In This Chapter
▶ Staying away from toxins that wear on your immune system
▶ Detoxifying to boost your immunity
▶ Getting nutrients you need to thwart sickness
▶ Supplementing to help support your immune system
your immune system is truly a wonder. It’s a vast, complex system with all kinds of unique, specialized parts that work together to keep your body from being overrun with foreign invaders like bacteria, viruses, parasites, toxins, and cancer. When it’s healthy, your immune system can do some mind-boggling things. When it’s not healthy, however, it can break down easily and allow you to fall victim to the harmful things that are around us all the time.
With that in mind, you should be very happy to know that you have quite a lot of control over the health of your immune system. Most people don’t give their immunity much thought until they get sick, but we all should be mindful of our immune systems and do whatever is possible to keep things running at a high level. The best way to avoid illness is to stay healthy.
In this chapter, I fill you in on many of the toxic threats that bombard your immune system and can make it difficult for your body to effectively prevent and fight disease. I also lead you through the ways that you can avoid these toxins and detoxify your body if some of the nasty substances have already found their way inside you. A top-notch immune system isn’t possible with- out good nutrition, so I clue you in on the foods and supplements you can select to keep your immune function at its best. Finally, I wrap up the chap- ter with some tasty, easy recipes for dishes you can make to provide your immune system with the healthy fuel it needs to perform its critical job.
Avoiding Toxins that Challenge Your Immune System
Like so many other things in life, your immune system will eventually break down if it’s overworked for a long period of time. If your body is exposed to harmful, foreign influences like organisms or chemicals in amounts that exceed what your immune system can handle, disease will be the result.
As I mention many times throughout this book, the environment around you has reached an unprecedented level of toxicity in the last few decades. The vast amounts of toxic threats that come at you from all sides are more than enough to overwhelm your immune system. Some people would disagree, of course, but in my opinion the toxic threat has become the most significant health hazard of our time.
In this section, I give you a concise but rounded view of the various types of toxins that can give your immune system fits. Just like the toxins I describe in other chapters, these will do the least amount of damage to your body’s systems if you’re aware of them and able to avoid them in your daily life.
Biologic toxins
On an average day, you’re exposed to millions of microscopic organisms that can potentially do your body harm. Many of these tiny creatures could have a seriously negative effect on your health if they ended up in your body in large quantities, so you should consider yourself lucky to have some lines of defense set up that stop most of the onslaught before it gets into your bloodstream or internal tissues. These defenses include your skin, which repels quite a lot of microorganisms, and also your stomach acid, which kills off many of the living things that enter your body when you eat, drink, or breathe.
Some microscopic cells are able to penetrate those first lines of defense, however, and that’s when your immune system saves the day. If you can keep your immune system healthy and make sure it isn’t completely overwhelmed by the critters I describe in the next couple pages, it will prevent those organ- isms from congregating and multiplying in your body. If your immune system persists, you continue to live a healthy life. If it breaks down and the organ- isms get a foothold in your body, they will soon begin to invade your tissues, reproduce in large quantities, and produce chemical toxins that keep over- loading your immune system to cause infection and disease.
We all know that in order to avoid coming into contact with dangerous micro- organisms, we should stay away from sick people and avoid eating or drinking foods and liquids that have clearly gone rancid. But you can also take many other steps to prevent yeast, bacteria, and parasites from invading your body.
Yucky yeast
Yeast cells are on and in your body all the time, and you can’t do much about that. They’re simply too tiny, numerous, and common in your environment for you to keep every last cell away from you. And that’s okay. A few yeast cells here and there both inside and outside your body are just fine. If you can keep them in check, they won’t give you any problems.
The real trouble starts when yeast cells are able to increase their numbers to the point that as a group they’re big enough to negatively affect you. Yeast and the byproducts that yeast cells create can cause all manner of nasty effects in your body; check out Chapter 2 for details.
How can you avoid giving yeast cells room to run in your body? You want to dodge several scenarios:
✓ Too much sugar in your diet: Yeast cells thrive on sugars and simple carbohydrates, so keep those to a minimum in order to keep yeasts under control.
✓ Excessive use of antibiotics: Just one round of antibiotics is enough to kill 80 percent of the good bacteria in your intestines, which creates all kinds of room for yeast cells to flourish. Make sure you se antibiotics only when necessary.
