Stress and The Immune System

Let’s talk today about the latest “bug” that is supposedly affecting the whole world, coronavirus (COVID-19). Now there are many ways to approach this topic but for this post I will mostly stick to the influences on health. 

    First, let’s talk about how people get sick. When a person is faced with chronic stress for long periods of time and is not able to adapt to the stress, then his or her body will become dis-eased. No organism can live in long term states of chronic stress. This goes for all chronic illnesses such as heart disease, lung disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's, COPD, kidney disease, etc. 

    Now where does stress come from? A person is stressed by 3 means: chemical, physical, and emotional. (You could also say that technology is a new modern stress) So this means that if we continue to eat unhealthy foods then our bodies will lose their ability to adapt to stress and become dis-eased. When we physically don’t rest, relax, or sleep enough then we will not be able to adapt. When we are constantly affected by negative emotions, we can lose our adaptability and become dis-eased. When we don’t relieve the stress from one or all of these forms of stress, then we can become sick. 

    Many people believe that when you have a cough, sneezes, fever, etc., that those symptoms are the cold or the flu that the people “catch.” However, I want you to try to see it in a different light. Those symptoms such as a fever are your own body’s natural way to heal itself and decrease the amount of that “bug.” We have bacteria, viruses and other bugs on us 24/7. It is only when the bug's offense becomes stronger than our body's defense (immune system) then we have problems. Again, when we lose the ability to adapt, our body forces us to stop. Our body creates the cold or fever to rid the bug. It is our “back up” system in case the problem is getting out of hand. If we were to continue to go about our normal routine without our bodies creating the fever, then we could possibly suffer worse health issues such as death. Think of a computer that never gets an upgrade or doesn’t have virus protection constantly monitoring its system. Eventually, without the constant protection, the computer may crash. This happens with all viruses and bacteria. 

    Now let’s talk about a large contributor to how we get sick. Remember above that emotions are part of the reasons we may get sick. When we fear things in our environment, our bodies will move the blood in our bodies to the muscles needed to fight, run, or hide. This means that the blood, that is vital for proper functioning of our bodily systems, is being taken away from our IMMUNE SYSTEM! So when we are in constant states of fear and other emotions like it, then our bodies' adaptability to balance out the bugs on us will decrease. If we are in this state too long then we will become sick. This is what news will not tell you and the hype of this virus is scaring more and more people. When we use positive emotions such as love, we increase our adaptability and strengthen our immune system. 

How do we strengthen our immune system? Great ways to build your immune system are the following: eat healthy foods, decrease sugar and processed foods, get plenty of rest and sleep, walk everyday, get sunshine when possible, practice feeling gratitude. This is how to nutritionally, physically, and emotionally stay healthy. Another note, the nervous system controls and coordinates all systems of the body including your immune system. So chiropractic not only helps you feel good but also helps your immune system function its best to keep you healthy. Stay healthy my friends.