posted July 09, 2012 01:00 AM            

The most important health factor is getting enough vitamin D. Supplements are neither as safe, strong, or efficiently absorbed as sunlight, but a D3 supplement is better than nothing during winter months or low-light areas of the world. Since the D generated in skin takes up to a day to fully absorb, do not shower for at least 12 hours afterward. Fifteen minutes of upper body and torso exposure to bright sunlight (10AM to 3PM window) can create up to 30,000 IU of vitamin D, but in a safe manner. Supplement forms are risky if taken over 10,000 per day. Also, be sure to take a magnesium citrate or malate or orthorotate supplement with D intake, otherwise the enhanced calcium absorption from D will cause magnesium deficiency, which can lead to heart problems and migraines.

Dietary Changes (Updated)

As far as diet goes, the big three immune-knockers are wheat, cow dairy, and sugar. The real reason winter is known as flu season is probably because of the seasonal foods like cakes, pies, cookies, eggnog, and pastries that are loaded with those.

Wheat

It’s not commonly known that wheat can have adverse effect, but the high gluten levels in modern wheat products is linked to mild or severe allergic reactions in people. These reactions cause intestinal and systemic inflammations. Modern commercial wheat products are not fermented, have extra gluten added, use fast-rise yeast that cannot break down the complex starches in wheat, and come from a species of wheat grain that has far more gluten than what our ancestors originally ate. The info on wheat is out there, for example read this book review on the book Dangerous Grains.

The problem is that Celiac Disease is just the most severe type of reaction to wheat gluten, whereas a lesser condition is more common but tends to go undiagnosed. The condition is known as gluten sensitivity, which leads to symptoms that aren’t obviously linked to gluten being the problem. For instance, if it reduces your immunity and you catch a cold, how likely is it that you would realize that those dinner rolls you had this past weekend did it? So gluten sensitivity, even mild forms of it, is what I’m talking about here. Those with Celiac Disease ought to eliminate gluten entirely, while those with sensitivity can get by with greatly reducing their gluten intake. Please do further research on gluten sensitivity and Celiac disease to know what foods are okay to eat, if you suspect you have either.

If you do have to eat wheat bread, then the two safest types are 1) sprouted wheat bread (like the Ezekiel brand sprouted grains — but avoid the one made with soy beans) and 2) genuine sourdough bread. Real sourdough uses no fast-rise yeast and is given a long rise time in which the starches are broken down by the natural micro-organisms in the sourdough starter. This is closer to the kind of bread eaten before the advent of modern industrial bread making.

Instead of wheat, try going for rice, oats, and in lesser quantities potatoes. Other alternatives to wheat include quinoa, millet, buckwheat, and amaranth. Avoid white rice since it has very little nutrition and a high glycemic index (leads to sugar crash). Brown rice is better, provided it’s sprouted first.

Brown rice must be sprouted to eliminate the phytic acid that otherwise binds the minerals and keeps them from absorbing in your body. It’s easy, you just soak the rice a night or two before you cook it. To sprout, follow these instructions. The quickest way is to put long grain rice into a plastic container, fill with room-temperature water, soak for twelve hours, change water, soak for another twelve, then rinse and cook with slightly less water than usual. Lundberg Farms brown basmati rice works well for this. Faster method is to fill with warm water the night before, rinse the next morning, refill with room-temperature water, and then drain and cook that evening.

As for oats, avoid the flavored oatmeal packets, and instead get whole oats in rolled or steel-cut form, then add your own fat/salt/honey. Wheat-free rye breads like pumpernickel are alright, because although they contain gluten it’s less than the equivalent wheat bread. Potatoes are okay in moderation. In reduced quantities or frequency, rye and potatoes are fine as well.

