Immunity boosting performance

First, the speed of repairing body damage is significantly accelerated. Second, the stress tolerance in the face of environmental stimulation is greatly improved. Third, the response intensity of occasional inflammation is lower and subsides faster. All invisible and intangible "conditioning effects" must ultimately fall into these three realities.

Oh, yes, I met a 32-year-old Internet operator when I was doing follow-up work on chronic diseases in the community. He used to stay up late at night and catch up on projects, and he would feel sleepy for three or four days. Oral ulcers would last at least a week, and even a small cut on his hand would take three or four days to scab. Later, he adjusted his diet according to our suggestions, replaced the milk tea in the evening with warm milk, and did 20 minutes of home strength training three days a week. Three months later, I met him again and said that he accidentally burned a big blister in his mouth while eating hot pot last week.

In fact, the views of traditional Chinese medicine and modern immunology are surprisingly consistent: what traditional Chinese medicine says is that "good qi exists within the body and evil cannot be eliminated." This essentially means that the body's repair ability is online. In modern immunology, this corresponds to the increase in the activity of phagocytes and NK cells of innate immunity, which can quickly clean up damaged cells and foreign pathogens in the body, solving the problem without waiting for the immune system to launch its "big move."

Speaking of stress tolerance, it reminds me of a topic that has been hotly debated in the nutrition and exercise circles in the past two years: Is long-term moderate-intensity aerobic training more effective in improving immunity, or is interval strength training more effective? The argument from the nutritional community is that long-term aerobic exercise such as jogging and brisk walking can steadily increase the level of immunoglobulin IgG in the serum, which is especially suitable for people who have weak foundation and get out of breath at the slightest movement. ； People in the field of kinesiology believe that appropriate resistance training can increase muscle mass. Muscle itself is an important immune regulatory organ. The secreted myokine can optimize the level of immune response in the long term, and can more significantly improve problems such as allergies and repeated respiratory infections.

In fact, both sides are right. The core is to improve the body's tolerance to environmental stimulation. A girl who had suffered from allergic rhinitis for many years came to me for consultation. She said that in previous years, she would get sick as soon as spring came. She even sneezed a dozen times, but it was only mild. When it was severe, her eyes were swollen like walnuts, and she couldn't even go to work. She had tried various anti-allergic drugs, but they made her sleepy after taking them. Later, I started walking briskly for 20 minutes after get off work every day, and gradually added glute and leg training twice a week. I didn't take any special supplements. This spring, I only made one mistake during the season change. I washed my nose with warm salt water for two days and it was fine. There were three or four people in the same office who had colds, but she didn't even sneeze while sitting in the middle. This is a typical example of increased stress tolerance. The immune system will not overreact to harmless stimuli such as pollen and cold wind, and it can withstand pathogens even if they do encounter them.

Many people also have a misunderstanding that the more serious the inflammatory reaction such as fever and sore throat, the weaker the immunity. In fact, this is not true. There is a group of mothers around me who argue every day. Should the child take fever-reducing medicine immediately to suppress it? Most doctors in the field of pediatric immunity recommend that physical cooling should be prioritized below 38.5°C, because moderate fever is actually the activation of immune cells. If the immunity is really weak, you may not be able to get a fever, and the disease may drag on for half a month, or even develop into complications such as pneumonia and bronchitis.

The child who lived right next door to me used to have a cold that would inevitably develop into bronchitis, and he needed to be hydrated for at least a week before he could recover. Later, he listened to the doctor’s advice and stopped the high-sugar snacks and carbonated drinks that were always available at home. He added some probiotics every day and ran downstairs for half an hour. Last time he caught a cold, his fever reached 38. 8℃, I only took antipyretic medicine once, and it was back to just over 37℃ the next day. On the third day, I was bouncing around and wanted to go downstairs to play, and I didn’t cough or breath. This means that the intensity of the inflammatory reaction has dropped, and the immune system can accurately attack pathogens, and will not overreact and hurt my body, nor will it react too slowly and become a chronic disease.

Of course, some people may say that I don’t exercise and stay up late every day, but I rarely get sick. Does that mean my immunity is particularly good? In fact, this is not necessarily the case. There is a condition called "immune silencing", which means that the response of immune cells to pathogens is too weak, or even no response at all. It seems that you never get sick. In fact, when you encounter a highly virulent pathogen, the reaction will be much more severe than that of ordinary people. During the previous epidemic, I saw many people who usually claimed that they "didn't catch a cold even once a year" developed into severe symptoms once infected. In essence, their immunity was always in a low-response state and had not been activated normally at all.

In the past two years, I followed the trend and bought a lot of health care products that claimed to "boost immunity", such as Ganoderma spore powder and imported lactoferrin. I didn't feel any change after taking them for half a year. Later, I forced myself to sleep for 7 hours a day and take two less stops to walk home from work. Only then did I really feel that the chronic pharyngitis that I always suffered from every season did not come to my door. I didn't get burned and develop ulcers when I ate hot pot. To put it bluntly, immunity is not a mysterious "body protection magic" at all, but more like a team in your body. You usually eat well, sleep well and practice well. When something goes wrong, you can quickly go to the battlefield. When you win, you can finish the work in time without messing with your own people. For those much-hyped "magic pills to improve immunity," you can compare them with the three symptoms mentioned above. If you don't feel the wound heals faster after taking it, or you don't feel it's worse than before, or you still take longer to get sick, then you've probably paid the IQ tax.

Oh, by the way, here’s a little reminder. Don’t pursue “the stronger the immunity, the better.” Overactivation of the immune system can cause autoimmune diseases, such as lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. Balance is the most important thing.~