Balanced Immune Health

Some new health stats came out yesterday ranking America’s most obese states. The honor–or dishonor–of first place went to Mississippi, followed by Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan and Ohio. Don’t get too smug if your state was far down the list (Colorado was last by a mile). Every state except three (Alaska, Indiana, Louisiana) showed a percentage increase in their obesity index over the prior-year data. And those three are still  in the top half of fattest states.

What’s this have to do with immune health? Plenty. A study on obese women, a mouse study, and epidemiological surveys indicate that being overweight inhibits or over-activates production of necessary immune cells to fight bacteria or viruses. We’ve talked a lot in this blog  about inflammation and the body’s inflammatory response to threats. In many cases, some inflammation is necessary to help curb spread of bacteria. Overly aggressive inflammation–a sign of immune system imbalance– leads to a number of health problems. Yet, another mouse study showed that obese mice infected with bacteria had difficulty generating even a minimal level of inflammation within lung tissue, allowing bacteria to proliferate and offering little resistance to disease progression.  Again, another immune imbalance episode, only under-active instead of overactive.

Bottom line:  losing some pounds not only helps your heart, your metabolism, your energy level, it’s also good for your immune system.

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