaptive immune system, which is more sophisticated than the innate system. It has a permanent memory of past invaders, and this is the system that immunizations engage. Adaptive immunity has two strategies: (1) It can attack invaders by using cells such as T and B cells to kill them; (2) it can use antibodies to attack intruders, which can take seven to 10 days (hence the term \u201cslow system\u201d).<\/p>\n

Deficiency of the immune system causes many diseases. AIDS, caused by HIV \u2014 immune deficiency virus \u2014 is an example, and sufferers are at high risk for catastrophic infections and for cancers. Some immune deficient diseases are genetic. Cancers such as leukemia and multiple myeloma weaken your immune system, as does radiation and chemotherapy used to treat cancer. People with stress, poor sleep patterns, obesity, diabetes, malnutrition and alcoholism have weakened immunity. A sedentary lifestyle and a Western diet \u2014 high in animal fat, refined food, sugar, salt \u2014 cause weakened immune systems. Steroids (cortisone) and some of the new \u201cbiologics\u201d such as Humira used to treat autoimmune diseases lower immunity. Immunity also diminishes after about age 65.<\/p>\n

Immunotherapies are \u2014 according to Dr. Li \u2014 new medications that help the immune system locate and destroy cancer cells. They have led to breakthroughs in the treatment of many types of cancer (example: President Jimmy Carter was diagnosed a few years ago with metastatic melanoma, was treated with immunotherapy, and has no sign of remaining cancer).<\/p>\n

Following are some examples of immune-boosting foods shown experimentally to strengthen immunity according to Dr. Li: mushrooms, aged garlic, broccoli sprouts, chestnuts, blackberries, black raspberries, walnuts, pomegranate, cranberries, grapes, blueberries and chile peppers.<\/p>\n

In summary, here are some steps you can take to boost your immunity, which will help prevent cancer and infections such as the current COVID-19 (even if you follow all the currently recommended precautions to avoid contact with coronavirus, you still could come in contact with it):<\/p>\n

\u2022 Eat primarily \u2014 if not totally \u2014 vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, and whole grains.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Get 7-8 hours of sleep.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Exercise at least 30 minutes a day, and the rest of the day move about frequently.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Reduce stress \u2014 mindful meditation is one option.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Keep your immunizations current \u2014 if you have one infection you are more likely to acquire a second one.<\/p>\n

Next week\u2019s column will be immunity part 2 \u2014 problems associated with an overactive immune system.<\/p>\n

Greg Feinsinger, M.D. is a retired family physician who has a nonprofit: Prevention and Treatment of Disease Through Nutrition.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greg Feinsinger Last week\u2019s column was an overview of Dr. William Li\u2019s new book \u201cEat to Beat Disease,\u201d and the five body defense systems he talks about: immunity, angiogenesis, regeneration, the microbiome and DNA protection. Dr. Li is a practicing physician who is also on the cutting edge of medical research. The subtitle of his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1318761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-23 10:32:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}