Your body is an amazing machine – that naturally fights back against cold and flu viruses, but THEN you already knew that!
Colds and flu are among the most common human ailments, adults suffer two or three colds per year on average, while children can get two to nine colds per year. Luckily, your body naturally has ways to fight off cold and flu viruses – and get you back to great health.
The Immunity Challenge
A cold is an infection of the upper respiratory system caused by one of about 200 viruses. The flu is also an upper respiratory illness caused by one of
several specific flu viruses. Given all these different sources, it’s no wonder we don’t have a cure for the common cold – or flu, or do we?
With due diligence and a daily dose of laughter, help your immune system to fight back.
Our immune system requires a lot of energy and laughter provides energy to defend our bodies.
Feeling tired and achy, over – heating, and glands swelling are all signs that our immune system is busy fighting something.
Your skin and saliva are key barriers to infection and form part of your immune system, along with cells in every tissue of your body, including your blood and your brain.
How Your Body Fights Back Against Cold and Flu Viruses
While the immune system is hard at work fighting off offending viruses, the body experiences infections in different ways. Many symptoms of cold and flu are the result of the immune system trying to fight the infection.
The cells that make up your immune system need energy too, and when you’re low on juice, they’ll be on low-battery mode. This is when our natural immune resistances are weakened and normally inoffensive bugs can begin to cause rivalry within the body.
You may have noticed that illness often strikes when you’re stressed at work, not sleeping properly, or you’ve been out partying a little too much. The health of our immune system plays an important role in determining how we can defend against invading cold and flu viruses.
HOW CAN I AVOID TAKING THE FLU SHOT ……. LAUGH ON!
Boosting our Natural Defense System
Our immune system has evolved to naturally detect and eliminate viral infections. We can actively strengthen our immunity and natural defenses by looking after ourselves. This means:
- getting adequate sleep. Sleep deprivation increases the hormone, cortisol, which suppresses immune function, when its levels are elevated.
- eating well and drinking enough water. Your immune system needs energy and nutrients obtainable from food. Staying well hydrated helps the body flush out toxins.
- staying positive and smiling is important, even when you’re feeling down. Researchers have found that a positive attitude with a general attitude of vigor is associated with less severe symptoms.
- lucky for women, not so lucky for men, estrogen has antiviral effects on colds, flu, HIV, Ebola and hepatitis viruses.
- not smoking. Smoking or even secondary smoke damages our lungs and increases the vulnerability of our respiratory system to infection.
- exercising, yes laughter yoga is a most powerful and unique form of exercise, which helps the lymphatic system, where our immune cells circulate, and lowers levels of stress hormones.
Laughter is a highly complex process. Berk and his colleagues were the first to establish that laughter helps optimize the hormones in the endocrine system, including decreasing the levels of cortisol and epinephrine, which lead to stress reduction.
T cells are critical to the adaptive immune system, where the body adapts specifically to foreign invaders.
The thymus gland, an organ in your chest, underneath your breastbone is a part of the lymphatic system in your body’s immune system. The thymus gland produces white blood cells called lymphocytes, which help your body fight infection.
By laughing and tapping the thymus, you can help your endocrine system and your lymphatic system work more effectively.
To laugh along with me to help boost your immune system, click on the picture of the endocrine system.
LEARN HOW TO STRENGTHEN YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM ALL YEAR LONG
5 More Ways to Boost your Immune System & Stop Sickness in its Tracks
- Start taking a supplement, Zinc, Selenium and vitamin D are known for boosting the immune system
- Eat foods with certain nutrients. Being malnourished is one way to hurt your immune system
- Drink more water
- Laugh more
- Cut back on hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizers may affect your immune system by killing good bacteria which keep disease-causing bacteria at bay. A 2011 study by the Centers for Disease Control found that healthcare workers who routinely used hand sanitizers increased their risk of developing norovirus by almost 600 percent
Already have a cold or the flu?
“If you’ve been sniffling and sneezing your way through winter, my suggestion is to continue, laughing yourself healthy!”
In the spirit of great health, Laugh ON!
Kathryn