✓ Anything that slows down or speeds up your bowels: If the food yourin testines are trying to digest moves through too slowly or too quickly, the normal bacteria in there can be disrupted, and yeast cells are given the chance to multiply rapidly. Staying regular with a healthy detox diet helps you avoid the problem.
✓ Use of certain medications: Any medication or over-the-counter product that can cause harm to the lining of your stomach or your intestines can do enough damage to give yeast a foothold in your body. Chemotherapy, radiation, and long-term use of steroids can have the same effect. Even common anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen or aspirin can cause enough disruption to allow yeast overgrowth.
If you want to discourage the overgrowth of harmful yeast cells in your body, you can take Saccharomyces probiotics. Saccharomyces is actually a type of yeast, but it’s a good yeast that behaves itself in your body, and it can help to keep the harmful yeasts under control. You can find Saccharomyces in capsule form at your health food store, likely for less than $20 per bottle. Try to take Saccharomyces anytime you have an infection that requires you to take antibiotics.
Bad bacteria
Like yeasts, bacteria are on and in us all the time, including the kinds of bacteria that can cause infections. The trick is that they’re present in extremely small numbers, and they don’t start being harmful unless they’re given the chance to multiply. You want to keep several things in mind to make sure the bacteria around you don’t get enough momentum to grow in number and challenge your immune system on a dangerous level. Here goes:
✓ Wash your hands and bathe regularly. I know this is some pretty basic advice, but I can’t stress enough the importance of washing your hands — especially before you eat anything — and bathing on a regular basis. If you do these two things, you’ll greatly reduce the bacterial threat with- out much effort at all.
✓ Wash your food. Of course, it doesn’t do you much good to wash your hands if bacteria are on your food. Fruits and vegetables should be washed thoroughly as soon as you get them home. Most people wait to wash until they’re going to eat their produce, but it’s better to wash it as soon as you get home from the store. Don’t let fruits and vegetables sit unwashed in the fridge or on the counter because that situation encourages bacterial growth and also allows any toxins on the produce to continue to penetrate into the interior of the food.
✓ Cook meat thoroughly. If you eat meat, be sure it’s cooked all the way through. And don’t allow meat to sit at room temperature for any extended period of time.
✓ Maintain a healthy level of stomach acid. You need the right amount and strength of stomach acid to kill off the bacteria that could otherwise enter your body through your digestive system. To assure that your stomach acid is at the right levels, don’t take acid reducers unless you have documented high acid levels.
If you have problems with acid reflux or ulcers, you need to see a doctor and be tested for H. pylori, a bacterium that causes many of these types of ailments. You also need to have your stomach acid level tested with the Heidelberg gastric analysis. Go to www.phcapsule.com/drref. htm to find a physician who has this equipment and can do the testing.
✓ Avoid contaminated water. If your main source of water is a well, make sure you have it tested for the presence of dangerous bacteria.
(Flip back to Chapter 3 for more information on how to get your water tested.) If you travel internationally, be sure to drink water that you know has been treated to kill bacteria and other microorganisms. (Bottled water may be your only option in these situations.)
When you travel to another country, don’t assume that you can drink from a water source just because you see the locals drinking from it. People adapt to the bacteria where they live, and what is commonplace and not detrimental to the health of one person in one area could cause disease in another person.
Pushy parasites
Parasites are nasty little critters that use you as a home, help themselves to your resources, and don’t offer anything helpful in return. Most of them aren’t so bad that they will kill you — after all, they’d sort of be shooting themselves in the foot because they’d be ruining their home. However, they can make you very sick, and they can push your immune system to its limits. Humans have always been exposed to parasites, and we still are today. People just don’t want to talk or think about it, and parasites are often one of the last things a doctor considers unless you really push the issue.
With international travel and immigration, people are exposed to a wider variety of parasites than ever before. If you travel abroad, be sure that the water you drink and ice you eat has been purified. Don’t eat raw vegetables or fruit unless you’re sure that they have been peeled, washed with purified water, or thoroughly cooked.
Natural bodies of water are often loaded with parasites, and you don’t have to drink the water to catch them; swimming in the water can be enough to catch the bug. Having pets that spend time both inside and outside the house can also increase your exposure to parasites; you can contract several para- sites just as easily as your cat or dog would. Getting tested for parasites is extremely uncommon, but most people wouldn’t dream of not getting their pets wormed every year. What’s wrong with this picture?
