A More Enlightened Understanding of Immunity

• bone marrow—containing stem cells that can develop into a variety of cell types that become ‘first responders’ to infection

• thymus—where T cells mature; one of the important white blood cells of the immune system and which plays a central role in the adaptive immune response(1); (T standing for thymus)

• lymphatic system(2)—transporter of immune cells throughout the body

• spleen—the organ that enriches immune cells and activates them when necessary

• mucosal tissue—houses specialized ‘immune hubs’

• malnutrition (poor diet)

• certain diseases

• various genetic disorders

• medications

• environmental chemicals

• depression

• physical inactivity over a period of time

• lack of fresh air

• Focus on a truly healthy diet. Do the research in a variety of directions. Don’t just take the first person’s word for what a healthy diet it. It may be healthy to them but may not be for you.

• Make pharmaceutical medications your option of last resort. Seek out the best reputed results-providing holistic practitioners you can find. Create a life that embraces natural and organic wherever possible.

• Make a decision to achieve emotional balance. Happiness and contentment go a very long way toward supporting a vibrant innate immune system. If you find it a challenge to be happy which is very understandable in today’s world, simply begin with finding little things to be grateful for. Continue to acknowledge and appreciate every little thing and soon it will take on a life of its own. Soon you will find yourself smiling more, much more emotionally balanced and healthy 95% of the time.

• Remember to laugh—a lot. Watch television shows or movies that get you laughing. Many people have cured themselves of serious disease this way.

• Keep your body moving through performing exercise you love. Movement of the body means more fluid movement of appropriate body systems. Several sessions per week of at least 45 minutes of prolonged movement is all it takes. Sustained exercise and movement very directly bolster the innate immune system.

• Get out of the house and thrive within nature—regularly. Go out into the sunshine or the moonshine and breathe deeply. Let nature wrap its energies around and permeate you. Go barefoot on the grass or dirt. Bask in the negative ions produced by thunderstorms and the pounding surf. This helps restore and revitalize communication pathways within the body, thereby creating an optimal environment for self-healing.

• Honor and embrace the biodiversity of life understanding you are an integral part of it rather than divorced from it. Mimic this biodiversity of life by being flexible, inquisitive, eager to learn more, ever-changing and personally expansive.

• Learn more about your relationship to immunity and our relationship to each other and to the virome, biome and microbiome.

• It’s mostly since our lives have gotten tech- and medicine-centric and thus stressed that many of us have found that our immune systems have become dysfunctional. We may not have realized that a nurtured space that exalts our innate immunity exists for us within nature and the natural, and nature has been patiently calling us to her all along.