You ever notice how you feel just a bit better when you come home to a clean abode?  It just seems things are brighter, calmer, easier when the dirty towels are off the bathroom floor, the laundry is off the bed and put away, the kitchen floor shines, and the bookcases don’t sport a double layer of dust.

Many in the body/mind/spirit practice take this space clearing to a higher realm. They believe negative energy can be cleared from the environment inside a dwelling as well, leading to a more relaxed, positive “field” and even better health. Such space clearing has its roots in the Feng Shui movement, a centuries-old Asian suite of practices claiming to help achieve spiritual balance between people and their environments.

See the video below. It’s a news story of a space clearing conducted in a home for sale in Massachusetts, which sold 2 days later after having been on the market for a long time. Kind of thought-provoking. The home owner is a college biology professor, who is steeped in science but had a space-clearing expert give her home the once-over. The scientist was impressed, and talked about new developments in quantum physics, string theory etc. that may play a role in such a practice. My question is, can space clearing lead to better immune function? There sure are a lot of space clearing experts and consultants out there.  Any one know of a traditional health professional who has adopted this approach?

Here’s a brief explanation.

Stress can alter the bacterial composition of the digestive tract. When that happens, good/bad bacteria are out of balance. When bad bacteria rule the roost (in the gut), the ability of the body’s immune system to operate at top efficiency is compromised. Gut bacteria are the “educators” of the body’s immune cell behavior, signaling aggressive or passive response as needed, depending on the kinds of pathogens or antigens that enter the body and alert the immune system.

An even better, but lengthier, discussion is here. The author likens immune balance as a “four-way seesaw” that needs to maintain balance to work.

Go, stress, gut, immune. They make your health world go round. That’s why stress management over the long term is so important. It can impact so many other parts of your health and eventually, your quality of life.

The Five S’s refer to five things you can do to maintain optimal immune health. In my book, these measures will also impact many other health areas, including weight, cardio, skin and mental health.

The are:

Sustenance – Meaning diet and nutrition. A diet tilted toward fruits and veggies, less processed sugar, moderate lean fresh meat consumption, healthy fats, a good amount of water and maybe a red wine or dark beer here and there, can help feed healthy gut bacteria essential for immune health while also addressing cell inflammation that damages health. Think Mediterranean.

Sport – Moderate exercise can improve immune function. The science is there.

Stress – Managing stress helps impact gut health, where stress can upset the balance of immune-controlling beneficial bacteria.

Sleep – A solid 7 or 8 hours of sleep a night can do wonders for immune health.

Supplementation – Nutritional support with EpiCor can help optimize immune health, especially during stretches when diet, stress management, sleep or exercise might be lacking.

Keep these Five S’s at the fore. See how things go during the year. You may be surprised.

And after you’re done, here’s some more discussion on the research.

Just another example of how brain/immune messaging is really fascinating.

• take in more alcohol than usual?
• don’t drink enough water?
• don’t eat real healthy?
• don’t get enough sleep?
• go running about outside in dry, cold weather?

Well,  besides putting on a few extra pounds and maybe exposing yourself to a bout of winter crud, one casualty could be your skin. Particularly dry, undernourished skin. And what’s the risk of unhealthy skin?  How about weakened immune function!?!

Skin is one of the primary immune defenses you have.  The New Zealand Dermatological Society has a good summary of how problem skin can impact immune function:

“The immune system develops in the first six months of life. There is a generally an equilibrium of the two main types of T Helper lymphocytes (small white blood cells), TH-1 and TH-2. In atopic dermatitis there is often an imbalance, with far more TH-2 cells and their associated chemical messengers (cytokines). In some children there are also high levels of the antibody immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies and eosinophils (the white blood cells associated with allergy).

The loss of skin barrier function means that:

• Water is lost
• Irritants may penetrate (soap, detergent, solvents, dirt etc.)
• Allergens may penetrate it (pollens, dust-mite antigens, microbes)”

Another great little summary about immune function is here at this baby health site. Even though it focuses on immune health and skin from a baby’s perspective, I think the rules work well for adults, too.

So taking care of skin–good nutrition, proper hydration, etc.– can make an impact on overall immune health.  This holiday, put your skin in the game.

]]> http://www.balancedimmunehealth.com/2011/12/keep-your-skin-and-your-immune-health-in-the-game/feed/ 0 http://www.balancedimmunehealth.com/2011/12/here-come-the-finals-and-sick-kids-for-holiday-break/ http://www.balancedimmunehealth.com/2011/12/here-come-the-finals-and-sick-kids-for-holiday-break/#comments Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:18:43 +0000 Craig Maltby, Editor http://www.balancedimmunehealth.com/?p=3415 Maybe one of the most direct and important benefits of a balanced, healthy immune system is how it may help mitigate and lessen the lost productivity that happens when someone comes down with the winter crud and misses a lot of work or school class time. Getting waylaid by a winter bug can put you behind at work and at school, even waaaaay behind.