Because testing for parasites is uncommon, patients often figure out they’re harboring some sort of critter only after the symptoms have set in for a while. Parasites cause many different types of illnesses, and if you catch one, you can count on it being a constant drain on your immune system. I recommend that you do a parasite cleanse every year. See the upcoming section “Destroying parasites” for details.
Environmental elements
The range and amount of environmental toxins that people are faced with today have exceeded the capability of many people’s bodies to carry out detoxification without any help. The result? Widespread disease. Environmental toxins like heavy metals and chemicals can be disastrous for your immune system, and you need to prioritize limiting your exposure to these substances and acting quickly to detoxify your body if you need to.
Heavy metals
Avoiding heavy metals is a long-term, difficult challenge, but it’s one that you should take on with enthusiasm if you’re committed to good health. Check out Chapter 2 for all the details on heavy metals, from the kinds that are increasingly prevalent (like mercury and lead) to the many problems they can cause in your system. Everyone needs to avoid heavy metals whenever possible, but it’s absolutely imperative that children, pregnant women, and women who plan on getting pregnant do whatever they can to avoid and remove heavy metals.
Which metals are the hardest on your immune system? Here’s a helpful list of the most harmful heavy metals, along with the places you can encounter them if you’re not careful:
✓ Aluminum: A common metal found in some vaccines, antacids, cook- ware, and antiperspirant.
✓ Antimony: Found in fire-retardant textiles like bedding.
✓ Arsenic: Present in some foods (chicken is a top offender), wood preservatives, fuel oils, fertilizers, and weed killer.
✓ Barium: Often present in some ceramics, plastics, textiles, and fuel.
✓ Beryllium: Found in neon signs, bicycle wheels, and fishing rods.
✓ Bisthmuth: Present in many medicines used to treat stomach aches.
✓ Bromine: Often used as a disinfectant for swimming pools and hot tubs.
✓ Cadmium: Present in cigarettes, batteries, and refined foods.
✓ Lead: Found in old paint, tin cans, pewter, dust, ceramics, and insecticides.
✓ Manganese: Sources include welding equipment and supplies.
✓ Mercury: Sources include amalgam fillings, fish and other types of seafood, flu vaccines, and high fructose corn syrup.
✓ Nickel: Present in tobacco, auto exhaust, fertilizer, and baking powder.
✓ Thallium: Found in metal alloys, rodenticides, and fireworks.
For a thorough discussion on how you can avoid these heavy metals, flip back to Chapter 3.
Chemicals
Avoiding toxic chemicals is no easy task, but if you make a concerted effort, your immune system will be much better off. Chemical toxins harm and kill many of our bodies’ cells, and the dynamic cells that make up your immune system are especially fragile and prone to being killed or rendered useless by chemical toxins. Here are a few tips for cutting toxic chemicals out of your life:
✓ Don’t use toxic cleaning products in your home. Plenty of non-toxic options are available online and at your local health food store, and they will get your house just as clean as their harsh chemical counterparts. Vodka in a spray bottle is a good option (one spray for the countertop and one for the tonsils!).
✓ Avoid using products with fragrances. These include room sprays, dryer sheets, carpet deodorizing powders, and even some candles.
Many candles have wicks that contain lead. If you use candles in your home, be sure to choose lead-free options when buying.
✓ Reduce your exposure to fumes. If you’re working with substances that produce fumes, make sure you’re doing so for only short periods of time and in a well-ventilated space. This includes paint!
✓ Wash all your fruits and vegetables thoroughly. Your best bet is to do so as soon as you bring them home from the store.
✓ Purify your air. Invest in a good HEPA air purifier to cut down on the airborne toxins that you inhale while indoors.
Removing Toxins for Better Immune Response
The previous section is all about how to identify and avoid the toxins that can damage your immune system. Unfortunately, no matter how vigilant you are about dodging toxins, you’ll likely still end up with them in your system just because those materials are now so abundant. That’s why this section focuses on the detoxification of immune-damaging materials from your system.
Different methods of detoxification work best for different toxins, so you may have to take a multi-pronged attack. But the good news is that almost all toxins can be removed, so even if your toxicity is pretty high you can start now to correct the situation. (If you need help figuring out how toxic you are, check out the quiz in Chapter 8.)
