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HOW MOVEMENT STRENGTHENS IMMUNITY 

Tamara Kung, ND

With all this talk about protecting ourselves from viral infections, many of us are seeking the best ways to support our immune system.


Our immune system is a potent world of strong, frontline defenses, and highly specialized backup troops. 

While we have many drugs that are effective at stopping bacterial infections (antibiotics), drugs for the more prevalent viral infections, are lacking. Why? Because bacteria are easier to target. They look very different from our own cells. Viruses, however, are sneaky, and they infect our cells and effectively turn our own cells against us. So having medicine that targets viruses, means they target us too, making antiviral drugs riskier, and something we deploy only after careful consideration once we factor in the serious side effects that result. This is where your medical professional comes in.

So how do we effectively fight against viral infections without the elevated risk? A strong immune system. One of the best ways we can enhance our own immune system’s effectiveness is through movement. Why is this seemingly boring, and redundant answer an untapped and often unrecognized immune enhancer?

The answer relates to a parallel system that runs throughout our body that is like our circulatory system. Instead of blood, this track is used by immune cells, and it is critical for full force activation of your immune defenses! It is called the lymphatic system. While the circulatory system has the heart to pump fluid, movement is what helps those immune cells get to where they need to be.

The lymphatic system is like a superhighway where your immune cells communicate with each other to keep updated on what’s happening. If it’s flowing well, and there are no traffic jams, information can be relayed quickly, which is what we need. Especially if our body gets breached with a harmful virus. We don’t want any delays here as this will give the virus lots of time to replicate and cause more serious damage. This is why regular movement is so important, and any kind of movement matters. Typical gym workouts, running, sports, but also stretching, rolling your head from side to side, getting up for a glass of water, taking stairs, brushing your teeth, and doing air squats. Any activity that stretches and squishes your muscles and organs acts as a pump and is an effective way to improve the movement of lymphatic fluid

As an example, here is what happens when an immune cell notices a viral infection in your lungs. Initially, the immune cell swallows up the virus, destroys it into small pieces, and carries the remnants of the virus as proof. It travels along the lymphatic system superhighway where it will be able to alert your immune system’s big guns (B & T cells) and tells them to wake up and get over to the lungs. These highly effective immune cells then travel to the battlefield. If we can pump this fluid at a greater rate, then we get faster communication, activation, and response.

The second key to the lymphatic system are lymph nodes. We often notice these as annoying lumps swelling up under our jawline or neck when we’re sick. Your lymph nodes are like megacities, where immune cells congregate after their highway journey. It’s where they meet each other and sit down to communicate what’s happening and alert your B & T cells to gather up their troops and move to battle.

Much of our lymph nodes are situated in our neck, shoulders, elbows, abdomen, hips, and knees. Your body’s clever way of maximizing the impact of movement (like doing squats, or something that feels as good a head roll, or shoulder stretch) as it keeps the immune cities flowing and prevents congestion. 

So keep those highways open and flowing by pumping your body. You will be helping to activate and “boost” your immune system’s efficiency and effectiveness on a daily basis!


Reference:
Immune: A journey into the mysterious system that keeps you alive. Philipp Dettmer.

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All For your Info Performance Recommendations Resources Success Story Tips

Try this one thing for more success, happiness, satisfaction, and more!

Tim Irvine

If you are reading this, the headline of this article got your attention, and you are interested in knowing this ‘secret’. I’ll get right to the point.

I’m quite certain that 99% of people reading this have something they would like to do but have been putting off. Is that you? You can be honest. The nice thing about this is virtually everyone in the world is in the same boat. Whether you seemingly have everything or nothing, we all procrastinate on one or more ideas.

Back to the secret. The ‘one thing’ I’m talking about is simple.

Action

That’s it. To get what you want you must act.

Before you stop reading, I need another two and a half minutes of your time to prove this works. Here is a mini-workshop for you. Seriously, try it out.

