Expert advice to boost immunity

Immunity. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, only this word was on our lips… We really forgot that we live in a world of invisible enemies: parasites, bacteria, fungi and known viruses. “They’re not living things, strictly speaking,” explain the book’s authors, Drs. Valerie and Dennis Koester. The secrets of good immunity (Éditions Albin Michel), but fragments of DNA (deoxyrinucleic acid) or RNA (ribonucleic acid) surrounded by a protein membrane. In short, simple genetic information to colonize our cells and use them to reproduce.”

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Keep the balance

This is without taking into account our immune system, innate and acquired. A veritable biological army, responsible for repelling invaders but also for tolerating foreign bodies that might be useful to us. Some risk factors are beyond our control and we cannot change them: age, genetics, blood type, but we are increasingly discovering the role of epigenetics, that is, the interaction between genes and our lifestyle. Even cosmetics are showing great interest in it. The whole challenge is to keep this guard system in perfect balance.

For our experts, it’s not about boosting the immune system at all costs or fighting any kind of inflammation, because if we do too much, it becomes overreactive and can turn against us. This is what happens with allergies or autoimmune diseases. The problem is not simple, but not impossible, because we can optimize our immunity without suppressing it. Not just with drugs, tons of vitamins, or trendy nutritional supplements, but simply by improving our lifestyle. Our immune system has two main organs: two essential barriers: the skin and the gut. The keys to giving your gut good bacteria and feeling good. In just a few years, the microbiota has become the epicenter of our well-being, and no one is disparaging this second brain anymore. It could even be a new anti-aging weapon to adjust the curve of time.

In the video: the keys to gut care

Happy New Year, good immunity!

After the crisis, the avalanche of books helps us cope. They all say the same thing. aging more slowly and warding off disease, it all starts at the plate and depends on the way we manage stress. As Professor Henri Joye’s well-documented book attests. Against viruses, bacteria… Increase your immunity (Éditions du Rocher), which promises to fill the “immune gap of the third millennium”.

Stress

The work already cited, The secrets of good immunity By Dr. Valerie Koster, naturopathic doctor, yoga and meditation teacher, and Dr. Dennis Koster, anesthesiologist-reanimatologist and therapeutic hypnosis teacher, it’s definitely the most psychological. Above all, it is important for them to act against stress using psycho-immuno-endocrinology, which deciphers the relationship between stress and immunity based on inflammatory molecules such as cytokines. It is this chronic inflammation that causes us to age slowly through the autonomic nervous system. Subtle and insidious, it often goes unnoticed even in blood tests. Therefore, their first recommendation is to balance omega-6 and omega-3. Ideally, a biological assessment would be performed by measuring membrane fatty acids. The cost of the exam is about 90 euros, which is not covered. The ratio of the two should be less than 4, but often exceeds 20.

The plate

Doctors at the Table Koester is a fan of the Mediterranean-style diet, which favors vegetables, fruits, oily seeds, whole grains, oily fish, especially anchovies, blueberries, broccoli, garlic, onions, turmeric, walnuts, sweet potatoes … also intermittent fasting . “If we eat too often, the body is busy synthesizing molecules for digestion and does not have time to produce immune cells. So the idea is to go twelve hours without eating to give the body time to cleanse and recover. This type of intermittent fasting is recommended during the changing seasons, two to three times a week for three weeks.

Additional help

Propolis and bee pollen, cider vinegar and some organic essential oils (HE). put 2 drops of black spruce EO + 2 drops of lemon EO in some vegetable oil to massage every morning at the level of the adrenal glands, these little glands that are just above. kidneys. You can put 3 or 4 drops of Ravintsara EO on your wrist or handkerchief and inhale deeply before entering a meeting or boarding public transport. You can also stimulate your VG-14 point, aka Governing Vessel 14, the first point to stimulate the immune system, according to Dr. Koster. It is located just below the seventh cervical vertebra. To find it, lower the head slightly forward, place the pads of the fingers flat on the first six vertebrae. When you get to a little, slightly protruding hill, there it is. Massage it not too hard, not too gently, breathing calmly.

Secrets of resistance

For dietician and nutritionist Véronique Lise and healthy eating author Alix Lefif-Delcourt The Big Book of Special Immunity Foods (Éditions Leduc.s Pratique), there is no doubt that the gut ecosystem is a key player in immunity. For them, everything is based on the 5 A’s: anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-hyperglycemic diet (low in fast sugars and refined carbohydrates), anti-dysbiosis (beneficial microbiota) and anti-toxic (which neutralizes internal and external pollutants). Specifically, they list 50 antioxidant-rich foods and offer 75 recipes.

They also have their “immuno-champions” such as astragalus, eleuthero, ginseng, black seed oil, Asian mushrooms (reishi, shiitake, maitake), black currant buds or walnut buds. They also recommend measuring the level of vitamin D, which has an important protective role, which decreases in winter and over the years. It is found in small fatty fish, salmon roe, eggs, cod liver oil, calf liver, or possible supplements prescribed by a doctor. The sun allows it to be synthesized.

Know your immune identity

Finally, discover the amazing work of Valerie Lamoureux, Naturopath and Hypnotherapist, and Olivier Madelrier, Doctor of Pharmacology and Nutritional Coach. His title: Boost your immune defenses according to your blood type (Flammarion Publications). Their message is clear. “Each blood type has its own immune identity card, its own endocrine nervous system and its own special digestive system. This method immunodiet lists its immunostimulatory, immunoneutral, and immunonegative foods for each group.”

Thus, we learn that group A (45% of the population), which has a weak immune system, is interested in adopting a vegetarian diet, and that group B (9%), which is quite good at protecting itself against viruses, assimilates well. the meat , dairy products, cereals and vegetables. Group AB (4%) has a longer recovery time and therefore needs to be extra vigilant. Finally, group 0 (42%) is the most resistant, but does not tolerate processed food well. However, it is in everyone’s interest to avoid zinc, essential micronutrient and immune system deficiencies. Loss of taste and smell in Covid-19 appears to be linked to low zinc levels. It’s found in many foods, including seafood, but sometimes needs to be taken as we age.