You may have a hard time getting motivated to change your routine and diet or to take supplements to treat a problem that isn’t always blatantly obvious. Finding motivation is even more difficult because traditional medicine doesn’t focus much on toxicity. (In many cases doctors don’t even test for toxicity when trying to diagnose an illness.) The challenge for you is to recognize the toxins that are in your body now and to take an active role in your detoxification. No one else is going to do it for you.
Saying goodbye to living toxins
Earlier in this chapter I explain how you can avoid letting yeast, bacteria, and parasites enter your body and put a strain on your immune system. But chances are you already have some of these living toxins in your body, and you need to get rid of them if you want your immune function to be tip-top.
Killing yeasts
Yeasts are very aggressive in the body when they have a steady stream of simple carbohydrates and sugar to feast on, so the first thing you should do to limit yeast growth is to cut out as many of those materials from your diet as possible. Taking out most of the sugar from your diet will starve the yeast cells, which can go a long way toward slashing their numbers down to manageable levels. You can also take a variety of natural products that kill yeast, including grapefruit seed, black walnut hull extract, slippery elm bark, goldenseal root extract, and bearberry leaf. I also recommend trying the antifungal drugs Nystatin or Diflucan and using them for about three weeks. (You’ll need a doctor’s prescription.) That usually does the trick.
Eliminating bacteria
High levels of harmful bacteria in your colon can produce a lot of toxins, and these toxins can strain your immune system in some pretty heinous ways and have direct effects on other organs like the brain. To remedy that kind of problem, try a colon cleanse followed by a concerted effort to repopulate your gut with good bacteria. (Have a look at Chapter 5 for details on how to carry out that process.) If that method fails, sometimes it may be necessary to use antibiotics. If that’s the case, ask your doctor to prescribe oral antibiotics that don’t get absorbed into your bloodstream but instead do all their killing right in the intestines.
Destroying parasites
Parasites can be extremely pesky, but natural solutions can take care of the problem. Ask at your health food store for natural products that contain black walnut husks, wormwood, Pau D’Arco, garlic, pumpkin seed, ginger root, clove, and gentian root. Keep in mind that if natural alternatives don’t do the trick, you can always fall back on a few old and very safe prescription drugs like Vermox and Biltricide for killing parasites.
Giving chemicals and heavy metals the heave-ho
Toxic chemicals and heavy metals are bound to damage your immune system, so you should take action to remove these substances from your body. A range of helpful detox methods is available, and they are treatments available to everyone — nothing too exotic or expensive.
Everyone should be interested in removing from their bodies toxins that com- promise immune health. But at the very top of the list are children and women who are trying to get pregnant.
If you are in good health and you’re just getting started on a detoxification reg- imen to rid your body of the toxins that affect the immune system, consider doing a two-day water fast, meaning that you eat nothing and drink only water for two full days. Doing so is easier than you think, and it’s useful for cleaning out your body and giving your natural detoxification mechanisms a little bit of a rest before you shift them into high gear for your detox push. Just make sure you have a reliably clean, toxin-free water source before you get started.
Getting help from herbs and foods
You can eat a variety of herbs and foods to help your body fight and get rid of the toxins that are harmful to your immune system. Many of these options are excellent for general health, too, so you certainly won’t be giving anything up in terms of nutrition if you work to include a range of them in your diet.
One of the most important dietary considerations for detoxifying your body against toxic threats to your immune system is your daily intake of fiber. If you get plenty of fiber in your diet, your body has an easier time eliminating the toxins in your digestive system that have been broken down or removed from your blood by your liver. Do your best to incorporate fiber into your diet whenever possible.
Here are some of the best herbs and foods for detoxification of the heavy metals and chemicals that can harm your immune system:
✓ Sulfur-containing foods: These include eggs, garlic, and onions.
✓ Fresh vegetables juices: Beet, carrot, and celery juices are three of the top varieties.
✓ Cruciferous vegetables: Focus on broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, and cabbage.
✓ Dandelion greens: These should be available at your grocery store, and you can probably even find a 100 percent organic variety. If not, try a health food store.
✓ Green tea: I mention this one in several other chapters as well. It’s a detoxification powerhouse!