I am mindful of this because my college daughter just presented a huge project for a huge grade in her architecture studies. She did great. But, to get it done, she literally got 2 hours of sleep a night, spending most of every evening and overnight during the past two weeks at her design studio. Many other students had the same sleep regimen.

But, so far, no health problems. No viral crud, no  fever, no missed class or studio time. As we all know, lack of sleep coupled with little exercise, iffy diet and nutrition, and unabated stress can knock one’s immune system far off the rails. And, as we also know, stress and tension being allowed to build over the course of time can also lead to getting sick once the stressful stretch is over. Hence, many students and adults get sick during holiday break once the job duties or semester studies end.

I do think taking EpiCor may have helped my daughter get through these sleepless, stress-filled stretches. I can’t imagine how she could have performed like she did if she had been out for the count for several days, in bed, waiting to get well enough to get back to class.

Of course, now that I think about it, maybe when she was home during Thanksgiving helped prepare her immune system for the end-of-year grind at college. Watching all the recorded episodes of Glee that she missed, plus massive shopping, seeing high school friends and Mom and Dad’s home cooking might have also helped the cause.

The only problem: what about winter, especially in northern climes where sun exposure is weak?   Right now, I’m really missing being able to play nine holes of golf at 6:30 at night. Now, by 6:30, it’s been dark for an hour.

Low-angle sun in the fall, compared to the high-overhead sun in the summer, lacks the intensity to allow shorth-length UVB  rays to penetrate the atmosphere. Those UVB rays penetrating the skin are what stokes the body’s Vitamin D production factory.

For Vitamin D upkeep during winter, almost everyone recommends a good Vitamin D3 supplement. (D3 is best absorbed by the body).

For immune health upkeep, EpiCor has been shown to activate NK cells and antioxidant levels in the blood in as little as two hours. Taking it daily can help when sun and exercise are in short supply.

The point I want to make is about humor and laughter. There’s always been stuff written about laughter and immune health…how laughing can improve immune performance.  A little or a lot of holiday cheer…the non-alcoholic kind…could be just the thing to help keep your immune system in good working order, right?  Well, maybe. Or maybe not.

I found a very good research summary on PubMed from Complementary and Alternative Medicine. It puts a collection of studies in some perspective. The overriding conclusion (surprise, surprise) is that larger, more controlled studies are needed before any definitive pronouncements about laughter, humor and immune health can be made.

But the article does point out the problem with variables and definitions when trying characterize humor or laughter. For example, it points out that people who consider themselves possessing a significant  ”sense of humor”  exhibited no more or less immune cell activity than others who did not. And, of course, what defines a “sense of humor?”  It also pointed to increased NK (natural killer) cell activity among people who laugh and laugh hard, as opposed to those who smile or kind of chuckle. Does that imply that the physical component of laughing can have as much or more impact on immune response than anything else? And what about longevity of the act of laughing? Does one need to sustain laughter regularly over the course of weeks or months for laughter to be effective?  Who knows? And don’t even start in about laughter in combination with other lifestyle aspects such as exercise, diet, sleep, etc. that we all know can impact immune health as well. That would seem to be a maze of variables and definitions that are nearly impossible to define, combine and measure.

Oh well. If laughter is not necessarily always the best medicine, it sure can’t hurt.

You can do better, especially if you’re wanting to keep your immune system as healthy as you can. You don’t need to cut out all the beige and brown, but why not try adding more vibrant color to the dinner plate. More color means more antioxidants and phytonutrients (plant-based nutrients). In other words, try to make your food selection the same colors as Nebraska’s football pants, or the Minnesota Vikings’ football helmets, or maybe the Celtics’ basketball jerseys.

This report on “color” intake within the American diet talks about the shortfall the average American experiences in eating enough of the proper colors.  The more color you can get in your diet, the better for your immune health. Those bright plant pigments deliver a lot of nutrients to the body, nearly all of which can support immune health.

But how about African medicine? Rooted in herbalism with a spiritual component, there may be several overlapping philosophies with other cultural/medical practices. I’m the last to offer any familiarity or overarching perspective on the subject.

However, I did come across a fascinating article on immune balance in The Nigerian Tribune. The story provides some information on probiotic benefits of indigenous African foods that can lead to immune system improvement, with some studies cited. Well done, I say.