Sugar

Sugar is fine in limited quantities, but beware larger quantities as found in soft drinks, cool-aid, fruit juices, cookies, cakes, and pastries. It’s the sugar crash you get an hour later that really kicks your immune system down. If you are going to do sugar, instead of white refined sugar, first reduce your overall intake of sugar by cutting out soft-drinks and cookies/cakes/pastries, and then use raw/brown sugar, maple sugar, or unpasteurized and unfiltered honey instead.

For non-calorie sweetener alternative there is white stevia powder. Agave nectar is not recommended since it is very high in fructose, which can overload the liver and turn into belly fat. Definitely avoid aspartame, Nutrasweet, Sweet-n-Low, Splenda, Truvia, and all the other artificial junk the chemical companies are trying to ram down our throats because these severely screw with our neurochemistry and/or digestive systems.

Dairy

Cow dairy has several problems: 1) high estrogen content in milk fat (means ovarian cancer for women, breast enlargement in males), 2) pus content from cows with infected udders, 3) lactose sugar which causes intestinal problems for some people, 4) casein protein which not everyone fully digests, causing undigested proteins to circulate in the blood and act as an opium mimicker which screws with brain chemistry and may aggravate autistic and schizophrenic symptoms, 5) pasteurization, which destroys the enzymes that would normally help us digest milk better, and 6) homogenization, which breaks fat globules up into little jagged particles that go rancid more easily. That’s what you get in modern commercial dairy.

If you do cow dairy anyway, then the safest type is organic skim milk. Butter is alright in small quantities, other than the high estrogen levels, so guys don’t go crazy with the butter unless you like a little more weight on your chests. Coconut oil and olive oil are great alternatives to butter. Goat milk and cheese is a decent substitute for regular milk, if you can get used to the goaty taste. Else, there is plain oat/rice milk, just watch out for some having lots of added sugar. Avoid soy milk since it has estrogen-mimickers that will interfere with hormones. Mainly it is cow cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, and whole/2%/1% milk that cause the biggest problems. Best to reduce them to condiment-levels, and stick to alternatives for larger quantities.

Here is a list of the top food combinations to avoid, from the most damaging to the least damaging:

Wheat + Dairy + Sugar — Cheese cake, cream-filled donuts, cookies/cakes/pastries with milk, bagels with sweet cream cheese, ice cream with sugar or waffle cone, etc…
Wheat + Sugar — Cookies, cakes, muffins, pastries, pies, pancakes, waffles, etc…
Dairy + Sugar — Ice cream, eggnog, flavored yogurt, etc…
Sugar — Soft drinks, fruit juices, candy, milk chocolate, popsicles, especially anything with high fructose corn syrup, etc…
Wheat + Dairy — Pizza, cheese sticks, bread with cheese slice, sandwiches, etc…
Wheat — Bagels, pasta, bread, couscous, etc…
Fatted Dairy — Whole milk, cream cheese, fatty yogurt (even plain), cheese, sour cream, butter, etc…
Non-fat Dairy — Skim milk, nonfat plain yogurt, nonfat cottage cheese, etc…
The top three ought to ideally be eliminated altogether, and the rest used sparingly or in moderation. Everyone has different biology and metabolism, so it takes some fine tuning to settle in on the foods that give you energy. For most people, wheat, dairy, and sugar don’t have to be eliminated completely, just restricted. A little butter, a little cream in coffee, some wheat breading on chicken, and a little sugar added to stews or oatmeal are fine for most people. It’s mainly the larger quantities and combinations of two or three of the wheat, dairy, and sugar, that do a number on the immune system.

It’s also worth reducing caffeine intake since caffeine creates a stress-response in the body (adrenaline and cortisol increase) — anything over 30mg of caffeine per day is getting into health-negative territory, leading to fatigue, headaches, and rapid aging.

The best immune-supporting meals are those with low glycemic index (doesn’t cause sugar crash), that are low in wheat gluten, and have a neutral or alkalizing effect on body pH. Examples include split pea soup, sprouted brown rice fried up in coconut oil, chips and refried beans/guacamole, dark chocolate, soups/stews/chillis, sauerkraut, oatmeal with just a little butter and honey, fruit and nut mixes, apples, salads, fresh meat and fish, sauteed vegetables, and so on. Simple ingredients, minimally processed, maximum nutrient density.

