Your last line of defense

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“Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.”

- Roy T. Bennett

(The Light in the Heart)

There's always something we can do to improve the world we live in. And that is clearly visible across our country through people coming together as a community in a quest to help others. With the 2nd wave running rampant, the arising situations made it clear that there were flaws in the medical infrastructure. But people have come together forming the missing links. There's criticism, and there's solution at the same time. One such link is to work on improving the health of our entire society. And the only way to do it is to work on our own health.

COVID in 2020 started with home workouts and immunity boosting but the attention got shifted to vaccines soon. It became more of what they can do for us. I wish to move your attention back to what you can do now. And one way is to work on balancing our last line of defense.

The star of the show:

The immune system is a group of organs and processes of the body that provide resistance to infection and toxins. Organs include the thymus, bone marrow, and lymph nodes.

The entire story revolves around white blood cells, and its 2 major types, namely Phagocytes; who fight bacteria, clear dead cells, some look for pathogens like they are on a patrol and some have a role in healing wounds, and Lymphocytes; who produce antibodies and help alert other white blood cells. These are also responsible in creating a 'memory' of the pathogen.

So the story goes like this: A villain (virus, bacteria, any pathogen) enters the sacred land (human body). The Police (WBCs) on patrol see an unknown face and the entire immune system comes into full effect and neutralizes it. Moreover, it remembers the villain in case there's another attack.

Making things work well:

This system works well. Or instead I should say, this system works, but the efficiency is greatly reduced in absence of essential nutrients and adequate hydration. The immune system needs raw materials (just like a police station needs guns, bullets, cars and bikes, etc.) for proper functioning. These nutrients are to be consumed in adequate quantities and in the form which is best absorbed by the human body. And then you need hydration. Not just water, but electrolytes along with it. Our body is made up of cells, each cell filled with fluid - water and electrolytes. When body loses water, it loses electrolytes (salts) along with it so doesn't it make sense to replenish both? Let's not forget protein, the building block of life and essential fat too. They make 20% and 12% of the human body respectively.

Once you consume enough nutrients, have enough water and salts, you set up the police station. It's operational now, and it'll protect you from infection. But we all know not all police stations work perfectly smooth. Some departments do well, some don't. Some are suppressed with politics which prevents them functioning at their best. Well if you've not guessed it yet, the same happens with our immune system as well. There are parts of our lifestyle which suppress our immune system especially, stress.

Stress is nothing but your body's reaction to a challenge or demand. You are working peacefully and your boss wants to talk to you, that's stress. You're working out in the gym and engaging into physically demanding task, that's stress too. If you are a hunter, looking for food and suddenly you see a lion in front of you, you are under stress. And every time this happens, your body responds to it. It releases hormones which trigger the fight or flight response. If you are in a forest, and a lion pops in front of you, you senses get sharper, you become alert to be able to detect the smallest of movement, you start taking quick short breaths, blood vessels constrict and dilate making more blood to flow towards muscles so you are ready to put up a fight, or run (based on how brave and smart you are). Your digestion slows down. Moreover, immune system is suppressed because what's the point of preventing you from bacteria and viruses if you might not be alive 5 minutes later?. All the energy and resources are diverted towards survival in the moment. This stress response remains the same, every time you feel stressed. Your body doesn't know if there's a lion in front of you or your credit card bill. And being stressed all the times means having bad immunity all the time. So it becomes necessary to deal with this chronic stress with meditation, breath work and adequate rest.

Nutrition and stress management are the two things we all talk about. One thing that gets missed every time is human connection. We are social animals. We thrive and develop in communities where we live, laugh, play, and touch our friends. It builds trust. Imagine you meet your friend after a long time, you lean in for a hug and they withdraw. You bring your hand forward for a hand shake and they avoid it? How does that feel? The connection feels missing. And that happens because we, as social animals, have 4 very important hormones - Oxytocin, Serotonin, Endorphins and Dopamine. And when we hug, doo something good for someone, go through intense physical activity, our brain releases these hormones also known as neurotransmitters and make us happy, pleasurable, and respected. A lack of these chemicals is known to cause a drop in immunity. Hugs, kisses, cuddles - a caring touch from another human, or pet releases these hormones and helps us calm down, relieve stress and improve immunity (one of the many studies published here NIH).

There is a lot of confusion on how to deal with the virus best, when will you get a chance to get vaccinated and when will gyms and parks being an important part of wellness, open again. All these things are not in your control. What's in your control is taking care of yourself and the people you care about. Create a healthy environment for your growth and see yourself not just survive, but THRIVE.

And how to build it is one of the thing covered in our Freedom 90 program. Our goal is not just to work on diet alone. We factor in all the things which prevent us from living our best life possible. And we can teach you how to apply it!

If you want to work on your Immunity, we have launched the Immunity Solution, our new program which works on all the aspects that help to improve immunity. The program focuses on building sustainable lifestyle changes on a daily basis which makes it easy to maintain throughout life.

Eat Good, Stay Strong, Live Free!

Cheers,

Sushil Dhokne