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.

• 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/2011/02/to-dara-an-answer-to-an-immune-balance-question/ http://www.balancedimmunehealth.com/2011/02/to-dara-an-answer-to-an-immune-balance-question/#comments Fri, 18 Feb 2011 21:35:25 +0000 Craig Maltby, Editor http://www.balancedimmunehealth.com/?p=2700 We recently received a comment/question from someone named Dara. It was a darn good question, and one that I want to address in this post, as opposed to confining it to a response in the comments section.  The question is:

“My concern is symptoms. How does one know that their immune system is not balanced? Are there any signs to suspect?”

I’ll start broadly, and link as much support information as I can. And, keep in mind, these are my thoughts only. I am a health enthusiast who has read a lot about immune health and things that impact immune function, but I am not a doctor or health care professional. And, my thoughts are my thoughts only, not any proxied endorsement of this blog sponsor or any other entity.

First off, if you are someone who catches everything that’s going around–cold, flu, related respiratory tract illnesses, etc.–and you catch it  multiple times throughout the year, you may have a severely imbalanced immune response.  Many people believe a weak immune system allows colds to occur over and over. That may be a myth. It could  be that the passive end of your immune system…suppressor cells that make sure your aggressive cells don’t over react…are not working to keep aggressive immune cells in check.  In other words, if you get a slight bug, your immune response could be way over the top, turning what should be a mild cold into prolonged,  miserable ordeal.

If you have pronounced allergy symptoms–again, over-aggressive immune response to pollen or dust that causes your histamine factory to crank out copious amounts of phlegm, skin irritation, etc.— that may be a sign of immune imbalance.

And don’t forget stress. Stress can cause immune function to go haywire. If you are under significant stress for long periods of time, and you seem to always get sick when the stress comes around, that may be another sign of immune imbalance. Stress, accompanied by lack of sleep, poor nutrition, other bad habits from stress, can divert immune function from where it should be working, allowing health problems to fester.

I could probably meander on endlessly, but I hope that provides at least a good start about the immune balance concept and “real world” examples of what it might mean.

The answer is….I don’t really know. Certainly, a weak immune function can contribute to skin problems. This same source also says that sunlight on the skin can trigger “immune system cells to come to the skin surface to repair any UV damage that occurs in response to sunlight…If we don’t damage it too much, the skin pretty much takes care of itself.” I like that.

On the other hand, in keeping with the immune balance tenets, one paper suggests that suppression of immune response in the skin after sun exposure may be a good thing. Over-reactive immune response in the skin can lead to various skin problems. Yet on the other hand, too much immunosuppression–perhaps caused by large amounts of UV light that damage the suppressor cells that normally would be suppressing– may lead to malignant and pre-malignant  lesions.

So who the heck knows. I think the better balanced you are, the better your chances to stay healthy in the sun as long as you don’t overdo it.

Agreements

1. Vitamin C is a vitamin for a reason
   It is an essential antioxidant.  And, if something is agreed upon as having “vitamin” status, that means it is essential for normal cell function, growth and development.
2. Vitamin C does a lot of things in the body.
   Take your pick:  Collagen synthesis, brain function, energy conversion, even possible blood cholesterol regulation.
3. If you lack Vitamin C in your diet, you’re in big trouble.
   Fatigue, depression, and connective tissue defects (eg, gingivitis, petechiae, rash, internal bleeding, impaired wound healing) can all be part of a bad day without C. That’s a lot more misery than just scurvy.
   

Myths

1. You can’t go wrong with mega doses of C.
   Dr. MARVIN LIPMAN (Endocrinologist and Consumers Union’s Chief Medical Advisor): “There’s very little evidence available that shows that vitamin C in mega doses is good for anything.”
2. Vitamin C can cause kidney stones.
   The Council for Responsible Nutrition shoots this myth down well. See pages 2 and 3 of this document.
3. Overloading on C can drive away the common cold.
   See video below:


Watch CBS News Videos Online

I remember when I moved to Omaha a number of years ago and had been at a new job at a big company. I was a bit nervous about the new position and the demands that lie ahead.  At one point, I began noticing that I had itchy skin around my arms and shoulders, and it got to the point where I needed to have a doctor give it a look. With some topical creme it subsided within a week or so, but I didn’t know what was going. Was I exceptionally stressed or was I just having a hard time facing reality that I was now habitating with Nebraska Cornhuskers and all their life-enveloping fanatacism?

Well, whether work or the Big Red, stress and immune-overaction is again a possible cause, and it’s clearly illustrated in a new study published this week in the American Journal of Pathology. The study makes the case that undue stress may cause immune cells present in the skin to overreact, causing inflammatory conditions such as atopic dermatitis and psoriasis.

The evidence just keeps snowballing; out-of-balance immune response is the driver of a lot of crappy health occurrences, some short-lived, some more enduring.

For a news summary of the study, click here.

For an abstract summary from the researchers themselves, click here.