As for supplements and the immune system, the major thing to watch out for is being deficient in zinc, B-vitamins, vitamin C, and vitamin D. Deficiencies in any of those will lower your immune system, therefore read up on deficiency symptoms and compensate as necessary. A good site for getting up to speed on nutrition is http://whfoods.com

And lastly, if you are concerned about the pharmaceuticals, fluoride, and chlorine in your water (which regular filters like Brita or Pur don’t remove), then the alternative is either getting a home Reverse Osmosis system (expensive), a distiller (takes lots of electricity), or cheapest is getting a 3 or 5 gallon water jug and refilling at the grocery store. Water so pure (reverse osmosis or deionized water) can have a de-mineralizing effect, so just add a 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon No-Salt (potassium chloride) per 3 gallons of water to buffer the water a bit.

Physical Changes

A little bit of exercise can go a long way. If you sit on your butt all day and heart rate rarely ever elevates, your overall health will decline. Your body will become like a stagnant pond versus a clear bubbling stream. Exercise is necessary to oxygenate cells, accelerate the expulsion of accumulated toxins, and flush out your circulatory system. No, jogging isn’t necessary, nor is exercising so hard that your chest hurts. Just increased breathing and breaking into a light sweat by maintaining elevated heart rate for at least ten minutes per day is enough. Simple home exercises like pushups, bicycle crunches, barbell movements, and leg lifts or squats (if you don’t have weak knees) do the job. Whatever works.

And most importantly, get enough sleep — every night. Some people view sleep as something that gets in the way of living, but that’s like saying coming up for air gets in the way of diving. Sleep is when the body repairs itself and charges up with physical and vital energy. If you sacrifice sleep for trivial reasons, you will burn the candle at both ends. Your immune system will suffer for it, you will age faster, get sick more often, have lowered creativity and initiative, get stressed and irritated more easily, and become more zombie-like. Get the sleep you need to feel your fullest, and take a short nap if you hit an energy slump during the day.

Metaphysical Changes

Moderating your emotional response to situations will become an invaluable skill in the times ahead. I prefer staying on the slightly positive side of neutral — not so flat as to be stone-faced, but not so giddy as to see through rose-colored glasses. Rather, good-natured, optimistic, and most of all sharp, balanced, aware, and lucid.

How can this be done in very challenging circumstances? Well, through a combination of faith and understanding. Faith is needed where knowledge fails, where you have done what you could and the rest is not in your hands. Then it’s better to invoke a feeling that that things will work out, than to worry unnecessarily. Understanding comes down to feeling security in knowing what you must do, that panicking will get you nowhere. An attitude of strategic optimism, that you will get through this and will play your moves smartly, that really helps. If you are confronted with anger or fear, ask yourself whether you can do something about the problem right now. If yes, then do it. If not, then let those emotions go and don’t worry since it’s out of your hands right now.

Catching yourself before you let loose with a blind emotional reaction will keep you from having to suppress that emotion, by nipping it in the bud. How? By noticing yourself reacting the moment that you do, instead of being entranced by the thing triggering your reaction. Notice yourself, notice how you the observer are actually calm and silent deep inside while the emotion is an external thing trying to latch itself onto you, trying to get you to align and identify with it. Ask yourself if this is really necessary. Then look for understanding, the meaning, the lesson, the way out of this situation you are in, and act logically and strategically.

If you build up a momentum of balanced optimism then when confronted with a negative emotional trigger you are less liable to lose control because you are already centered and stable. Therefore it may help to start your day with some thoughts of gratitude, hope, and wonderment. If you do this, you will also notice it affecting the probability of your experiences throughout the day, reducing incidences of aggravation and misfortune and increasing positive synchronicities. That is because consciousness subtly affects how the future flows into the present.