✓ Other types of tea: You can see benefits from tea made from cinnamon bark, licorice root, ginger root, and burdock root.
✓ Rosemary: This excellent herb helps increase your body’s natural detoxification enzymes.
✓ Cilantro: It actually works to pull heavy metals from your tissues. Eat it fresh or buy a tincture from your health food store and follow the directions on the label.
✓ Chlorella: Like cilantro, this green algae acts to flush heavy metals from your body. Find it at your local health food store or online.
✓ Fruits: Some of the best options include grapes, berries, and citrus fruits.
If you’re trying to eat certain herbs and foods to detoxify your body, you’d really be wasting your time if you were choosing options that contain toxins. To make sure that doesn’t happen, get 100 percent organic foods and supplements whenever possible.
Seeking out suitable supplements
You can also use several different kinds of supplements to help you rid your body of chemical and heavy metal toxins. First, make sure that you’re taking a high potency, high quality multivitamin to cover all the basic vitamins and minerals. (Check out Chapter 5 for a general discussion of how to pick out your supplements.) After you have that important step taken care of, you can focus on selecting some other supplements to help you clear out the toxins that can bombard your immune system. Here are some of the top examples, along with the dosages you need to achieve the desired effect:
✓ Alpha-lipoic acid: 100–600 mg per day
✓ Amino acids: 1,000 mg of both glycine and taurine per day
✓ Carnitine: 1–3 grams per day
✓ Mixed carotenoids: 15,000–25,000 units per day
✓ Molybdenum: 50–200 micrograms per day
✓ N-acetylcysteine: 500–1,000 mg per day
✓ Omega-3 essential fatty acids: 1–4 grams per day
✓ Resveratrol: 30 mg per day
✓ Selenium: 200 micrograms per day
✓ Silymarin: 50–200 mg per day
✓ Vitamin C: 2–4 grams per day
✓ Zinc: 30–50 mg per day
I know this may seem like a long list, but remember that you’re trying to change the way your body functions on a very basic level to enhance toxin removal. Doing so takes a lot of effort, but the result — a robust immune system — is worth it!
Catching toxins with chelation
If you have a heavy load of heavy metals in your system and they’re damaging your immune system, you may need to step up your detoxification efforts beyond food, herbs, and supplements. The next step is chelation, and it can really save the day.
Chelation involves taking a medication that’s designed to attract and attach to heavy metals and then remove them through your urine. Chelating agents have been used for over 60 years and are extremely safe and efficient in removing heavy metals. I won’t get into the chelation details here, but you can flip to Chapter 18 for a full rundown if you’re interested.
Sweating out the heavy metals
Sweating is one of the most important ways to detox the body, and you can actually accomplish a useful amount of heavy metal detoxification by simply sweating through everyday activity and exercise. Sweating removes one-third as many toxins as your kidneys, and many of the toxins that sweating eliminates aren’t removed effectively by any other means of detoxification. If you sweat out some of the heavy metals that plague your immune system, you can improve the health of your entire body. I encourage you to embrace that kind of sweating and make it part of your normal routine.
If you want to really increase the amount of heavy metals you eliminate from your system through sweating, you can always take advantage of saunas. You can use several types of saunas year-round to bolster your heavy metal detoxification. The most common types are wet, dry, and infrared. I cover all the details in Chapter 18, so if you’re interested, grab a towel and a tall glass of clean water and get ready to sweat it out!
Using Nutrition to Bolster Immunity
Your immune system is a complex machine, and if you want to keep it healthy you need to get a range of important nutritional elements. But you can also go the extra mile and tweak your diet in a few key ways to ensure that your immunity is at its very best. That’s what I encourage you to do in this section: Go beyond the basic requirements and shoot for the type of diet that can really make your immune system shine.
Picking foods to help thwart disease
I put a lot of emphasis on the importance of the food you choose to eat, and I’m certainly not changing my tune when it comes to keeping your immune system healthy. Eating the right foods can give you a leg up on robust immunity, and avoiding a few lousy foods can go just as far.
What you need to eat
First off, see to it that you’re getting the following minerals and amino acids, which are very important in maintaining a high performance immune system:
✓ Iron: Low iron levels cause increased retention of the harmful heavy metal toxins aluminum, lead, and cadmium. You can get iron in beef, turkey, sardines, oysters, clams, shrimp, beans, lentils, and pumpkin seeds.