  1. In 30 seconds or less, pick the first thing that you want to do or achieve that comes into your head. Small or large, it doesn’t matter.
  2. In 60 seconds or less, write down two steps that you will take to start the process. This could be on a piece of paper or an email to yourself. Use whatever method you like that you know works for you.
  3. In 30 seconds or less, put dates you will act beside each of the steps.
  4. In 30 seconds or less, send this information to someone you know well that you feel a sense of responsibility towards, and let them know you are excited about starting this journey.

That’s it! If you have done the above, you are on your way to achieving your goal, and building a technique that will pay incredible dividends to you for the rest of your life. And the great thing? It also fills you with satisfaction and pride that you have overcome the procrastination that has prevented you from starting. Once you get rolling with this process, it becomes infectious, and you won’t want to stop.

One caution though is don’t overdo it. Temper your excitement, match it with real-time availability, and build consistency so you don’t overwhelm yourself.

If you like, add a second layer of accountability, post it on Instagram and tag Totum (@totumlifescience). Good luck!

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All For your Info Performance Recommendations Resources Success Story Tips

What’s really driving your habits?

By: Tim Irvine

A couple of days ago, I talked with a friend of mine about their food choices over the last while. It ended up being a deep, hour-long conversation about what drives habits in general. I have to say; it was very illuminating.

To provide context, this friend has quite a bit of knowledge around health, wellness, and, specifically, nutrition. They are not professionals in the area but have worked with professionals enough to know what works for them and what doesn’t.

Our recent conversation began with their contemplation of seeing a nutrition professional as they can’t seem to get on track with their eating. Why were they looking to see someone when they already knew what works? There was one specific example of a meal they prepared for themselves. They were going to make something that they enjoyed and was healthy, but instead chose unhealthy yet still enjoyable. It was a conscious decision to go with the unhealthy option, after which they felt disappointed in themselves.

This cycle may be familiar to you either because you identify with it personally or apply to someone you know. It is common and, I would argue, happens to all of us somehow. If not with food, then with drinks, TV, social media, etc.

In my conversation, two essential elements surfaced. The desire to make a choice that we know is not ideal is often driven by emotion rather than logic. Something is going on in our lives that day/week/month/year upsetting us. Sometimes we are aware of it; sometimes, we are not. We can also be aware but underestimate how much it is impacting us. In these situations, we make emotional decisions to provide ourselves comfort. With food as an example, we know the bag of chips isn’t ideal for us, but we feel like we’ve had a bad day, so we’re going to treat ourselves. We support ourselves through these acts, and they can become habitual over time. A lousy day equals a bag of chips.

We can even be disappointed in ourselves because we have ‘failed,’ are ‘weak,’ or made a ‘bad decision.’ I acknowledge what it feels like, but I don’t think it’s an accurate description of what has happened. Believe these are simply mechanisms we use to try and ‘treat’ ourselves when we feel down. T’s human nature, and of course, we all want to feel supported and have our spirits buoyed.

The second element is closely related to the first. T is the ‘why’ behind the emotion. Sing me as an example; I can manage a fair amount of stress well. The problem is, if I have enough of it, I’m blind to the fact it is affecting me. Get more irritable, and those around me notice it. I’m lucky because those close to me call me on it. This has helped me understand I need to be more aware of the stress I’m under. I think some version of this is valid for most people. The result is not typical or ideal behaviour for us compared to less stressful periods. Like picking a food we know is a treat when we know better or that glass of wine or cocktail after a hard day.

The bottom line is our decisions are not simply a product of a ‘do’ or ‘don’t’ mechanism. It’s often much more complex, with other factors driving our choices. It’s good to reflect on the stresses in our lives to help better understand the root of some of these decisions.

*It’s important to note that I am not a psychologist, and these are my observations over many years of seeing clients. Please take it as such and not as professional advice. I’m hopeful psychologists would agree that being more self-aware in positing.