There was a time that I could boast a rare annual cold and general imperviousness to whatever virus de jour was passing through the community. I had even managed to outsmart, outwit and avoid suffering from the flu for well over a decade. This mindset had become such a part of my storyline, that even when reality started proving differently, I was slow to embrace that my immune system was struggling. Over the past few years, my “annual cold” went from a once yearly event, to the “whatever is going around I will get” status. It is time to push back.
There are some who would subscribe to thinking that advancing years are automatically correlated to waning overall wellness. I am approaching 60 but I am not a fan of ageisms to explain ill health. For me, the human body has a miraculous ability to always strive for homeostasis and it struggles because we often burden it with too much junk food, couch time, stress and/or toxins. Under the guise of misguided emotional self care, I am guilty of making all of the above – a priority. When I examine my own habits over the past few years, I marvel that my own immune system did not just pack it in and head for the hills. We get in the way of optimal health when we don’t prioritize it.
We can’t deny that there are viruses, parasites, and bacteria in the world that we want to avoid at all costs. That is not to say that most can’t be fought; however, the battle often takes superhuman strengths of body, mind, and spirit combined. Some strains of bacteria, stronger than us, are proving resistant to any known forms of intervention. Having 4 grandchildren under the age of 5 is certainly a personal exposure factor; it seems that there are only short windows of time where one does not need a tissue tucked up the sleeve. Another personal risk factor is working with youth in residential settings accompanied by a large team of revolving staff. Exposure is everywhere, but does that mean we have to just accept that when somebody sneezes in our face, we are going to get sick?
Building immunity takes a combination of diet, lifestyle and mindset. To build resistance, it is advantageous to clean up the diet and stay hydrated. A backyard garden or the produce section at the grocery store is often one of our best medicine cabinets; fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs are full of phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals to support wellness. Eat a wide variety to gain the best advantage; however, what we eat is just as important as what we don’t eat.
Highly processed diets that are full of sugar, chemicals and empty calories can undermine your health two fold; they have no real nutritional value and, over time, they can erode digestive power. You can be eating the most nutritious foods known to man, but if your digestive power has been compromised, you will not be able to assimilate the beneficial micronutrients. There are as many health promoting diet plans as there are authors to write the books, but I would suggest that the first dietary strategy to rebuild immunity begins by cleaning up the diet and healing the gut.
From a wholistic perspective, a dietary makeover is an important wellness strategy but not the complete picture. If you are sleep deprived, sedentary, stressed out, drinking too much, taking drugs, depressed, or constantly viewing life through a half empty lens, your immunity takes a hit. Emotional wellness is just as important as physical supports; studies even suggest that loneliness can play a role in waning health and longevity. For myself, the road back to vitality always begins with the first steps. While I cannot pretend to have a GPS to show the final destination, I do have a vision and a felt sense of the desired outcome. My practice, of course, is to surrender any illusion of foretelling the future and just be with what is. I am here and for that I am grateful for all the life lessons that have brought me forward. This year is truly about the journey back to the passion for health that I once took for granted. There are no quick fixes that lead to longterm benefits. For now, I will just keep walking…
anewthreshold.org 