✓ L-cysteine: This amino acid is a key player in boosting your body’s ability to detoxify itself. Make sure you get plenty of it in your diet! You’ll find it in chicken, turkey, eggs, yogurt, garlic, onions, red peppers, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.
✓ Selenium: If you don’t get enough selenium, your body is more likely to retain mercury, which is one of the worst toxins known to man.
Selenium is found in garlic, grains, shellfish, salmon, sunflower seeds, walnuts, ginseng, onions, and chives.
✓ Zinc: Don’t skimp on the zinc or you’ll make it harder for your body’s natural detoxification efforts to clear out a range of heavy metals. Look for zinc in beef, lamb, turkey, chicken, and shellfish.
Also keep in mind that virtually any deficiency of vitamins or essential fatty acids has a negative impact on your immune system. Make sure you’re getting what you need on those fronts — you can read more in Chapters 5 and 17 — and you’ll give your body the firm foundation it needs to maintain health and fight disease.
Be sure to eat plenty of antioxidant-rich foods. Strive to include foods that are loaded with alpha-lipoic acid, beta-carotene, omega-3 fatty acids, resveratrol, sulforaphane, vitamin C, and vitamin E. These are essential substances for a bombastic immune system, and you can get them from the following food sources:
✓ Alpha-lipoic acid: This antioxidant supports the liver’s detoxification function. Find it in nuts, seeds, broccoli, leafy green vegetables, grains, hempseed oil, flaxseed oil, and virgin unhydrogenated coconut oil.
✓ Beta-carotene: Eat fruits and vegetables that are orange in color, such as sweet potatoes, carrots, mangoes, apricots, and spinach. (Okay, I know that last one isn’t orange, but it can’t all be color-coded, can it?)
✓ Omega-3 fatty acids: Fish and grass-fed beef are good sources.
✓ Resveratrol: This substance is one of many reasons to eat your broccoli.
✓ Sulforaphane: This is one of the best antioxidants ever found. You get sulforaphane from broccoli and broccoli sprouts, but 90 percent is destroyed if you cook it.
✓ Vitamin C: Citrus fruits, green and red peppers, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli are great sources.
✓ Vitamin E: Find it in safflower, corn, and canola oils, as well as wheat germ and sunflower seeds.
Healthy immunity also depends on a good, steady source of protein in your diet. Two of the most beneficial amino acids for giving your immune system a boost and fighting disease are glutamine and arginine. Find them in eggs, lean beef, chicken, and turkey.
What you need to avoid eating
Trans fats are inflammatory, and saturated fats are loaded with toxins. They decrease the effectiveness of your immune system. You should be making every effort to cut them out of your diet anyway, but you can feel extra good about waving goodbye to them when you realize that in addition to increasing your cardiovascular health and decreasing your toxin intake, you’re also helping your body to fight disease. All that, and you only have to give up a couple of nasty types of fat? Not a bad deal at all.
Figuring out what to eat if you’re already sick
You could eat the best foods and maintain the healthiest lifestyle and still get sick. There’s no escaping the fact that we live in a world full of viruses, bacteria, and toxins that can make us ill, and eventually your immune system is going to get overwhelmed and you’ll get sick. When that happens, you should maintain your healthy lifestyle and continue to eat the wholesome, natural foods that I describe throughout this chapter (and elsewhere in the book). But you can also do a few other things to help your immune system fight off the intruders that are causing your ailment:
✓ Ramp up the antioxidants: Antioxidants are great at helping your immune system fight illness, and if you eat them when you’re sick you should get well faster. (If you take them all the time, you may not get sick at all.) Flip to Chapter 5 for lots of information on how to select foods that are packed with antioxidants.
✓ Load up on vitamin C: When you’re sick, you should take vitamin C up to bowel tolerance. That’s the level at which the vitamin C causes loose stool, and of course you don’t want to do that to yourself, especially when you’re sick. Bowel tolerance for adults is about 8,000 to 10,000 mg per day. (The amounts are lower for children, of course.) To get that much vitamin C in your diet when you’re sick, try to eat as many vitamin C–rich foods as you can (I list a few in this chapter) and take supplements to make up the difference.
✓ Get lots of vitamin E and selenium: These substances can also be extremely beneficial when you’re sick, especially for viral and upper respiratory infections.
