Exercise:  Research has continued to show how beneficial exercise can be for your health in many different ways.  It can improve your mood and mental health, decrease stress levels, and actually prevent many musculoskeletal injuries if performed correctly.  But today, we’ll stick with how it affects our immune health.  In a 2018 study performed in the UK, researchers found that those who exercised regularly had significant increases in white blood cells.  White blood cells are the good guys in the body that respond to infection.  More importantly, the white blood cell that increased the most were Naïve T-Cells.  This was an important find, as Naïve T-cells differ from Memory T-cells in that they respond to unrecognized or new infections in our body!  And yes, the gyms are closed but even getting out and walking for 30 minutes a day can make a big impact.  Throw in some headphones and get after it! 

Sleep:  We’ve all heard it…”you need your 8 hours”.  But why?  Besides feeling better and more energized, sleeping 8 hours a night helps our immune system function at peak performance.  It does this by increasing cytokine production.  Cytokines are proteins in our body that target infection and inflammation, and work to create an effective immune response.  Those who sleep less than 7 hours a night were seen to have lower cytokine levels.  If you have trouble sleeping through the night, try taking  a nap if your schedule allows!  Studies have shown that 30 minute naps sprinkled in your workday helped offset some negative effects of sleep deprivation on the immune system.  Stay tuned for a newsletter in the near future on improving your sleep!

Stop Smoking:  Once again, we all know smoking is bad for you…duh.  It can play detrimental effects on our respiratory and cardiovascular health…something that we definitely need against a virus of this nature.  But smoking can also negatively affect our immune system.  Studies show nicotine suppresses our antibody production, and alter the shape of our T-Cells (the good guys we talked about earlier) so that they do not function correctly.  Nicotine also consistently shows increases in cortisol levels, leading to added stress in our body.  Cutting the nicotine is easier said than done, I know.  But now is a better time than ever to take the steps to drop this habit and let your body function at it’s best.

I hope these last few newsletters were helpful, and you’re on your way to boosting that immunity.  To reference the past 2 weeks of information, click here https://www.advancedchiroict.com/blog.  If you have an requests on upcoming newsletter topics or interested in learning more from my sources, feel free to email me at drholt@advancedchiroict.com.  Also, be sure follow us on Instagram (@AdvancedChiroICT) and Facebook (@AdvancedChiropracticWichita) for weekly videos on some great exercise routines you can do right at home if you can’t make it in for your appointment.