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What causes one person to catch a cold and another to avoid it? Why do serious outbreaks of infectious disease leave some individuals untouched? Why are some people incapacitated by allergies? The answers lie within the most powerful curing machine hardwired into our body: the immune system.

The body’s ability to protect itself from the onslaught of offending viruses, bacteria, fungi and cancer can be enhanced or weakened by a number of factors. We have each experienced the cold that sets in after an extraordinarily stressful event, too many days of celebration and/or unrelenting stress. Years of poor diet, inadequate nutrients, continual stress, negative emotions, lack of exercise and environmental poisons all contribute to the inability of our immune system to properly defend us. Fortunately, the body is wonderfully regenerative and our internal army of immune cells can be enhanced in a matter of weeks simply by improving our nutrition, reducing stress, adding immune-specific nutrients, exercising and seeking emotional well-being.

Defenders Of Our Immune System

Our immune army is a highly specialized front-line defence that identifies, remembers, attacks and destroys disease-causing invaders and abnormal or infected cells. When this internal army is functioning optimally, few viruses, cancer cells, bacteria, fungi or parasites are allowed to set up house and wreak havoc. The immune system is so determined to annihilate invaders that it can sometimes go awry and begin to damage the body itself, as happens in autoimmune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

Our immune system is made up of an arsenal of different cells, each with a specific duty. Natural killer (NK) cells are often the first cells a virus or bacteria encounters, and if the NK cells are effective, these invaders will never be able to infect healthy cells. NK cells are also our cancer-fighting cells. Macrophages are like "Pac-Man" cells, digesting and destroying offending agents. T-cells are the generals of our immune army: they include helper T-cells and cytotoxic T-cells.

Cytotoxic T-cells fight viruses and bacteria that manage to get past the NK cells and are now inside your cells. Helper T-cells are especially important because they control the secretion of important immune factors, called cytokines, that modulate or balance the immune system and keep it functioning at peak performance.

There are two types of helper T-cells: T-helper-1 and T-helper-2. When these two are in balance, we are healthy. When we are sick with cancer or infectious diseases (such as herpes, hepatitis C, colds and flu, pneumonia and HIV), our T-helper-1 cells are suppressed and unable to release enough of the "good guy" immune factors. When we have allergies, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, or autoimmune diseases such as type I diabetes, Crohn’s disease or celiac disease, our T-helper-2 cells are overactive and secreting too many of the inflammatory immune factors.

The key to maintaining health is to keep these two types of helper T-cells in balance. The five steps to optimizing immune function focus on enhancing T-helper-1 cells and controlling T-helper-2 cells.

1. Eat foods that heal and eliminate those that harm

Sugar is one food that should come with a warning label stronger than that found on a cigarette package. Sugar inactivates our NK cells. As little as one teaspoon of sugar shuts off NK-cell activity for up to six hours, leaving us vulnerable to invasion. While sugar is toxic to the immune system, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds optimize immunity and should make up the bulk of our diet. Organic foods should be chosen over pesticide-laden foods, free-range eggs and dairy over antibiotic-tainted conventional varieties, and purified water over tap water.

2. Take nutrients that support immune function

Lorna is an acclaimed speaker and medical journalist who has been researching and writing about nutritional medicine for more than 20 years. Co-author of the best-selling book The Immune System Cure (Kensington Publishing, 1999), she also wrote Healthy Immunity: Scientifically Proven Remedies for Conditions from A-Z (Macmillan Canada, 2001).

Source: alive #241, November 2002