✓ Drink water — and lots of it: When you’re sick, it’s hugely important that you drink lots and lots of water. In Chapter 5 I explain your lymph system, which is almost like a second circulatory system that helps to flush toxins, bacteria, and viruses from your body. If you’re extremely well hydrated, your lymph system has what it needs to flush out those harmful materials faster and more efficiently than if you’re not drinking enough water.
Your immune and lymph systems desperately need lots of water to work properly and make you well, so make sure you’re giving those important systems what they require. Drink up! (And make sure the water is purified and toxin-free, of course.)
Choosing Supplements that Boost Your Immunity
Boosting the immune system’s function with vitamin and herbal supplements is a practice that has been going on for thousands of years. If you choose your supplements wisely, you can really enhance your body’s ability to keep itself healthy and running smoothly, which in turn makes it much more adept at fighting off illnesses. In today’s toxic world, I believe that everyone should supplement to maintain a robust immune system. With just a little extra effort, you can defeat disease before it gets started. You know what they say about an ounce of prevention.
How to deal with diarrhea
When some people get diarrhea, they immediately reach for some over-the-counter or prescription drug that is designed to patch up the problem and allow them to have solid stools again. That’s not the healthiest move. When you get diarrhea, it’s a crystal clear sign that your body is trying to get rid of something. Your colon is essentially stealing water from the rest of your body to liquefy the contents of your bowels and move them out as quickly as possible. When you get diarrhea, don’t reach for a bottle of medicine right away. Let your colon do its job!
The best treatment for most types of diarrhea is to drink lots and lots of water and let the diarrhea run its course. If you work hard to stay hydrated, your colon will eventually clear out the harmful substances that are making you sick. After the toxic contents are out of your body, the diarrhea should stop. One caveat: If your diarrhea lasts for several days, the problem could be something that your colon isn’t able to handle on its own, so you may need to consult your doctor.
One quick note: Don’t confuse this information on immune system–boosting supplements with the information I provide earlier in the chapter on supple- ments that you can take to help your body detoxify itself when you’ve taken in toxins that threaten your immune system. The suggestions overlap some- what, but there are key differences, as well.
Vitamins and minerals
If you’re on a good daily multivitamin regimen, you’re more than likely giving your immune system much of what it needs to flourish.
Be wary of a multivitamin that purports to provide you with all the vitamins and minerals you need in one capsule or tablet a day; if it really had everything you need in one dose, the pill would be as big as a golf ball. Most comprehensive multivitamins require several capsules a day. Four is a very common number and a good one for you to start with. Ask the experts at your local health food or vitamin store for a recommendation.
In addition to your multivitamin, you can take the following to boost your immune system’s function. The abbreviation IU stands for international units: a measurement of biological activity that is established for each substance so that different products can be compared.
✓ Beta-carotene or vitamin A: 25,000 IU per day
✓ Magnesium: 600–1,200 mg per day
✓ Vitamin C: 2,000–4,000 mg per day
✓ Vitamin D3: 2,000–5,000 IU per day
✓ Vitamin E: 400–800 IU per day
✓ Zinc: 20–40 mg per day
Herbs and other supplements
Quality herbal supplements can greatly enhance your immune function. The quality and potency of the supplement is very important, so be sure to read the section in Chapter 5 that discusses how you can select high-quality supplements.
One immune-boosting supplement that has recently shown quite a bit of promise is sulforaphane, which is an extract of broccoli seeds. It enhances your immune system and has even shown some interesting results in fighting and preventing cancer.
You should also consider taking a supplement that contains concentrated antioxidants, which are extracted from multiple vegetables. These supplements are sold under different names but are usually called greens. You’ll probably find them in powder form; check the shelves of your favorite health food shop or vitamin store.
When you’re buying the supplements called greens, pay special attention to the ORAC number. You don’t need to know the technical details of what that number means or how it’s calculated, but just make sure the product you choose has an ORAC of at least 20,000 per scoop. That’s the same as the anti- oxidant capacity of 15 servings of vegetables!
