The research, a mouse study, showed that when two mice–one healthy, one obese with liver disease–were put in the same cage, the healthy mouse became obese. Many factors, including mice’s tendency to eat other mice’s feces, could enter into the equation. But, the bad bacterial strains from the fat mouse ended up in the healthy mouse’s gut. This change in gut microbe populations–more bad bacteria, less good–manifests itself in more disease susceptibility and weight gain (bad bacteria dominating the digestive track can inhibit nutrient absorption while also signaling for imbalanced immune response, triggering inflammation).

None of this, of course, is even close to being conclusive. But it does kind of relate to other research showing that a pregnant mother’s bacterial and pathogen exposure and the immune composition shaped by that exposure can be transferred to the fetus.

More new research this week. Yesterday, news about a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences was racing all over the news stream. The study showed that constant arguing and personal conflict can trigger cellular inflammation within the body, which, if persisting over the long term, can lead to serious health problems including high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and depression.

Inflammation is an immune response. A bit of short-term, temporary inflammation can be protective and beneficial. Long-term inflammation is immune function running amok…out of balance. See my recent post on stress, the gut, and immune health.

During this political season, I’ll have a new perspective as I watch the election year unfold. Hope they are all taking EpiCor and doing The Five S’s.

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.

I’m as guilty as anyone. Just when I was doing pretty good throughout the fall with nutrition and exercise, suddenly it’s Thanksgiving, and since then, wow. I’ve abandoned a lot of discipline. Someone brought a pile of holiday treats to our office a couple days ago. Did I eat one or two and bow out? No. I had to take three or four back to my office, fearing the rest would be gone in an hour.

My wife and kids took most of a Saturday to bake up a storm Of course, I had to sample everything as it came out of the oven or off the wax paper. And of course, a sample means more than one.

Sugar may not necessarily lead to severely reduced immune function. But if obesity, cardiovascular damage, cellular inflammation are some direct outcomes of  long-term processed sugar intake, those conditions right there are enough to wreak havoc on immune function. Others make a strong cell-based argument that sugar can compete with and displace vital nutrients needed for proper support of immune cell structure, leading to weakened immune function.  Too much sugar can also trigger overreaction of immune response, feeding proinflammatory cytokine cells that lead to chronic inflammation, a fundamental driver of many serious diseases. Such imbalance within immune response results in immune cells frenetically going after healthy tissue, leaving depleted immune capacity to fight real pathogens that may enter the body (bacteria, virus, etc.)

So now that I’ve made sugar enemy No. 1, are you scared to eat even one more cookie?  Don’t be. After all, a little sugar does provide some short term energy. But remember to keep the sweets at a reasonably low level, while getting good exercise, sleep and a good dose of fruits and vegetables. That would be a sweet deal all the way around.

• The London Daily Mail Online has a story about research showing the immune health benefits of going on vacation (or holiday, as they say in Europe) wane two weeks after returning to work. That’s kind of a bummer. I was thinking vacation refreshes you for months, maybe even until your next vacation. The story also mentions the propensity to actually get sick when you go on vacation. “… in some cases, the immune system may be left out of kilter when the stress of the working day is suddenly taken away.”
• A new health community called Care2 (actually it’s not that new…I just stumbled upon it) has many groups formed around various health conditions and interests, such as stress. It also features some informative articles, such as a recent piece on antibiotic resistant bacteria, and the need to maintain a naturally healthy immune function, include pre- and probiotic food intake, to lower risk of bacteria-driven problems in the gut resulting from good/bad bacterial imbalance.
• A dental journal article goes into some detail on how immune health can influence periodontal disease formation and vice versa. I’ve written here about the “healthy mouth, healthy body” concept, that poor dental health can lead to other health problems, and all are connected by healthy immune function.
• A PR piece appearing in the  San Francisco Chronicle online talks about new acupuncture methods that may help alleviate seasonal allergy symptoms.  Allergies, of course, are an over-reaction of the immune system. “Acupuncture offers a relaxing, natural alternative that refreshes us, without the side effects of pills,” says a source in the story. Hmmmm. The same might be said of EpiCor, only without the needles.

