The Real Public Health Epidemic: Destruction of the Human Immune System
Today, the fear of death is more than living a sick life. This has got to change.
The greatest doctor in the world is you. If we focus on disease, all we will get is disease. If we focus on health, and prevention, we will get health. America’s healthcare system focuses on illness, and disease, not creating great health. If we don’t start focusing on being and improving health, every year we will face more dangerous viruses, bad bacteria and fungus.
Viruses and chronic illness and disease will not take over a healthy body. FACT! Viruses and disease prey on the weak, or the weak link in the body to occupy.
The body is designed to handle foreign pathogens—antigens, by breathing them in, and using the immune system. Getting an injection under the skin, isn’t the same, and doesn’t do the same except create an unnatural reaction.
Anatomy 101 - The immune system is the body's defense against bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens that may be harmful. It includes lymph nodes, the spleen, bone marrow, lymphocytes, which are white blood cells.
As the world is facing what is much more then a viral pandemic, it is important to truly understand the role we play in the science—biology, and recognize the control we have over our nervous and immune systems. We are not victims. We all must have a sense of agency and know and understand what we can do about the spread of disease and chronic illness.
There are three (3) primary zones of learning, we all must understand before we can be effective at problem solving, including with health related issues:
1) Confrontation of fear
2) Gaining understanding – knowledge
3) Empower knowledge , self-efficacy, able to take charge and be responsible
As the world is frantically trying to find a solution to the spread and destruction of COVID-19, we are being negligent, if we don’t consider the other factors to preventing COVID-19, much more then finding a medication and or vaccination.
2300 people die every day from heart disease! Why are we not talking about that? Why are we not talking about the deaths created from diabetes or cancer? The answer is because most of those are slower killers, and Covid-19 is new, and a relatively fast killer to an unhealthy body. But, the results are the same. We die from a helpless immune system. When a system (body) is already at unrest or distressed, your immune system is overloaded with requests, signals, and simply over responds to no avail.
We forget that one of the biggest discoveries in our time was with HIV/Aids, in which we learned how the immune system actually functions, and what it requires to be healthy. Today, 700,000 deaths still occur, per year from HIV. This, we thought, changed a culture. The published study by the New England Journal of Medicine, stated that the use of a simple multi-vitamin, not only did it help HIV patients not get as sick, but it also helped anti-viral drugs work more effectively. This was tested in Africa, in impoverished areas where nutrition was lacking. What did we learn? What did we learn about the importance of nutrition with a healthy, functioning immune system? Obviously not much that we choose to emphasize, educate or apply.
Cytokine Storms can happen when the body is afflicted by Comorbidities What does this mean? When one or more chronic health conditions have taken over the body like diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, auto immune and cancer, to name a few-- the combination of chronic inflammation will only fuel a new infection like COVID-19.
We must look deeper into our structural systems—the violence on these systems that are driving disease. A few to consider:
Poor populations
Chronic illness fed by our food system
How are we addressing both
Our food system is creating a pandemic of chronic disease, and has to radically change to improve chronic illness, disease, and the destruction of viruses.
But before we continue with the solution, we must first understand the immune system and how it really works. Stay with me.
Our immune system starts from our bone marrow, which delivers into the body cells that will make up our immune system. Upon delivery, they will adapt the current environment and condition of the body. Yes, these new cells will be immediately manipulated and imprinted by your current health condition/ environment. So if you body is in a state of altered healthy function “chronic inflammation”, the new cells will automatically be converted as such. So the question is...do you want to support an immune system that is already damaged, or do you want to create a new one?
Every 10 SECONDS our bodies produce 1 million white blood cells; 20 million red blood cells; 30 million platlets, from our bone marrow. This is when we can be feeding a healthy immune system, or supporting an existing damaged, sick system. Older cells are already imprinted, and if they aren’t very happy, they need to be replaced with happy and healthy ones.
The strength of your immune system is going to depend on what you are building each and every day...minute...second. Yes, it is that serious. So how do we produce good, new cells? How do we get those new cells imprinted with something healthy instead of being manipulated by old, disease, inflamed cells?
Immuno-Rejuvenation: The Role of the Host – Human Responsibility
The answer is within food, nutrition, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. Food is information and medicine. It influences and regulates our cells, that create and feed our immune systems.
The biggest threat to health in America, and the real pandemic is our Food Supply. Billions of people are eating “dead food”, with no real nutrients, and creating minute by minute Cytokine Storms—chronic and deadly inflammation.
Within the infamous Blue Zones around the world, people live longer because they eat more food with “phytonutrients”. Where do we find these? In vegetables. Blue Zone populations fill their plates with some animal protein, some healthy fat, and the majority of vegetables. They work hard physically, and they sleep. They don’t drink too much alcohol or smoke anything.
Phytonutrients influence cells from our bone marrow to our immune system. These are literally a plant’s immune system, that have survived pests and invaders, and when eaten by humans produces immuno-reguvenation. Messages from plants instigate and effect our ability to defend ourselves against damaging invaders, yes like viruses.
So how do we clean out the bad, unhealthy cells in our immune systems, and build new ones—IMMUNO-REGUVENATION?
1. Autophagy – destruction and removal of damaged cellular components within the cell. This is the activity which cleans out the bad cells and influences new immune cells to be imprinted with full vitality so they can seek out and destroy bad viruses and bacteria. When we are at rest, sleeping, fasting. So if you eat a 30” pizza before bed, or eat dinner consistently late at night, you will not experience any autophagy.
2. Eating “REAL FOOD” filled with vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, along with protein, carbohydrates and healthy fat.
3. Exercise. Getting SOME daily, intentional exercise. Working hard at your job all day doesn’t count as exercise.
4. Supplementing when necessary, with quality vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients we can’t get from food.
5. Hydrate. Drinking filtered water every day—enough for your body. Most people walk around chronically dehyrated.
6. SLEEP. Make it a priority to improve sleep, getting at a minimum 7 hours every night.
What we are seeing every day is that “healthy people” are not getting really sick and or dying with Covid-19. We are also seeing that men make up the majority who are getting really sick , and dieing, with this particular virus. Statistics and science reveal that the majority of men simply do not pay attention, or find value in health.
COVID-19 is a LIFESTYLE DISEASE—EPIDEMIC, and we need a new and improved Public Health Strategy to improve the odds of survival and thriving. Until we all start focusing more on achieving and maintaining health—find a personal value, there will be more viruses knock on our doors with destruction forever.
80% of Americans are not healthy.
A huge missing link is how important food is to improving cells in our genes, which are designed to fight diseases, and preventing chronic illness, and disease that has been plaguing the US way before COVID-19 hit the scenes. This ugly virus is just revealing a clear picture of the huge vulnerability facing our population.
References: Dr. Mark Hymen
Jeffrey Bland, PhD (father of Functional Medicine, co-founder of the Institute for Functional Medicine)
Cochrane Library
The New England Journal of Medicine