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.

PRO - You’re outside, getting some sun exposure. That’s good for vitamin D production in your body, which is good for immune support. Even if it’s a night game, most people started tailgating at noon, so the sun benefit is still there.

PRO - Stress reduction. Tailgating is a good time. That means it’s a great stress reliever. That’s good for immune balance.

PRO - Unless you are a teetotaler, you are probably drinking some form of alcohol. Fermented beverages–in moderation–can help support good microbiota (beneficial bacteria) production in the gut.  Beneficial gut bacterial is very important for immune health.

CON – Unless you are a teetotaler, you are probably drinking some form of alcohol. And, if you are consuming enough alcohol so that you cannot find your way into the stadium for kickoff, you are probably damaging immune health and other biological systems in the body. And you are dehydrating yourself as well. Hydration is important for daily health.

PRO – Food. Lots of football fans are eating healthier these days. Not just burgers and beer. I’ve seen elaborate spreads that feature immaculate cuts of meat, impressive  fruit and vegetable offerings, even wheat buns. And everything is grilled, not fried. Unless you’re in Alabama or Mississippi.

CON – Food. As in massive dessert trays and lots of sodas and sugar. Oh well, it’s only one day.

PRO – Community and socializing.  Research shows community involvement and social networks (live human ones) contribute significantly to healthier immune function.

CON – Tailgating after the game. Whether you are celebrating a win or drowning your sorrows after a loss, you’ve probably already eaten and imbibed enough. Now you’re just piling on. Penalty flag for illegal use of hands and mouth and stomach.

PRO - Portable toilets that are a mile away from your tailgate. That gives you some exercise and cuts down on time available for overconsumption. Both are healthy factors in tailgating.

Hence, more parents are having second thoughts about kids playing football. My neighbors have an energetic 4th grader who loves contact football, but they are trying to steer him toward other sports, simply because of the new data that have emerged on brain health over the past several years.

A healthy brain is also more than just mental acuity, recall and intellectual function. A healthy brain helps drive many other health functions in the body, including immune health. The video below is a 47-minute lecture on the brain-immune function, presented at the Univ. of Calif. San Diego by American University Professor Esther Sternberg. It’s actually very interesting and watchable, not a geek fest of charts and stats.  It really drives home the point that your brain impacts all kinds of physical health parameters, and needs to be taken care of, just like your heart or your eyes or GI tract.

But one of them decided that it would be cool if we could jog together several days a week. She’s wanting to build some extra stamina for when her fall university marching band starts up. She’s a drum major and wants to be able to run around the field like drum majors have to do without getting gassed. And I just want to try to keep from having to increase my belt size. And so we run. Just 1.5 miles for now, and we’re not setting any land speed records. I’m working up to being able to run that distance without any stopping to walk. I’m almost there. She is there. When ever I do have to stop, I try to do it on a stretch of road where no one is outside to see me.

We all know that running is great exercise and can have many benefits: heart health, muscle tone, respiratory conditioning, weight control, stress management, you name it. What about immune health specifically? Well, a lot of data point to enhanced immune function (demonstrated by fewer colds, flu and URI incidence) with moderate exercise. See the chart of p. 3 of this article. It appears that either no exercise or heavy, extreme exercise can actually result in diminished immune function, as prolonged stress on the body can actually trigger release of stress hormones that send your immune balance levels way off kilter.  This isn’t to say don’t exercise hard, but if you do, an immune supplement (EpiCor anyone???) may help support immune health when your heavy-duty workout might normally zap it.

One thing about highly trained athletes: their immune health can be compromised when their exertion levels are at their peak. Regular exercise in moderation can certainly improve immune health, but the stress extreme training and exertion puts on the immune system can weaken it. In a report from the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, the conclusion states: “Many components of the immune system exhibit adverse change after prolonged, heavy exertion lasting longer than 90 minutes. These immune changes occur in several compartments of the immune system and body (e.g., the skin, upper respiratory tract mucosal tissue, lung, blood, and muscle). During this “open window” of impaired immunity (which may last between three and 72 hours, depending on the immune measure), viruses and bacteria may gain a foothold, increasing the risk of subclinical and clinical infection. Thus risk of upper respiratory tract infections can increase when athletes push beyond normal limits.” Certain classes of immune cells appear to alter their activity during periods of extreme physical stress on the body.

So, the lesson is: anything an athlete can do to provide immune balance–supporting greater immune response during periods of immune suppression that come from prolonged training and exertion–would be a good thing.

Now we find out this week about some new research showing that non-alcoholic wheat beer may help support the immune health of highly trained athletes by balancing immune function. Huh?

According to story on the reseasrch:

“The study shows that after running a marathon race, athletes experience intensified inflammatory reactions. The immune system is thrown off balance and runners are much more likely to suffer from upper respiratory infections. This heightened susceptibility to illness following strenuous sport activity has been identified as an “open window.”