Here are a few other supplements you can take to gear up your immune system:
✓ Arginine: 3,000 mg per day
✓ Garlic: 600–1,000 mg per day
✓ Glutamate: 3,000 mg per day
✓ Selenium: 200 micrograms per day
Recipes for Improving Your Immune Function
Foods that contain the nutrients and other substances that help to keep you healthy and maintain your immune system just happen to be delicious and versatile in the kitchen. Try some of these recipes to help keep your immunity up to snuff or to give your body a boost when you start to feel a sniffle coming on.
Gingered Roasted Salmon with Berry Salsa
Berries are some of the best foods you can eat. They’re very high in antioxidants, especially anthocyanins and flavonoids, and vitamin C, which helps support the immune system. In a recent study, blueberries were at the top of the list for best foods to eat for detoxification. Paired with smooth and nutty roasted salmon, this is a dish you’ll want to eat again and again.
Wheat germ is very high in vitamin E, which helps the body defend against oxidation. Vitamin E may also reduce the risk of some kinds of cancers. Wheat germ is crunchy, nutty, and delicious. Store wheat germ in the refrigerator because the oils are delicate and perishable.
1 In medium bowl, combine blueberries, cranberries, and blackberries. In small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons honey, 1 tablespoon ginger root, anise seeds, vinegar, and red pepper flakes. Combine this mixture with the berries; mix well and set aside.
2 Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place salmon fillets on baking sheet, brush with 2 table- spoons honey and sprinkle with some white pepper. Combine 1/4 cup ginger root and minced garlic with wheat germ and pat on top of the salmon.
3 Roast salmon for 18–24 minutes until just barely done in center. Salmon should flake easily when tested with a fork. Serve with the berry salsa on the side.
Mixed Green Salad with Green Tea Dressing
When you buy leafy greens, look for the darkest you can find. Darker greens (and vege- tables, too) have more vitamins A, C, and K. These nutritious foods may help prevent some kinds of cancers, and they’re a boon for your immune system. Green tea is full of antioxidants, too, including catechin, a compound that increases liver function.
You may find that this delicious recipe becomes part of your regular rotation.
1 In small saucepan, combine tea leaves, lemon juice, and vinegar. Add filtered water and bring just to a simmer; remove pan from heat, cover, and let steep 20–30 minutes. Strain well; discard tea leaves. Stir in flaxseed oil, garlic, turmeric, stevia, and yogurt; blend well and refrigerate.
2 In serving bowl, combine arugula, mustard greens, spinach, parsley, basil, and broccoli sprouts; toss gently. Add mushrooms and tomatoes; pour yogurt dressing over all. Toss gently and serve immediately.
Berry Currant Chicken Salad
Chicken salad is a true comfort food. The combination of tender chicken with sweet and tart fruits is so good you won’t believe it’s good for you, too!
Black currants are very rich in vitamin C. It may be difficult to find them in regular grocery stores; look for them in organic and health food stores or order online. If you can’t find them, the juice made from the black currant is a good substitute.
Borage seed oil is concentrated in GLA (gamma-linolenic acid), which your body converts into prostaglandins, increasing your immune strength. The oil can also ensure you have the right amounts of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in your body.
1 In small bowl, combine juice, stevia, borage seed oil, flaxseed oil, vegetable oil, vinegar, and cayenne pepper; mix well and refrigerate.
2 Place chicken in skillet; pour water over. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat to low, cover, and poach chicken 12–17 minutes until just done. Place chicken in bowl; pour half of the poaching liquid over and let cool 20 minutes.
3 Remove chicken from liquid and cut into large chunks. Mix with currant dressing and place in serving bowl. Add currants, cranberries, and raspberries and toss gently. Serve on the dark leafy greens.
Cinnamon Granola
Granola is the perfect choice for breakfast or snacks. Two classic ingredients, oats and wheat germ, help boost your immune system with high levels of fiber and vitamin E. And it’s easy to make your own granola. Plus you get to control what goes into the gra- nola! Top it with some plain yogurt with a bit of vanilla stirred in, and lots of fresh berries.
1 Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In large bowl, combine oats, wheat germ, walnuts, pump- kin seeds, sesame seeds, and flaxseed. Set aside.
2 In saucepan, combine oil, honey, and apple juice; heat through until mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and add cinnamon and vanilla.
3 Pour sauce over oat mixture and stir gently. Spread evenly onto a baking sheet. Bake 30–40 minutes, stirring every 7 minutes, until granola is golden. Let cool completely, and then stir to break up clumps. Store in airtight container at room temperature.
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