For example, do most people know that allergies are a direct result of an over-aggressive immune response?  Do they also know that immune response can be a big part of joint and muscle inflammation?  Or how about cellular inflammation? That affects heart disease, obesity, etc. And don’t forget digestive health, where 70% of immune response starts. Digestive tract microflora, also known as beneficial gut bacteria, helps drive overall immune response, absorption of nutrients into the body, even brain health and cognitive function.

And I’m sure I haven’t even begun to cover all of the health ramifications of good immune health.

So when you talk about maintaining a healthy, balanced immune function,  just know it’s much more than colds and flu.

But, is being outside in the summer heat good or bad for immune health? The straight answer is…it depends. Spending more than a few minutes outside in intense heat, without proper hydration, is dangerous, as well all know. Heat stroke or heat exhaustion, dehydration, sunburn are the primary threats to health.  And for kids especially, skin damage, especially with no sunscreen or low SPF sunscreen, is also a high risk, especially since photo damage to young skin can greatly increase chances for skin cancer in adulthood.

However, if you spend a few minutes outside in intense sun and have some part of your body not shielded with sunscreen, your skin can convert sun radiation to Vitamin D, which most everyone needs more of. Vitamin D is important for long-term immune health and overall health.  Also, if you work up a sweat outside in the sun, your body may expunge some toxis through sweating. Toxins in the body can promote cellular and tissue inflammation, an unwanted immune response.  Again, one must drink adequate water if they are sweating, even if they don’t think they are thirsty.

So, a little sun and a little sweat in the heat, in small doses, can be beneficial. Just be very careful out there.

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.

One is a recent story in the Oakland Tribune/San Jose Mercury News. The piece takes a look at the general health of kids who grow up in violent urban neighborhoods.

“To a teen living in the rough areas of East Oakland, sorrow is no stranger. Random violence, worry about the future and a constant battle for basics such as healthy food, good schools and physical exercise, add up to a kind of life that can make an East Oakland teen far older than his or her chronological age.

Research shows that like adults, teens exposed to chronic stress can suffer from anxiety, insomnia, depression and eating disorders; they experience short-term memory loss and inability to focus or to manage time. As teens age, there is an even bigger physical toll: Adolescents exposed to chronic stress have higher adult rates of asthma, obesity and Type 2 diabetes, and are at higher risk for some cancers and stroke.

Chronic stress will upset a teens’ neurobiology, reducing their ability to regulate key hormones that restore equilibrium after stress, whether it’s a bad grade on a science quiz or a friend’s slaying.

It can also raise the level of inflammatory proteins in teens’ body, putting their immune system on permanent alert, and worsening both the risk and the symptoms of illnesses that include inflammation, from asthma and eczema to diabetes and heart disease.

Wow. Sounds like the classic stress/immune conflict so frequently written about here. It is sad that such a health scenario is amplified many times in the lives of young people who are brought into a violent world through no fault of there own.

The other California connection is news of a new milk beverage with added probiotic bacteria, produced by what the story describes as the largest privately owned dairy in California.

“In addition to providing essential calcium and vitamin D, Dairy Balance can help support digestive and immune health with the addition of GanedenBC30 Probiotics. Plus, there is no change in taste or texture to the new milk when GanedenBC30 is added.”

The company says that this particular probiotic ingredient can endure the stress of the manufacturing process to deliver enough viable, live bacteria to the gut to make the product effective. It’s another example of the growing importance of enhanced immune health benefits that consumer products are focusing on.

All in all, California, for good or bad, is at the heart of the immune health world this week.

Inflammation, in its most efficient, optimal state, is the irritation that accompanies the immune system’s response to an injury or illness that immune cells are trying to heal. However, when immune response goes haywire over the long term, the result can be chronic inflammation that leads to heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, arthritis and cancer, to name a few.  See a good introductory slide show of inflammation here.

More people probably think of a swollen ankle or a bee sting when they think of inflammation. Will consumers, outside of the hard core health information seekers, ever understand inflammation as something more that can impact a lifetime of health?

And even if consumers eventually understand inflammation as an underlying foundation for chronic disease, with so many nutritional ingredients being viewed as having some level of anti-inflammatory activity, what’s a consumer to do?

Here’s my strategy – keep doing what I’m doing. Simple and reliable. My EpiCor daily 500 mg capsule is most likely giving me some anti-inflammatory benefit (as has been shown in lab research) plus probiotic digestive benefits and antioxidant benefits, all combining to balance immune response. Who needs more than that?!