Furthermore it was shown that non-alcoholic wheat beer containing polyphenols has a positive, health promoting effect on the human body: inflammation parameters in the blood were significantly reduced, and there was a lower frequency of infection with milder symptoms.”

I understand EpiCor may have some research findings to release soon regarding athletes, EpiCor intake and inflammatory response changes . We’ll be watching. And drinking. Just a little.

I generally don’t like to use sports analogies on this blog because this health information is for all people, not just jocks and fans. But this is special for a couple reasons:

1) Feller was a physical specimen. Not a body builder or someone with an elite physique. Rather, feller excelled throughout a 20-year career where he threw baseballs harder and faster than anyone in the game; fastballs that were clocked at nearly 107 mph (compared to today’s high range of 97-99 mph). He pitched a complete game–a full nine innings–300 times. Today, hardly any pitcher throws nine innings. 6 or 7 is about it for a starter. Gotta preserve the arm. In other words, Feller had a physical endurance and career longevity that was nothing short of astounding. People recall him taking the mound when we was 70 and 80 years old and still slinging it across the plate with some major zip.

2) Feller grew up on a farm. He was around hay, corn, pollen, hogs and all the bacterial and allergenic exposure that goes with the farm life, and, as research shows, can significantly define your immune system for the rest of your life. The Hygiene Hypothesis. Feller said his arm really wasn’t sore during his career. He didn’t ice it. “Ice is for cold drinks,” he said.

I would wager that Feller’s immune system–shaped by exposure to immune-shaping microbes on the farm–may have played a big role in his success and long life; balanced to the point of evading any major joint and muscle inflammation, and helping him live to a ripe old age without major illness (that is, until he succumbed to complications from leukemia), and, at least in part, enabling his physical durability for all those years.

That’s just my theory. Genes may also have played a big role. Who knows. If I’m wrong, please God, don’t let a Feller fastball strike me down!

Kill the ref!!

society. It wasn’t music or gardening or art. It was spectator sports. In the era of world-wide recession, fan enthusiasm  makes sports recession-proof. The Dallas Cowboys build a $2 billion stadium.  College coaches’ salaries make them the highest paid public employees in many states.  Public school budgets are in tough shape but sports programs continue to flourish.

Some researcher have conducted studies on fan mental health and stress levels. Soccer (also called football outside of the States) is a good sport to study because fans (a word derived from fanatic) worldwide seem to be equally passionate about soccer, the most followed sport in the world.

One study of German soccer fans produced a lot of interesting findings. Stress from fans’ over-the-top, life-or-death mindset with teams’ wins and losses can lead to cardiac stress, especially when coupled with many fans’ tendency to eat a lot of junk, not get enough sleep and enjoy the drinking life.

An almost humorous, but serious, overview of fans’ mental and emotional life shows a lot of  stuff that certainly can up the chronic stress levels.

So as bowl season and conference championship games approach in the next two months, make sure you keep your immune system balanced. Your family’s sports rituals will demand it.

One of my Facebook friend of mine…mother of four young kids… just told me she has been training for her first marathon to be run this weekend.  She had to drop out as she is just recovering from a week with pneumonia.”Too many long runs depressed the old immune system,” she said.

What a bummer. So, I’m trying to get the immune balance story to her. I’m convinced she may benefit from a more balanced immune function that kicks into gear during physical exertion when it might normally be in retreat.

This paper from PubMed kind of sums up the problem, with no real answers to address it. “Many mechanisms appear to be involved, including exercise-induced changes in stress hormone and cytokine concentrations, body temperature changes, increases in blood flow and dehydration. During this ‘open window’ of immune dysfunction (which may last between 3 and 72 hours, depending on the immune measure), viruses and bacteria may gain a foothold, increasing the risk of subclinical and clinical infection”

How about an EpiCor trial for marathoner in training?

However, there is something else that highly conditioned athletes should be aware of. Strenuous physical exertion, the kind that elite players experience every day whether running, hitting, lifting, rowing or whatever, can drag down the body’s immune defense response, leaving a sports star more vulnerable than normal to getting sick.

The National Strength and Conditioning Association has a very good paper on this topic, summarizing how moderate exercise can actually improve immune health, but highly vigorous exercise can lead to oxidative stress in the body that promotes inflammation and greater susceptibility to upper respiratory tract infection (URTI).

The paper explains the role of cytokins, proteins that facilitate signals between various cells and systems of the body and are also involved in inflammatory signaling. “Normally, pro-inflammatory cytokine levels are counterbalanced by anti-inflammatory cytokine levels promoting homeostasis; however if levels are unrestrained, incidences of post exercise infection may occur . It is important to note that although excess, unresolved inflammation can cause tissue damage and/or infection, it is a physiologically necessary component to properly functioning innate immunity. Therefore, the balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines is crucial in maintaining proper immune function.”

If the coach won’t let an athlete balance their workout load — can you say “three-a-days?”– at least doing everything reasonable to help balance the immune system is one way to potentially reduce the chance of getting sick from overexertion.